Ask HN: Tech career advice for unsexy but decently paying jobs($100k, US remote)

[FraaJad]

Context: I'm a mid career level software developer in US that was recently laid off. My family's basic expenses are taken care of by previous investments and passive cash flow, but it's not enough for discretionary spending, and health insurance.

What tech career options do exist for someone who wants to have a 9-5 tech/programming career for another decade?

[karaterobot]

My stress-reducing mid-career switch was into a non-profit company doing scientific research in an area that was important to me. I took a pay cut from my previous startup job, but I'm actually happy to go to work every day. The stakes feel lower, since it's not a race against finding product-market fit before the money runs out. At the same time, the victories feel great, because we're saving people's lives rather than selling them useless SaaS products. I can explain what my company does to people, my timelines are on the order of months rather than weeks, there is less of a feeling of constant panic, less cargo cult management style, etc.

The downsides are that the salary isn't fantastic (nor is it terrible), the career ladder doesn't go super high (fine with me) and the software side of the company is more rudimentary than I'm used to, since software is not their main focus.

[to-too-two]

That sounds great. I’d love to do something like that. Any tips on how to find a gig like that?

[giantg2]

"The downsides are..."

Those downsides sound like upsides to me. It's likely not a payout for me if the pay isn't terrible. I have no plans to climb the ladder. Rudimentary sounds like fewer distractions and less chasing the latest fad.

[roncesvalles]

I've always found those unsexy backwater jobs to be much harder to bag than the usual big tech cos.

- They tend to work with recruiters who don't specialize in tech and end up rejecting resumes for superfluous reasons like not having "experience with JSON". These recruiters are also vulnerable to dishonest/targeted resumes and skip over people with relevant experience in alternative technologies.

- They only hire one or two people at a time. A big tech org could be picking up 5-10 people every week through the same JD.

- Nepotism runs rampant here because there isn't a standard org-wide interview process involving multiple people. Often the whole thing is CYA theatre when the HM already knows who they want to hire, or they need to immigrate a neighbor or relative.

[fabiofzero]

Find a:

1. Mid-sized company (100-500 people)

2. with a *solid* business model (e.g. people pay for stuff)

3. that doesn't depend 100% on investor money (especially VC money).

That's it. Don't fall for 10x growth startups, AI hype, crypto, whatever. Choose real, solid business where it's easy to understand where the money comes from and that either are profitable or have an *extremely clear path* to profitability that can be explained in one short sentence (e.g. "our customers pay for our services and it's enough fo us to pay our bills and your salary").

[tmaly]

Depending on your location, I have several positions open that would easily get you another decade.

9-5, not many meetings, plenty of room to innovate.

[gdulli]

Southern New England, contact me at the email on my profile or if you post yours I'll contact you.

[moralestapia]

Interested, New York timezone here.

[nikole9696]

Is it remote work?

[softbt]

pls share

[prewett]

Since you've got self-funded Basic Income, do what all those Basic Income people say people will do :P

I've had plenty of software engineering jobs that were interesting and 9-5, both at small companies and large. That was important to me, so I would always ask expectation of hours during the interview. So I'd say most of the options still exist. (This was in Austin, though, not SF)

You could try contract work, for example with Toptal. If you go the small projects route you get to work on all kinds of different things, and you can take a break in-between if you want. There's also long-term full-time contracts, and even some long-term half-time ones. This might be a good option if you want to explore, or if you are a generalist, or you want flexibility. It's also an opportunity to get a new perspective on work: what is it you are really selling? For contracting, two things you are selling is "I will solve your problem" and secondarily you are also selling flexibility to the buyer (ready to be done with the contract tomorrow, boss? Great, it was a pleasure working with you, let me know if you need anything in the future).

[MichaelRo]

I dunno the US but in EU(rope) there's lots of jobs in automotive and industry, think WW, Porsche, Siemens, Bosch.

They pay decent but beware "the death of a career" projects assuming you started one in the first place. There's a non-flattering saying among us about work at these companies: "two weeks to move two bits" :P

So maybe there's an US equivalent for this, I dunno.

