this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Programming
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Speaking from experience, become a system administrator or cyber security engineer and program as a hobby.
I went to school for software engineering then found out near the end that coding all day sucked.
LOL I went to school for cyber security and got into full stack web dev (graduated at the start of COVID, the job market sucked and I had a connection). Not gonna lie I enjoy where I’m at now. I’m a Linux nerd and I enjoy the cyber stuff but there’s no way I’m ever gonna stop smoking weed to get a security clearance or be on call as a sysadmin
i HATE web dev lmfao, good on u!! is it really that common for sysadmin to have regular drug testing??
Not so much for sysadmin (more so just for onboarding), but definitely in the cyber world where having a clearance is almost a requirement. They might not test all the time but during the investigation they basically want people who are clean cut or have at least had their act together for a few years
I did the same, sysadmin. Coding for work kills all passion. I still have to do it from time to time but it's not nearly as bad as being a full time programmer.
im actually kinda interested in security and am thinking abt getting a comptia security+ cert whats the day to day been like? same with sysadmin i truly know nothing ab that kind of role
You make sure everything is backed up, up to date and secured, you diagnose hardware issues, to a degree - you diagnose software too.
Best part is that it's engineering, not creative. If the software problem is hard, you open a support ticket with the vendor. If it's hardware, you replace it. There's no solving hard problems of thread concurrency (or whatever feels hard to you) under time pressure.
Cybersec is so insanely broad you could do a different job every five years for the rest of your career. Or one job for 20 years like me, despite being easily bored, because every new project is different and there's always new technologies to learn. And you probably have job security for a while yet especially if you are good. For most roles, I doubt AI will replace a decent cybersec person for several years, though it may be a force multiplier.
I haven't done sysadmin in a long time and the field has had more than a few major paradigm shifts: from bare metal to virtual, virtual to container, devops, software defined everything and host as cattle not pets.
Back in the day it was a mix of projects and schedules and emergencies. In other words every day was different and a bit unpredictable. It may be more boring with modern approaches and technologies to significantly improve uptime.