Alternate job options for Software Developers which give mental peace & don't compromise significantly on income

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I am currently working as an Android Developer for > 4 years. I was not so much passionate about programming & learned it because I was having basic knowledge in Java & no other oppurtunites for my interests then. Now I face the typical problems of developers in IT Companies & have reached a stage where I code mainly for income & to prevent unemployed. I also don't like my project manager because he is a nitpicky person & also assigns the app developers to pressure API developers to develop APIs faster to prevent project delay & doesn't accept any reasons for delay which may not be our fault. I want to escape from this programming job

Welcome to the Corporate world. There is favoritism, quid pro quo. Make your presence felt in the organization. Socialize well and talk to your Project/Department Head about your intention of Switching role.

If nothing works then time to Switch company.

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Zangetsu said:
Welcome to the Corporate world. There is favoritism, quid pro quo. Make your presence felt in the organization. Socialize well and talk to your Project/Department Head about your intention of Switching role.

If nothing works then time to Switch company.

I am not working in corporate or MNC. I'm working in startup & working remotely

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soorajdigit said:
I am currently working as an Android Developer for > 4 years. I was not so much passionate about programming & learned it because I was having basic knowledge in Java & no other oppurtunites for my interests then. Now I face the typical problems of developers in IT Companies & have reached a stage where I code mainly for income & to prevent unemployed. I also don't like my project manager because he is a nitpicky person & also assigns the app developers to pressure API developers to develop APIs faster to prevent project delay & doesn't accept any reasons for delay which may not be our fault. I want to escape from this programming job

What is your thought about doing MBA? If you did btech less than 5 years ago you may go for it.

Do you specifically hate Android programming or programming as a whole?

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RumbaMon19 said:
What is your thought about doing MBA? If you did btech less than 5 years ago you may go for it.

Do you specifically hate Android programming or programming as a whole?

I am not good at other programming platforms. What I hate more is 'working as a developer'.
I would like the job of reviewing gadgets, apps etc. But no opportunities for the same & may not get regular income.

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soorajdigit said:
I am not good at other programming platforms. What I hate more is 'working as a developer'.
I would like the job of reviewing gadgets, apps etc. But no opportunities for the same & may not get regular income.

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For reviewing job, you need to establish yourself and to establish its best to start at college days.

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RumbaMon19 said:
For reviewing job, you need to establish yourself and to establish its best to start at college days.

Where do I start establishing myself? And why from college days itself? I'm 30. Is age a limitation for this?

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soorajdigit said:
Where do I start establishing myself? And why from college days itself? I'm 30. Is age a limitation for this?

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Actually, establishment depends on what type of review you want to do. Since blogs are outdated now, people prefer video review. But if you see on yt, it is way too saturated. So if you want to establish yourself now you will need to spend atleast 2-3 years in infancy of your channel to reach the 100k mark. After 100k your channel will only need quality content to grow.

I recommend college days since at that time one can confirm if the review thing is profitable or not, and is sustainable. But if you start now you will need invest i.e. spend your own money by buying gadgets to review. After that too, there is no surety that it will grow. Very high risk thing now.

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RumbaMon19 said:
Actually, establishment depends on what type of review you want to do. Since blogs are outdated now, people prefer video review. But if you see on yt, it is way too saturated. So if you want to establish yourself now you will need to spend atleast 2-3 years in infancy of your channel to reach the 100k mark. After 100k your channel will only need quality content to grow.

I recommend college days since at that time one can confirm if the review thing is profitable or not, and is sustainable. But if you start now you will need invest i.e. spend your own money by buying gadgets to review. After that too, there is no surety that it will grow. Very high risk thing now.

What about working as reviewer in technology portals instead of having own YT channel or blog? My question is also on other alternative job careers for developers to have mental peace & better work life balance

Try and apply for other big MNCs and product based companies. The stress should be lesser than your current job. This stress thing completely depends on the managers and leads. Switch company as soon as possible. Keep working for salary but with lesser stress. On the side you can explore your hobbies and think how can you earn money through those.
Whatever you plan, keep Step 1 as apply for other jobs with your current experience.

