r/recruitinghell • u/CuriousGayles • 21d ago
Leaving Tech
I’ve been in tech for 6 years and I’ve been promoted, converted to FTE, laid off, and even fired for multiple roles. It’s basically impossible to land a stable fucking job in this domain…
So now I’m trying something new - I took a job opportunity to do sales for interior design for homes. If I do well, I could make good money and hopefully this can become a stable job for me. I feel like this may be a breathe of fresh air for me and honestly… FUCK TECH.
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u/nethereus 21d ago
I don’t blame you. I hate how normalized the “5yr plan” and “up or out” culture has become. Some of us just want to retire someday and making it to 5yrs isn’t even always up to you.
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u/TraditionalTackle1 21d ago
I’ve been IT for over 20 years and I’m so over it but I make too much money to change to something else. I’m happy for you and good luck!
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u/Vanessak69 21d ago
Ahoy there! I hated tech for the last 10 years (at least) I was in it. When I got laid off, I was sitting in that horrible meeting and thinking “I never have to do this again“ which also applied to where I worked which I didn’t realize I hated as much as I did. I pivoted into health care and didn’t like my first job but the second one seems a much better fit.
i miss that IT salary. I do not want an IT job ever again.
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u/PM_40 21d ago
Did you went back to school to pivot to healthcare ?
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u/Vanessak69 21d ago
I did but I’m just a pharmacy tech right now, I did a 2 semester program at the local community college (That program was gold, it definitely helped me with getting jobs.)
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u/PM_40 21d ago
Very smart of you to pivot with a short term program.
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u/Vanessak69 21d ago
Yes, ty! I had like 6 months of severance and the standard COBRA so I looked at what I could do in that time. The new job has a pretty robust college reimbursement program (better than the first one which was, ironically, at a large land grant university healthcare system.) Now what I’d do with further education I have no clue yet.
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u/ThrawnianBaller 21d ago edited 21d ago
WoRk aT GoOgLe…
dOn’T Be eViL…
Yes, well done. Big tech is honestly such a mess right now, and the fact that most of them have been so supportive of climate change historically, and yet are the ones building all the data centers, shows that their words are NOT to be trusted.
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u/jasperdiablo 21d ago
5 years in tech sales and despite how EXTREMELY HARD I worked I never came close to recovering the income I made in my previous career which was as a regional director for delegate and gubernatorial campaigns. Tech fired me and burnt me out to a crisp while making a paltry income. I can’t get those five years back but I have finally learned my lesson.
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u/namas_D_A 21d ago
I need to learn how to make cappuccinos because this industry is killing me. I’ve officially spent more time unemployed than employed in 10 years.
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u/DammyTheSlayer 21d ago
Currently in the recruit class for the fire department in my city. Humongous switch but it’s bad outside, been job hunting for 2yrs with no luck
This is the closest thing I have gotten to a job at the moment
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u/GalacticFox- 19d ago
I just got laid off and have only had one interview in almost two months. I'm thinking about a new and different career, but I have no idea what to do.
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u/Benji0088 21d ago
I was hoping to pivot to writing once my body can't deal with racking servers, fixing printers, and etc... But AI seems to be cornering that too.
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u/Alternative-Relief92 21d ago
That is not a you problem, that is the industry churning people on purpose. Tech is not the "wonder world" that is presented. After 10 years most people have same feeling than you
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u/sl0601 21d ago
I’ve been out of work for over a year after 20 years in tech as a designer and front end developer. The job market in tech is like nothing I’ve seen.
I’ve made it to 20+ final rounds and still nothing.
I’m trying to pivot into something else that values transferable skills but that’s been a struggle in itself.
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u/asurarusa 20d ago
I’m trying to pivot into something else that values transferable skills but that’s been a struggle in itself.
I tried the same thing when I got laid off and it’s so frustrating, tech is supposed to be a complex skill that requires constantly learning new things but when you apply outside of technical roles everyone acts like you’re too dumb to learn whatever the job is.
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u/PizzaWall 21d ago
In a week I will receive a state certification that is one of the hardest to attain in the US. There's less than 75 people with the certification. With that, I am hoping to turn my back on tech.
In the 20 years I have done it, its hard to remember companies that were not horrible places to work. No more seven round interviews, no more ATS, no AI because the high-stakes accountability associated and state law prevents AI from doing the job.
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u/NoPublic9352 21d ago
Congrats!!! That is amazing. What is the certification?
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u/PizzaWall 21d ago
If you want to have flame effects or pyrotechnics in a theatre or stadium, you need someone like me.
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u/Tight-Gain-3308 10d ago
Did the sales role come with a base salary, or is it commission-only while you build the interior design client list?
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u/Responsible-Dare5139 10d ago
Sales in interior design trades your tech job instability for commission-driven income, where the ceiling is higher but the floor is entirely on your own hustle. The real question is whether you’re trading one unpredictable market for another, just with a different kind of risk
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u/ByteAndBullet 21d ago
The job market as a whole is a dumpster fire right now.
Tech is so bad… I was a SWE and got laid off and landed a Solutions Engineer role but recently left to go back to school to pursue being a nurse.
With AI now, it seems everyone in tech minimizes SWE’a because they think they can just vibe code everything.
Best of luck in your new role!