Poll of the Day > quitting my cushy software job

(+) Yeah! (+)

tomorrow's my last day :)

excited to spend a bunch of time on personal projects ive neglected lol. not excited to have to pay for my drugs and psychiatrist sessions out of pocket

Gonna be working more with hardware now?

Metalsonic66 posted...

Gonna be working more with hardware now?

no im not gonna be working in the traditional sense at all for like ~3 months at least. then looking for whatever strikes my fancy at that point

Livin' the dream

So you cant work on those projects during the time when youre not at work?

rexcrk posted...

So you cant work on those projects during the time when youre not at work?

I can't necessarily speak for their experience, but I know that when I was working at a bakery, I pretty much stopped baking at home outside of special occasions. Part of that was because I routinely got to close on Saturday and bring home what would otherwise have been thrown out, so I didn't need to bake at home to have baked goods at home, but the other part of it was that I just didn't feel like spending my time off doing the same stuff I'd be doing at work. While turning a hobby into a job can be a good way to end up with a job you enjoy doing, it does have a tendency to make it harder to enjoy it as a hobby.

adjl posted...

I can't necessarily speak for their experience, but I know that when I was working at a bakery, I pretty much stopped baking at home outside of special occasions. Part of that was because I routinely got to close on Saturday and bring home what would otherwise have been thrown out, so I didn't need to bake at home to have baked goods at home, but the other part of it was that I just didn't feel like spending my time off doing the same stuff I'd be doing at work. While turning a hobby into a job can be a good way to end up with a job you enjoy doing, it does have a tendency to make it harder to enjoy it as a hobby.

Yeah plus I'm just burnt out and need a break

adjl posted...

I can't necessarily speak for their experience, but I know that when I was working at a bakery, I pretty much stopped baking at home outside of special occasions. Part of that was because I routinely got to close on Saturday and bring home what would otherwise have been thrown out, so I didn't need to bake at home to have baked goods at home, but the other part of it was that I just didn't feel like spending my time off doing the same stuff I'd be doing at work. While turning a hobby into a job can be a good way to end up with a job you enjoy doing, it does have a tendency to make it harder to enjoy it as a hobby.

yup I like to game dev as a hobby, spent so many hours on that back when I was a student. but now the prospect of coding all day and then after work too is a lot. Have to set aside time for it but it's nothing like if I didn't have to work.

officially done

Congrats

Just curious; why did you consider the job "cushy"?

OmegaM posted...

Just curious; why did you consider the job "cushy"?

didnt have to work very much and got paid a boatload of money

Congrats! I think a lot about doing the same but it's pretty scary. I already have a pretty big job gap in my history so I'm hesitant to do it again. I think I'm at an experience level where it would be easier for me to get a job, but I'm not ready yet

hey chewy! its been a while. yeah i worked at the same company for 8 years, and then at a startup for the last year. so i don't think it makes my employment history look too flightly if i take a gap for a while. it is a little scary but i think im pretty well set up for it now

I took some time off to travel (and decide where I want to live as part of it) after I left my last job (software too). Was 6 months roughly before starting my new job, 3 months before I started interviewing. I know a lot of colleagues who took 6 months off after quitting too. Burn out and all that you can come back refreshed.

Are your personal projects related to programming or something else entirely? I'm like kriem described, I have ideas I'd like to work on, but work drains me of the desire to do any outside programming. I don't know anything about game dev though (but it's one of the things I'd like to learn)

xyz posted...

Are your personal projects related to programming or something else entirely? I'm like kriem described, I have ideas I'd like to work on, but work drains me of the desire to do any outside programming. I don't know anything about game dev though (but it's one of the things I'd like to learn)

the nice thing about game dev if you're being a silly amateur like me who wants to do everything on their own (I don't need to release necessarily...it's just something I genuinely like to spend time on regardless) is it's doesn't have to be all programming. I like to draw and create maps and put a world together so that's fun. And programming makes it all come together. Ah now I'm in the mood to actually work on my project but I don't have all my stuff together at my new place yet T-T

chelsea___wtf posted...

didnt have to work very much and got paid a boatload of money

Why quit then

The programming itself I guess doesn't scare me so much as finding an engine. I'd always try to find one and just getting it configured would be such a pain in the ass I gave up. Most people say just use unity but I wanted to start with 2D and even though it's possible, there's gotta be a better option that's more purpose-built for it. I guess this is kind of a tangent though

xyz posted...

The programming itself I guess doesn't scare me so much as finding an engine. I'd always try to find one and just getting it configured would be such a pain in the ass I gave up. Most people say just use unity but I wanted to start with 2D and even though it's possible, there's gotta be a better option that's more purpose-built for it. I guess this is kind of a tangent though

I recommend Godot. I find their node system very intuitive and like it better than Unity. They had a new major release recently too. They have some proprietary language but I've been using C# fine and you can do c++ if you know it too as that's the core build.

I think I tried that once and also couldn't figure it out haha. I'm just impatient with stuff like that though. I think I need to one day really just sit down until I make it work even if that results in spinning my wheels for a couple hours.

Anyway, thanks for the rec. You have any cool stuff you've done with it lately?

xyz posted...

The programming itself I guess doesn't scare me so much as finding an engine. I'd always try to find one and just getting it configured would be such a pain in the ass I gave up. Most people say just use unity but I wanted to start with 2D and even though it's possible, there's gotta be a better option that's more purpose-built for it. I guess this is kind of a tangent though

https://www.spheredev.org/

Probably not what you're looking for and it might be dead too. I didn't know it had been relaunched.

I'm half considering leaving my job if things don't shake out well with stuff, how weirdly did people treat you when you started to leave?
Also, did you continue doing important things during that time, or was it just relaxed?

What do you mean shadow, have you never quit a job before? You put in a two weeks notice and unless your company is really toxic people pretty much treat you the same; if anything, they hopefully say nice things about how they'll miss you. And unless the company is really dumb they won't saddle you with overly important work because once you're gone that's 100% their problem, not yours

I haven't quit a proper office job before, before it was just factory and kitchens.

Ill never quit my job, vidya gaming

I don't intend on quitting video games either, but so far it has earned me zero dollars. Actually it has cost me thousands

It's hard to imagine quitting my cushy job to work more on side projects

xyz posted...

I think I tried that once and also couldn't figure it out haha. I'm just impatient with stuff like that though. I think I need to one day really just sit down until I make it work even if that results in spinning my wheels for a couple hours.

Anyway, thanks for the rec. You have any cool stuff you've done with it lately?

there's nice courses on like Udemy I followed along to learn.

I have a game that will likely be in progress for a decade lol, I just like spending time on it even if I never release. It's a chef life sim basically, I have a restaurant shift, ordering, menu configuration, and cooking mechanics down plus a dialogue system but nothing worth showing since my assets are completely all over the place right now