What are well-paying alternative jobs to being a software developer?

Technical/consultative sales. The kind where customers come to you and are looking for advice/solutions, not the kind where you’re cold calling or fighting for leads.

Sales professions get a bad rap and rightfully so in some cases. However, if you find the right role, it’s incredibly rewarding to help customers solve problems, beat out competition, and have a measurable metric (money) to determine your level of success/contribution (or vice versa).

That last sentence is a big part of why people get burnt out, as in my opinion. It’s also something very difficult to measure in software engineering and attempts to do so (e.g., number of commits, lines of code, frequency, etc.) are nebulous measures. They also are useless with regards to determining if the business itself is successful/what your contribution to that success is.

I took 8 months off fishing in the ocean, and never could really look that code in the eye again.

After that, I found it helps to move between teams and projects often. I last about 1-3 years with overlapping contracting jobs. Pays well, about $30 an hour on average, for as many hours as I want.

Honestly, I'm still edging the ~buildout~burnout vortex, so when I start to feel the first tendrils of that morning-sickness, I just let clients know that their number is up and that although I'll give them some time, they need to replace me.

It's happened that doing that in slack revitalized the whole workspace for a few more months.

edit: I neglect to mention, after the Great Rest my wife and I started serially travelling... so work is something I snatch time for, instead of "waking up to the grind". Covid put a pause on that, but it's in the air!

Engineering manager is probably the easiest pivot. It's a very different skillset from software engineering (more people interaction, more organization, less creativity and logic) that some people will love and others will hate, but you get to use your previous experience and there's often a pay bump and additional job security.

Also consider trades like carpenter or electrician. Many software engineers also like this type of work because it involves building & fixing stuff, but it's more tangible, easy to disconnect from when you're not working, and requires less abstract thought. It still pays very well, though it can be hard on your body.

I transitioned from software development into a fairly technical documentation position. Get paid more than I ever did as a software developer, and my previous employer was no slouch for pay. If you love writing and communication, it could be a good choice for you! But if you hate writing essays and playing with beta-quality software, stay far, far away.

This sounds a lot like where I was around year ten in my career... I made a move into a niche area of technology consulting. That led to a whole lot of variety - I did pre-sales engineering, sold services, did a whole lot of high-profile consulting work, etc. Point being - if you are still enjoying technology but not the specific work you are doing or the company in which you are doing it, find a horizontal move into some other area.

Eventually, I burned out on all of it and went into real estate. That's a major jump and I wouldn't recommend it unless it's a field that really calls to you. Someone below mentioned licensing - there are a whole lot of niche fields that make the world go around. Think escrow officer, home inspector, insurance salesperson, home appraisal... not all of these might pay much, but there's a certain stability to them because it does take effort to get a license.

Speaking of which... if financial upside is part of your goal and you can get through the licensing, and if you like working with the general public... there's a good lifestyle to be made as a financial advisor / planner.

You might be able to take lower paying jobs if they have pensions or overtime.

Police officers make decent money (depending on location) and have great pensions since they're public sector union employees. I know a guy that took all the overtime he could get his last year. He made $160k and was then entitled to $80k pension (half your highest paid year. Downsides are that it's mostly sedentary and carries physical risks.

Teachers make decent money in a handful of states. You can make $90k in as a secondary ed biology teacher. Downsides can be policies you don't agree with (like no grades lower than 50%) and potential physical risks depending on the student body.

Many trades make good money. I have a friend who is a construction manager for a gas utility making $85k. His workers can make that and more with overtime (union gig too). Before that he worked at UPS and it wasn't unheard of for drivers to make $100k.

I don't have an answer but something of a follow-up question: my theory on how to do this is to find a field where my stuff skills are very useful, but are a complement to the job rather than the job itself. I'm thinking of things like scientific / engineering / research endeavors where the ability to think through how to structure and work with large amounts of data in a maintainable way is a useful skill but the software itself is not the primary work product. Has anybody had success with this approach?