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@TheSloth By product based companies you mean companies which earn by making & selling it's own products, as in the case of IT companies it is a web application or mobile app right?
My previous company also has its own mobile app developed my me for Android as well as client projects also. But for the company's own app often had to put urgent updates to keep it's rating & prevent revenue from going down.
My current company though a client app & website but have agreed to give lifetime support for it & 1 website. Usually holidays on weekend last week made all employees work on Saturday saying overall work completion is not upto expectation though only 2 or 3 employees have many work pending. Also reduced 1.5 days salary because I was unable to work due to laptop issue (remote work) I am also not able to show my real speed of work because API developers not providing APIs on time as they are also busy with other projects.

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Usually holidays on weekend last week made all employees work on Saturday saying overall work completion is not upto expectation though only 2 or 3 employees have many work pending.

This should be strictly optional and anyone working on weekends should be paid 2X of what they get paid on weekdays.

Also reduced 1.5 days salary because I was unable to work due to laptop issue (remote work)

This should never happen, even if its remote work.

I am also not able to show my real speed of work because API developers not providing APIs on time as they are also busy with other projects.

Then it is the incompetence of your product manager (PM) and you need to highlight it. Why did he/she not block your story/task until it's dependencies were cleared (API Developers story or task).
If you accept a story/task before it's dependencies are cleared, then they will have a reason to blame you.

I can see you have a lot of toxic management, I would say start applying on linkedin and just switch.

The good thing about programming jobs are that they are so many of them. You can move to a company where employees are valued better.

There are not non-it companies (such as manufacturing, banking) that hire developers to work on their tools. Work like balance is usually much better in these companies. But you don't get to grow a lot technically because of proprietary tools and systems. You can get over this by learning what you love at your own leisure.

Remember any industry can have toxic managers. As we grow up we need to find ways to prevent the toxicity of others from affecting our mental well being. You will get there.

Good luck.

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Nerevarine said:
This should be strictly optional and anyone working on weekends should be paid 2X of what they get paid on weekdays.

This should never happen, even if its remote work.

Then it is the incompetence of your product manager (PM) and you need to highlight it. Why did he/she not block your story/task until it's dependencies were cleared (API Developers story or task).
If you accept a story/task before it's dependencies are cleared, then they will have a reason to blame you.

I can see you have a lot of toxic management, I would say start applying on linkedin and just switch.

the problem with switching jobs is that I will again be stuck in Probationary Period. Even for experienced there is 3 months probationary period.

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vito scalleta said:
The good thing about programming jobs are that they are so many of them. You can move to a company where employees are valued better.

There are not non-it companies (such as manufacturing, banking) that hire developers to work on their tools. Work like balance is usually much better in these companies. But you don't get to grow a lot technically because of proprietary tools and systems. You can get over this by learning what you love at your own leisure.

Remember any industry can have toxic managers. As we grow up we need to find ways to prevent the toxicity of others from affecting our mental well being. You will get there.

Good luck.

how can I know whether the work environment is employee friendly in a new company? Any tips

soorajdigit said:
how can I know whether the work environment is employee friendly in a new company? Any tips

Check Glassdoor reviews

and Ambtion box. Look for negative reviews as well. Most of 5 star reviews are fake ones.

soorajdigit said:
the problem with switching jobs is that I will again be stuck in Probationary Period. Even for experienced there is 3 months probationary period.

Bro, probationary period isn't a bad deal, especially in good companies.

soorajdigit said:
how can I know whether the work environment is employee friendly in a new company? Any tips

Reach out to people on linked in and ask how is work culture

Ask questions in interview how they estimate deadline. What they do if they miss any deadlines. How do they deal with production issues.

Also check for glassdoor reviews.

You can reach to your school / college mates to ask how their work/life is going on. They might also have 4 years of experience and they might be some better or worse place. Atleast they can give different perspective and some can give tips and references.
Try to build on your network.

You can also ask in reddit ( Reddit - Dive into anything also have a discord group.

Also if you people in family /extended family with jobs other than it or who run business how to deal with situation like this.

soorajdigit said:
how can I know whether the work environment is employee friendly in a new company? Any tips

If it is a service based organization you are going to find out that work environment for every project is different and it is going to depend on the Client and your manager. So you can't really be sure even after checking Glassdoor reviews.
Many product based companies have good work life balance.

