this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025

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It's my 54th BD, left a $83K IT job last summer, interviewing at Lowe's tomorrow. Is it weird I'm looking forward to it? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by shalafi to c/asklemmy

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Last job killed my love of IT, management beat it out of me. Wonderful company, demotivated by my manager from the first week. Couldn't be a nicer guy, smartest tech I've ever met, Peter Principled his was into management.

Never been paid that much, took about every Friday off on PTO, total WFH, can't say what my benefits cost but it wasn't $100/mo. in total. My last job was half the pay and benefits, was so much happier. I think of that every time I read a comment about why companies need to pay more to satisfy us. Everyone should have a look at this. Had ALL that at my penultimate job, NONE at the most recent.

I feel so weird, especially at this time of life with a solid resume, interviewing for PT work at Lowe's. Thinking I'll be happier than a pig in shit spending 4 hours a day, just walking around helping people, doing what ever bullshit I'm asked to do. Looking to see how it goes, see if there are ways to work myself up to FT, better schedule, supervisor, whatever.

Thought about "retiring" to work in a hardware store to keep busy and fit, but not for a decade+. Excepting my credit card bills, and what my wife sends home to the Philippines, she makes enough to cover everything. Won't take much to take the edge off.

I love hardware and tools and plants, about everything they sell. Hoping to learn a lot as well. Helping people is really satisfying to me, and I'm excellent at handling customers. LOL, I'm best with the angry ones, sometimes get them apologizing. :)

Need a sanity check, am I losing it!? Been through the worst depression of my life the past few years, hoping this will break me back into a normal state of mind.

EDIT: Got the job! Holy shit, the assistant manager is just like me! Dropped out of tech to take a minimum wage job at Lowe's 8 years ago, now he's at $90K. We've even done much of the same work in the IT space. "I did DSL for Bellsouth when it was new!" "Yep, did my time as a cable internet guy."

Seems to be a lot of space and opportunity to move up. I'm going to knock this out the fucking park!

BONUS: Clerk at the shady gas station overhead me telling my neighbor about quitting IT and getting hired today. Guy ask me what I did in IT, gave him a run down. "Yeah. I was a web dev for 20-years, couldn't take staring at a screen any more."

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

High Tech Low Life... Gas Station Clerk Freelancing as Web Dev with 20 yrs of experience.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

If you thought demotivating management was associated with high pay and white collar work, Lowe’s will disabuse you of that notion.

[–] Hazor 1 points 2 hours ago

You're not crazy. If you're making enough to live on and you're happy, then I'm not sure what else a person could ask for.

For my part, I have a decent job in healthcare, making a good salary by any measure, but it's emotionally strenuous on the best of days and I dream of quitting to go start a flower farm. The bad days are utterly soul-sucking, so I absolutely cannot do this kind of work for another 18 years (when I'll turn 54 too), so I fully intend to do similarly to you once I am financially secure enough. Definitely not retail for me though; I got enough of that in my college days. 😛

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Man my local bicycle shop is looking for mechanics, and I'm like.........could I afford that instead of my current desk job?

I'm qualified; I'm pretty good mechanically, except for wrapping bar tape. I'm slowly getting better at it, but I'm definitely not to the professional standard a bike shop would want. But I'm sure they'd make me practice that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

There’s only one way to find out

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Not crazy at all, but just be forewarned that dealing with the public will make you long for the computer screen again!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

When I worked at Lowe’s, dealing with the public was the only good part of the job.

[–] Caboose12000 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

not crazy, I'm 26 and have been daydreaming about quitting my "cushy" wfh tech job and going back to being a grocery store cashier for at least 2 years now. wfh is so isolating for me, and my adhd time management shortcomings spike my anxiety. I'm too tired to be interested in personal code projects, server hosting, or linux in my off time, and my office now has a background sense of dread rather than the safe gaming space it used to be.

I just want to show up, at the same time every day, be friendly to people and help them with small tasks, and then leave work at work after at the end of the day. a consistent schedule, friends, and not having tech forced on me 24/7 would do wonders for my mental health, not to mention boons to physical health needing to move around every day. I just can't afford to go back to minimum wage right now

[–] Hazor 1 points 2 hours ago

Oof. I can kinda relate. Any way you could do the tech stuff part time, and be a cashier part time? I have seriously considered finding a part time role in my current line of work to just make enough money to live, and then doing something else part time that doesn't eat my soul.