If you have a college degree and are willing to go through what essentially is an apprenticeship for 2 years, Residential Real Estate appraisal is not a bad gig. I’m just now getting my license after apprenticing since 2019, and there is a lot of work to be had in large metro areas (I’m in the Phoenix area). Having a degree gets you the highest level of licensure, but even with just specific appraisal classes alone and no degree you can still make a mint.

It’s pretty much data analysis and comparing apples to apples as close as you can get, adjusting for differences between homes; And while the forms you fill are repetitive, the homes you see are usually anything but. You can run your own shop and make a comfortable 300k+ a year, and if you really want, you can expand your services outside of working for appraisal management companies and mortgage companies.

There is a deficit of new blood entering the profession, and certainly not as many technically skilled people getting into it. This does mean that a lot of processes are a bit archaic (like submitting files in XML, or counties having aged FTP sites for their parcel maps), but the tide on a technical front is changing, ever so slowly (no one does their reports on index cards or uses microfilm readers like my grandfather used to).

One thing that might be tough if you look into this route is finding someone to train you. Most of these old guys (and truly I mean old guys) are happy with their little kingdoms of the area they cover, and their reluctance to train the new appraisers wanting to enter the field has created the lack of qualified workforce that has had people like me working overtime during the pandemic.

Great job, and has been the best choice of my life, and would not go back to front end dev or call centers; Cause nothing has given me the freedom of working for myself and running a business with my father, with the ability to start my own business when he retires.

I think you should elucidate and explain more about what you have come to dislike about it, what you feel is missing, etc, to get better advice.

Unfortunately there is no other job that enables you the high pay versus low barrier to enter the field.

I would recommend taking time off and then starting a software job at a new company. Find a company with different culture, new people, etc.

You might as well try this first before doing something more extreme. If it doesn't help then try switching careers.

Sorry you're feeling burnt out! It's a struggle for all of us especially during this pandemic. My advice is to try some other kinds of software development. Software development is such a vast field. I've been an engineer for a decade as well and I only really know about my specific field which is web and devops. There may be another field of engineering or specialty where your skills carry over but it's more fun and less burnout. Game development and mobile app development, for example, are very different work from my day job.

Why not find a software engineer job within a vertical that resonated with you. Ed tech, Medtech, web3, lawyertech. Whatever that will Leverage your experience and apply it into a field that will drive your objectives forward. I am a HW engineer with 10+ years exp who is actively preparing for leetcoding interview. Software engineering is a evergreen career but burnout is inevitable but as long as you can keep updating and have a good focus on life outside work

If you're good with people, mid-level healthcare provider positions pay well and are extremely in demand. Nurse Practitioners is likely the easiest route to attain. Physician Assistant master's degrees is more prestigious and pays better, but is universally competitive vs some NP programs that are pretty lax with who they will take on as students.

Pay for these positions easily starts in the 6 figures, with some PA specialties starting closer to $200k.

There's several careers that are 'software-adjacent' that'd be easier to transition into rather than a completely new industry.

  - Technical Sales Role
  - Product Manager
  - Data Scientist
  - (Technical) Program Manager
  - Solution Architect
  - (Technical) Management Consultant
  - etc.

DevOps, cloud architecture/engineering.

Another option could be teaching IT (private) - organize lectures about your expertise, etc

I went back to school for an MBA, emphasis in Supply Chain. The math and software side of my tech skills are valued because I'm pretty good at numerical analysis and learning the various odd software the company uses. Pay can be pretty great, depending where you go.

Pilot or air traffic control. Anything where it’s expensive to get license is good alternative.

Could pivot into cyber-security? This could be bug bounties or pen-testing. Basically knowing how software is built gives you a massive advantage here.

I imagine your pay would go down as you start, but you're going to have to accept that for any change in career.

Union jobs like electricians and plumbers and such. That’d be my guess.

Actuary pays well

Pharmacist, starting salaries are really high (100k+ starting).

Project/Product Manager.