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vito scalleta said:
If it is a service based organization you are going to find out that work environment for every project is different and it is going to depend on the Client and your manager. So you can't really be sure even after checking Glassdoor reviews.
Many product based companies have good work life balance.

By product based company you mean company having own product(s) (i.e apps or websites for end users) right? I worked on a company having its own app developed by me but often I've to put urgent updates (not just bug fix) to prevent revenue & rating from going down.

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soorajdigit said:
By product based company you mean company having own product(s) (i.e apps or websites for end users) right? I worked on a company having its own app developed by me but often I've to put urgent updates (not just bug fix) to prevent revenue & rating from going down.

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product based company is one where primary revenue stream is by their own product. They handle their own product engineering, marketing, sales, distribution.
FAANG, HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc are product based etc. Most startups are also product based - Zomato, Swiggy, etc. Freshworks = service based.

IMO, regardless of the requirements of the job, you must always focus on logging off around 6 pm or so but at the same time ensure that you finish whatever work is assigned to you by the end of the day so that there is little or no spillover.

Service based doesnt always mean they are bad. Thoughtworks, Fractal Analytics are great service based companies.

From what I have seen after working in both service and product based companies is that in service based companies you tend to develop expertise in more general areas, since (depending on the company) you could be working in different domains or technologies based on the project requirements. This however is the worst case scenario and is likely to cause a lot of stress since you have to re-learn something new for each project, unless you are lucky enough to have a long-term project. If you are in such a company or project, you are likely to be more stressed and I'd suggest moving out ASAP.

More often than not for service based companies, most projects are either in the same domain or use same technologies. This is more similar to a product based project in that your skills can be re-used across projects and you can also switch to another company within a similar domain. Here the stress is much more manageable since the requirements don't change too often. Most of the pain points in such a company will be mis-management or less than cooperative clients.

I have a feeling that op is seriously overworked and his team is understaffed.

There are some companies which develop app and websites for various coaching institutes. These company hire freshers and overload them by understaffing. This is something which I have seen a lot here, I knew a person who was paid very less but was maintaining apps of all the institutes with which his company had contract with. It was about 30-35 companies. The thing is, all those apps were based on a single template app and a new app was made whenever some institute enrolled.

He was alone working in the development, with another experienced guy working for backend of the site also. He went to his home in other state when pandemic started and most probably left the company because of high pressure and low pay.

RumbaMon19 said:
I have a feeling that op is seriously overworked and his team is understaffed.

There are some companies which develop app and websites for various coaching institutes. These company hire freshers and overload them by understaffing. This is something which I have seen a lot here, I knew a person who was paid very less but was maintaining apps of all the institutes with which his company had contract with. It was about 30-35 companies. The thing is, all those apps were based on a single template app and a new app was made whenever some institute enrolled.

He was alone working in the development, with another experienced guy working for backend of the site also. He went to his home in other state when pandemic started and most probably left the company because of high pressure and low pay.

That comes under mis-management. They usually also do this to reduce costs and maximize profits.

Hi OP, please start preparing for interviews and start attending. With each interview you will gain experience and most importantly, confidence. Getting a good offer comes later. Start preparing and attending interviews.

@Nerevarine Freshworks is service based?

TheSloth said:
Hi OP, please start preparing for interviews and start attending. With each interview you will gain experience and most importantly, confidence. Getting a good offer comes later. Start preparing and attending interviews.

@Nerevarine Freshworks is service based?

Freshworks is SaaS which is modern definition of service based. (IMO)

S

RumbaMon19 said:
I have a feeling that op is seriously overworked and his team is understaffed.

There are some companies which develop app and websites for various coaching institutes. These company hire freshers and overload them by understaffing. This is something which I have seen a lot here, I knew a person who was paid very less but was maintaining apps of all the institutes with which his company had contract with. It was about 30-35 companies. The thing is, all those apps were based on a single template app and a new app was made whenever some institute enrolled.

He was alone working in the development, with another experienced guy working for backend of the site also. He went to his home in other state when pandemic started and most probably left the company because of high pressure and low pay.