[–] shalafi 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Gods I FEEL you! Same, same and same. I can't afford to do this either, but did it for my sanity.

Tried more for my physical health, marching and kayaking for miles around the woods and swamps. Just couldn't get the human connection.

I'm hired and I SANG today while canoeing! We shall see.

[–] Entropywins 5 points 23 hours ago

When I'm at a screen I wanna work outside and when I'm working outside I desperately want to be back at my cushy screen time jobs.

[–] x00z 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I am a programmer too. I absolutely loved it. I finally took a shot and changed my hobby into a stable good-paying job with a car, laptop, phone, whatever.

I quit a few years later. Almost exclusively because of the project managers. I was mentally exhausted because of the daily 8 hours of stress they gave me. I wasn't able to look at code for around 8 months.

I'm working on getting my drivers license back and am thinking of getting into package delivery. I have also been working on opensource projects and have actually been enjoying it again.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My uncle was a highly paid banker, and ran off to Australia to build his own farm. So it doesn't seem weird to me.

However I'm a little surprised by your old wages. $83k in IT at 53 seems low, and before that you were even at $42k? I thought US American IT paid really well. Or is that specific to California only or to developers only?

[–] hightrix 8 points 23 hours ago

I’m not that guy, but the term IT is extremely overloaded these days. People can say they are in IT working anything from a $20/hr help desk job to a $900k/yr AI engineer in big tech.

Industry, company, location can all have massive effects on salary.

[–] spookedintownsville 6 points 1 day ago (5 children)

This thread is really making me doubt my career path. At 20, should I even bother going into tech/IT if I switch to a trade later on?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The vast, vast majority of people don't quit their job or their employer, but their boss and coworkers.

Don't underestimate how much healthy relationships at work matter when you spend so much of your time there. Yes, in tech jobs as well. So stick with IT if you like it, but don't stick around in a bad environment. Especially if you plan to have a family in X years, because then it gets a lot harder and riskier to jump ship and change your situation.

[–] Horsey 3 points 21 hours ago

It’s also okay to want to take a break from a stressful career with a less stressful one. I took a break from teaching at a university to take care of therapy animals, and at year 1.5, I’ve really finally feel recharged.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 23 hours ago

If you're 20, YMMV but for me, please get into a trade.

Just be smart and plan your exit. Your body will only take so much so trade until your body has enough then get into teaching whatever trade you got into.

My neighbours son is doing this now. HVAC career is done he's in teachers college now to start his second career.

FWIW this is my plan now too. I'm pretty much done with IT. I'm investigating teaching now, or being a porter at a hospital.

[–] shalafi 10 points 1 day ago

Stick with IT! There's nothing inherently bad about the space, lots of room to move around and do different things, make solid money. 20-years of anything will burn you out unless you're not very bright.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Do what pays the bills while you figure out what sort of trade work you might enjoy, look for paid training/apprenticeship spots, low voltage automation controls is a tech field that interacts with the trade a lot, I'm a maintenance tech and interact with our controls guy all the time.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 124 points 2 days ago (3 children)

In the words of another man who left IT for manual labor:

[–] Mazuu 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Left IT to become a machinist.. Best decision of my life (38).

[–] JackFrostNCola 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Best decision of your life, so far.

[–] Mazuu 5 points 1 day ago

You are correct :)

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[–] shalafi 36 points 2 days ago

You have no idea how much more sane that made me feel.

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[–] atempuser23 2 points 23 hours ago

So glad to hear that you could qualify for a job in retail. I'm in tech and always a little worried that I wouldn't get hired without any relevant experience in decades against younger workers who know what's going on.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 2 days ago (15 children)

Word of caution.

I've gone down this route and discovered the phrase "you're overqualified", which is bandied around when you describe your previous experience.

Don't let this dissuade you, just keep it in mind.

Good luck with the job interview!

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[–] tomjuggler 4 points 1 day ago

I dropped out of the IT game before I even started (dropped out of an IT qualification 20yrs ago), and can honestly say it was totally worth it.

Now I spend some happy evenings working on IT side projects related to my main career (entertainment) and it's fun. I even make extra cash doing freelance programming but because it's not my main hustle I get to choose to say no.

What I'm saying is while you are at the hardware doing what you enjoy, there is nothing stopping you from doing freelance IT work on the side, just look for the projects that inspire you. It's not all or nothing decision..

