I’m 33, web developer but I’ve been telemarketer, trainer, logistics and warehouse manager, computer technician, bartender, graphic designer, IT and comms. manager… I’ve worked in different company sizes, from start-ups to multi-national. You name it.
The thing is, I’ve been working as web developer because I like to write code and I’m not bad at it. It pays well because there’s a lot of demand, so it’s quite easy to find a job. But I really despise the fluff around it: everyone wants to be the new big company with stupid corporate cultism; middle to big companies has useless middle managment, usually very tyrannical who pretends to be cool; overtime is the norm; a sense of urgency on every project which only means bad planning; all the tools and procedures used in big name companies must be implemented… Agile, Scrum, DevOps, microservices, Docker, Kubernetes, different kind of testing… it never ends and they don’t work on every type of project. I was really depressed and anxious on those jobs.
So when my last company collapsed last december, and it’s the second one in a row, I decided to take it slow and plan the next step. I’ve actually never knew what I wanted to be as an adult, I just adapted to keep the bills paid. Since I like to code and that implies enduring all that fluff previously mentioned, why not doing it in another industry like videogames? I like videogames, I could be really passionate if I like the product I’m working on. So I’ve done a couple of courses and I'm currently looking for a job to switch my career.
No one wants to hire me. There’s way less demand in this sector and when they see my resume they don’t see a videogame programmer, I’m not a kiddo out of school with something focused on videogames, and I’m not a senior with “at least 4 AAA games” on my belt.
I already exhausted all my options on my local area and now I’m looking to work remotely from all over Europe. But it doesn’t look promising. I think I made a big mistake.
I would love to work doing something with my hands. I was really happy when I was just a computer technician, I keep doing that as a side/hobby job. But there’s no demand at all for that and it’s not well paid at all.
TL:DR I’ve changed career at 33 and now I can’t find work. I don’t know what to do next, I didn’t like my previous jobs and I’m not sure about the new one neither but at least I like the new products more.