Goodbye to software engineering

I’m leaving my software engineering career on Sunday. I’ll stop considering myself a software engineer and I’ll shut down my consulting business.

I got hooked on computers in my Junior year of high school, and I’ve been working in computer hardware and software since 1977. Although these were distinct careers, they had a lot of overlap. That’s 48 years working in one realm.

I was laid off from Brex in January 2024. I spent five months looking for a job. It was a miserable search partly (mostly?) because of ageism. I consider myself blessed that I didn’t encounter it until I was in my 60’s; many less fortune souls hit it in their 40’s or 50’s.

Inane job interviews, being of “retirement age,” and flexibility on what “retirement” means led me to reflect on whether a career change might make me happier. And so I investigated alternative careers. One thing led to another and I landed on watchmaking.

To date, I’ve finished one year of night school education. I’ll transfer into a full-time program in September or devise my own full-time learning regimen. My goal is achieving a certification (e.g., CW21) in 2027.

Staying in software engineering would be the safe path, with superior compensation. No question! It’s the road well-traveled.

I would still be on that road if recent history had been different. If I hadn’t been laid off, I might still be working at Brex today. Or if one of my interviews had resulted in an attractive offer, I’d be there today.

Sometimes you need a shove before you consider other options. But once you start doing that, there’s no going back.

Leaving a career is scary and risky, but also fun and exhilarating. The thrill of learning something completely new and immersing oneself in a new discipline cannot be oversold.

But embracing change is also complicated. You know what you know and don’t know in a career that’s spanned decades. But in the new field? You don’t know anything and you have no connections, no network, and no history. If it doesn’t work out, returning to the old career may or may not be tractable.

I had moments of doubt when I reconsidered taking this leap.

But: I don’t want to return to the old career. I will not. I don’t like the changes happening in commercial software development, and I won’t put up with the crap I encountered in my 2024 job search.

So I’m burning the boats and declaring that I’ll learn watchmaking and score gainful employment in it. I’m going to reinvent myself.