[–] SelfHigh5 30 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Nah, not crazy. In my view anyway. In 2020 I left nursing in CA making close to $100k and paid zero for actually amazing insurance… to work part time at a bakery for roughly $23/hr in Norway. I was 39.

Sometimes we just have enough and we don’t need to keep chasing the dollars in favor of a simpler, cozier life.

[–] kyoji 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How did you move to Norway? Afaik you can't just show up to stay permanently.

[–] SelfHigh5 2 points 7 hours ago

You’re right, it is actually quite uncommon for Americans to live here without special circumstances. My husband is in tech, and managed to get hired on here, and so we are here on his work visa. We can test for citizenship after 7 years residency and testing language and civics, which we plan to do in about 3 years. We know that we are very lucky.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago (6 children)

My story is literally the opposite. Working at places like Lowes and the shitty coworkers and management was my drive to finish school and get a better job.

Every job can suck because of people who suck. Retail is definitely NOT better. I ain't saying it's worse, but it ain't better.

[–] IMALlama 2 points 1 day ago

I had a similar arc, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about going back.

I worked retail for two years post highschool. Looking at my coworkers, some of whom were in their 40s/50s and still at pretty low level positions, made me go to community college and then a four year school.

14 years later working on software (dev, highly engaged/invested PO, now PM) and I either have a more clear-eyed worldview or a my company is starting to fall apart. I'm very over our command and control leadership that's been touting the next new framework only to continue to command and control in that framework and then claim "that framework was actually bad, this new framework is good". The battling between teams building basically the same things, but for their niches of the world, "how I want it" coming every which was as opposed to thinking about what we should be solving, everything being the top priority, actions mattering more than results, etc. Layer in process debt that goes back to the 1950s and technical debt going back to the 1980s. I know younger companies don't have the later two problems, but from lurking in dev related communities for years everything else seems pretty common.

At my retail job the worst I had to deal with was the occasional grouchy customer, which just meant calling a manager to deal with it if I couldn't. We're doing the best we can to stash away money. We've started doing math to say, "we might have to work longer in total, but if we were to take lower paying jobs at this is what our finances would look like".

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

This is my goal as well. Been in software for 27 years (holy shit) and want to retire by 55. Only open question for me is health insurance.

[–] Yprum 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm near my 40s, and have been working as software dev since finishing my masters. Few years back I started to go in the direction of more management less dev in a previous company. Saw it wasn't for me and went to work somewhere else working as a simpler dev role. A few years after and I'm starting to feel the need to change further even. I do love coding but the whole layer of tech debt and management and meetings is wearing me out and has made me lose my love for tech. I am just lost as to what I'd do instead. Cannot work on retail with my autistic ass and since WFH was allowed and accepted I am not planning to go back to an office anyway. Maybe woodworker or something would be enjoyable for me, but there's other constraints that won't allow me to change right now, lots of bills to pay and my wife is an entrepreneur so we can't really risk losing my stable position right now, with two small kids. Once they grow and get out of the house we'd likely move more country side, get some chicken to care for (we love animals) or something like that and maybe I can get space to do some wood work or whatever come to mind then.

So overall, no, you are not losing it, or maybe we are all losing it together. Same with depression, it's such a tough shit to leave behind. I'm still fighting with it but doing better lately, the job doesn't help at all...

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[–] sleepmode 4 points 1 day ago

I noticed when I do volunteer work I look forward to getting my hands dirty and the physical labor involved. I quip to my wife that I'm going to go be a mailman or learn a trade, etc., but I'm semi-serious. 20+ years of ups and downs and it feels like IT is valued in general less and less. Even if a company does everything "right" like the video describes... a lot of companies are still quite toxic to work for overall. It's compounded by the fact that changing jobs in the field is painful now with multiple interviews required, etc. in a very crowded pool of talent.

Do it. It's not like it has to be permanent if you end up not liking it.

[–] Gerbils 24 points 1 day ago

You're living the dream... and I'm right behind you.

Just hit 58 and I'm still working in tech (not IT any more, but adjacent). In March I'm going to tell them that I'll be working fewer hours. Not asking, telling.

It's their choice whether I work zero hours or some number that's less than the 80 I'm currently putting in. I'll either have 3-day weekends or 7-day weekends.

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