[dave333]

places like Cisco

[bkberry352]

Strongly recommend insurance or financial services in general. Many are flexible with remote work, and some are now fully remote. The meeting load is moderate, but the actual work load is low, timelines are very long and low on stress. Plus, health insurance benefits are usually decent.

[bugglebeetle]

Universities, museums, some nonprofit scholarly publishing stuff is in the range you mention and very low stakes/pressure. Remote only is getting a little bit tougher (as it is across the board), but still available. Keep an eye on the Code4Lib job board.

[alephnerd]

GS-11 and above government roles.

Most software roles in the US Government are now remote due to a severe staffing crunch.

[supportengineer]

There was a "USAJobs" subreddit, a few times I checked it and it seems like getting a US Govt job is a challenging and slow process these days?

[add-sub-mul-div]

I've been wondering the same thing but about non-agile jobs. I'd switch from my current agile job to a lower paying job if I could find one that isn't a chore.

[frankbinette]

Working with mainframes seems like the ultimate balance of good pay and unsexy. Still need to know Cobol and not sure about being remote.

[injb]

I'm not sure how specific an answer you're looking for. But I would say the options now are the same as they were before the layoffs. I think the layoffs were a reshuffling of resources as far as software developers are concerned. That is to say, I doubt that there are fewer job opportunities than before. They're just in different companies.

[ebiester]

I'd say look at government, but that is rarely remote. You can look at hourly contracts that aren't through the body shops like TCS, and some of those are still remote.

Otherwise, I'd say you're still in a position that you should consider the same path, but looking to be focused on orgs that have work/life balance highlighted.

[francisofascii]

There are definitely companies that hire remote workers to fulfill state government contract work. Salary won't be great, around the $100K range, but much less stress. Many of these government apps are not used after hours, so no need for a dreaded pager rotation.

[dragonwriter]

> I'd say look at government, but that is rarely remote

Depends on what government. State of California has a lot of remote/hybrid tech since the pandemic [0], both civil service and contract.

[0] and that’s been accommodated in civil service contracts and shifted some HQ space arrangements in ways which won’t be easy to quickly reverse, so its as likely to be durable as anything in working arrangements.

[alephnerd]

The Federal Govt is now very remote and hybrid friendly for tech roles.

They began facing a hiring crunch for technical staff around 2020 and used the COVID remote work requirements to make technical roles much more remote or hybrid friendly

[johnea]

Good luck on the remote part 8-/

The recent Elon-led assault on tech workers is still in full swing.

From 1 year ago, the number of remote opportunities that come across my desk have reduced by ~90%...

[cvhashim04]

Insurance and Banks are a good bet.

[ezedv]

These "unsexy" jobs may not grab headlines, but they offer stability and decent pay. It's important to find fulfillment beyond societal expectations.

[markus_zhang]

Same question for Canadians. I thought all high pay unsexy jobs either need a lot of experience or some special connection.

[wheelinsupial]

Do these high pay, unsexy jobs exist in Canada? And what am I repeatedly doing wrong?

The highest paying jobs I see are at the FAANGS. Other than that, the jobs all seem to be within a few percent of each other. Many employers in my area start off as contracts where you need to exceed expectations for a couple of years to be converted to permanent full time.

[coreyp_1]

We have some openings, but I don't know what your skillset is or how to get ahold of you. Our technical positions are all remote, and we are in that price range, depending on the job position.

If you want to send me an email, contact me at "pennycuff.c" followed by a customary gmail.com. :)

[pezdeath]

Corporate America

[nine_zeros]

Hell no. Corporate America makes you run a rat race without faang-level rewards.

If I am going to be made to run a rat race, I want lots of money for it.

[KRAKRISMOTT]

The meetings will kill you

[bigpapikite]

I'd consider tech consulting. Pick a good company that doesn't overwork the consultants and you will rarely have to put in more than 40hrs a week.