For those who have a hobby, passion, or passing whim that they want to make a living out of, but don't know how they can get there. Wanderers and contributors alike are welcome. Be kind and supportive - no hate allowed here.
Career
I (25M) have been working as a software engineer for a defense contractor for about 5 years now. And I really despise this job, despite how much praise I get for it and how many promotions I've received.
It's like if, as a child, you discovered that you love painting, so you went to school to be a painter. But upon finishing that, you learned that the only real job as a painter is painting solid colors on the walls of houses and buildings. Not only has something that you considered a form of artistic expression been turned into a mundane procedure, but also you constantly have to deal with people saying "Actually if you hold your brush like this it will more evenly distribute the paint" and "Let's hold a meeting tomorrow to decide which corner to start painting from."
But I don't have any qualifications outside of my computer engineering degree and my work experience, which has only been coding jobs. Anywhere else I go, I would be the entriest of entry level employees. I don't know if I can handle the lifestyle change of giving up a 110k salary to make minimum wage.
I thought to myself the other day "I think I would really like to own a restaurant someday." But I have no idea how to pursue that dream from where I'm standing now.
I just don't know what to do đ
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I think youâd benefit from getting out of defense contracting with all its government-related bureaucracy. Virtually any other field where you can use existing skills would feel like an improvement.
You are qualified for other things. That much is definite. However, you're right - going from IT to restaurant with no restaurant skills, will be tough. And building up a new restaurant, you will be working with no income for a while. And there's no guarantees your first attempt will be successful, especially with no skills. But there are ways, and ideas I'm having to get you from where you are, to where you need to go.
Join a restauranteur or a chef who is looking for a financial partner. He teaches you, you both use your skills and assets and resources to build a restaurant.
You can get restaurant equipment cheaply from auction houses in your area.
Always have a restaurant focused business coach to help you advertise, update, keep your relevance, and go through all the certs and processes the city may require.
You can do both of these while keeping your 9-5 or going PT with it, to keep the $ coming in until the restaurant is profitable.
You have an in demand skill thatâs well compensated. If you maxed out all of your stats into coding and computer science you can pivot to almost any industry; however, you will end up as an IT or SE for sure.
I hear itâs a bad job market for SEs (at least in big tech right now), but try to get more experience in the private sector or a different industry, youâll probably get a nice pay raise too.
Also if you compare it to painting, then âpaintâ something of your own at home. Start a side project, have some fun with it, maybe you can monetize it or at least learn from it. A fun project involving music or marketing or something data driven idfk. Maybe you could think of a way you could improve a restaurants business or proceses with what you know?
Or take a part time job working at a restaurant to make some extra cash (servers on a weekend shift make nice money in most states) and see what itâs all about. Or you could cook if thatâs more geared toward your interests.
Work steadily and be patient, save money, invest, get raises when you can, and thatâs how you get the ball rolling my boy!!! Use your specialized skillset to move around if you donât want to start from scratch!!! Thatâs your ticket!!
In school, I had such aspirations for all fancy algos to implement, but ended up doing SE in fintech, so I totally feel your painter analogy.
People switch all the time, qualifications be damned. I was a former SE that jumped into another totally different profession. There are others who have done the same, so it is quite possible and potentially rewarding.
On paper, you might only have a CS degree and work experience as SE. However, if you dig deeper, you will find ancillary skills you have developed during your work. I assume you're familiar with the SDLC and work under some sort of dev framework, like SCRUM. Therefore you have some sort of project management experience. What about general problem solving? Tons of experience with that.
And no, I'm not talking about bullshitting on your resume or "faking it till you make it". The key is to look beyond the literal and figure out how to market what you've got to fit your prospective industry.
Grad school or an MBA is worth considering. I would just save as much money as you can and start applying. My friend went back to school at 30 and got a full scholarship, so its never too late! The good thing is you have a career to fall back on worst comes to worst
Iâm going back to grad school in august and Iâm 41. Iâm very nervous though.
âYou would be amazedâ Most people that I know who wound up in your spot networked or interviewed well for something else. Itâs given me confidence to try something new
Video games.
Then you will open a restaurant and realize your perception of that experience was incorrect too.
Go back to college or grad school. I started grad school when I was 24.
You're making 24 sound like 67. đ
How am I doing that? My point was I was around OPâs age now.
I understand that. It's just that normally people reassuringly say "I started x when I was n" only when n isn't close to the normal age to start x.
Bro youâre 25. Relax and try to take some time to really think about what you want. Youâll realize that you already have all you need to make that happen, at that point youâll just need to get out your own way. The answers are within. You can start a new.