The first point is true especially in my previous company. I don't have a senior developer also. So I don't go for high coding standard but keep the code organized & work in a way that somehow manage to give output & reduce bug free. So I haven't experiment new things although I avoid deprecated code. The current problem seems to be most companies want to code & give the output in the way they expect like a design pattern

Design patterns are necessary and when applying for senior roles the interviewer will usually ask about them. It's not necessary to know all design patterns but at least the common ones like singleton, builder, factory, etc. should be enough.

Don't worry about all that. You can learn this along the way. Once you get your new job where workload is less, you can deep dive in DSA and Design Patterns.

Check this pdf for design patterns.

*blog.bytebytego.com/p/free-system-design-pdf-158-pages?s=r

General questions my friends were asked over period of time were.

1. How to design whatsapp.
2. How we can block tickets like bookmyshow. When one user is selecting and paying. This ticket should not be available for other user.
3. How multiple systems interact.
4. Learn about queues. and general terms like microservices, kafka, queue or batch processing.
5. How we can design url shortner

khalil1210 said:
Check this pdf for design patterns.

*blog.bytebytego.com/p/free-system-design-pdf-158-pages?s=r

General questions my friends were asked over period of time were.

1. How to design whatsapp.
2. How we can block tickets like bookmyshow. When one user is selecting and paying. This ticket should not be available for other user.
3. How multiple systems interact.
4. Learn about queues. and general terms like microservices, kafka, queue or batch processing.
5. How we can design url shortner

Great share!

To everyone, please share more resources with practical examples you have come across in your career.

TheSloth said:
Great share!

To everyone, please share more resources with practical examples you have come across in your career.

Good Idea. I think a pinned dedicated thread would be good to have.

Stormbringer said:
Good Idea. I think a pinned dedicated thread would be good to have.

+1

TheSloth said:
Hi OP, please start preparing for interviews and start attending. With each interview you will gain experience and most importantly, confidence. Getting a good offer comes later. Start preparing and attending interviews.

You mean do leetcode and stuff?.The main question is even getting interview is harder if your profile is not that good(not tier 1 colleges) Only top companies (tier 1) ask for leetcode and system design stuff.For a normal candidate they are shortlisted out due to their profile and colleges at the start.

pkkumarcool said:
You mean do leetcode and stuff?.The main question is even getting interview is harder if your profile is not that good(not tier 1 colleges) Only top companies (tier 1) ask for leetcode and system design stuff.For a normal candidate they are shortlisted out due to their profile and colleges at the start.

Since OP is already experienced then, they can focus on interview skills along with polishing their knowledge on the concepts according to their years of experience. Leetcode is good and all but takes time if not already familiar with concepts. The grind is long and hard. OP is already burnt out and already looking outside IT at this point so this is not the time for grinding. My suggestion is start applying for jobs through LinkedIn and Naukri to some good MNC based service/product companies. This might take time but it will be good. Once they are settled in their new company, and have good amount of time, can start Leetcode or similar. Then again switch as soon as they are confident on DSA.

TheSloth said:
Since OP is already experienced then, they can focus on interview skills along with polishing their knowledge on the concepts according to their years of experience. Leetcode is good and all but takes time if not already familiar with concepts. The grind is long and hard. OP is already burnt out and already looking outside IT at this point so this is not the time for grinding. My suggestion is start applying for jobs through LinkedIn and Naukri to some good MNC based service/product companies. This might take time but it will be good. Once they are settled in their new company, and have good amount of time, can start Leetcode or similar. Then again switch as soon as they are confident on DSA.

I think getting calls from linkedin is very tough I also tried alot but didnt get much response.Naukri is good for the interviews but cracking one is tough as competition is alot like sometimes I have seen there 2 positions available and 2000 candidates applied.But certainly you can crack if you have the skills.

pkkumarcool said:
I think getting calls from linkedin is very tough I also tried alot but didnt get much response.Naukri is good for the interviews but cracking one is tough as competition is alot like sometimes I have seen there 2 positions available and 2000 candidates applied.But certainly you can crack if you have the skills.

Yeah man its tough out there. But best part is that we have lot of openings, some way or other one will get job. At least this is what I tell myself to sleep peacefully at night :emoji_sweat: