For software engineers and web developers - wou...
For software engineers and web developers - would you be able to take summers off at any of your jobs? What would it take for you to get there?
19 Replies
Thread automatically created by Cram in #🤔｜questions
exotic-emerald•5mo ago
Once I'm more financially independent, I'd like to coastfire by taking summers off with the family, but I've only ever worked jobs that expect 40 hours per week. Wondering if I need to shift to making websites through my own company if I wanted to do that. It's the only way I can think of applying my programming skills to part -year work.
@totaldev I was thinking of you when I wrote this question but thought it was worth opening up for discussion.
environmental-rose•5mo ago
Interesting, so trying to be in a place career-wise where you can take summers off?
exotic-emerald•5mo ago
Exactly
environmental-rose•5mo ago
Wondering if I need to shift to making websites through my own company if I wanted to do that. It's the only way I can think of applying my programming skills to part -year work.The only issue with this line of thinking is that being your own "boss" selling your own services is and of itself time consuming as well.. deciding to take a summer off means you and your family being OK with zero income that time. the other way i can think of is if you're a very high level, i.e L7+ or above or sr director or above at big tech and that's sort of the thing you can just push for if any, you'd need to either be making it a career goal to hit these higher levels, or go the route of building your own company heck even my current swath of product portfolios i sell, it's not something i'd take more than a month off unless it's as close to passive income as possible lol oh.. or a startup like early founding engineer or something lol
exotic-emerald•5mo ago
Yes my thought was that in a few years when I have enough invested to coast into retirement, just make enough money to not draw from the investments for living expenses.
I don't have an expensive lifestyle. Haven't calculated my fire number but it would probably be around $2-3MM.
environmental-rose•5mo ago
right but even if you have the $$$$ to coast into retirement , that doesn't really connect with "finding a company that will let you take summers off" from the original prompt of the question
honestly finding yc grad startups and just jumping from startup to startup is one such way.. show off how good you are and/or contribute a lot, then push for summers off. might be worth the effort. i vaguely remember a college friend doing this for his first few years after college
just jumped from startup to startup taking advantage of the unlimited PTO
exotic-emerald•5mo ago
Yeah hence the question. I was wondering if there are avenues I haven't thought of.
There's a lot of gig employment available, but not so much where I can make use of my skills for high hourly pay
That's a pretty good idea
environmental-rose•5mo ago
ehh
there's a dark side to gig employment (for software)
especially if someone pays you $5k for work but asks for revisions or urgency in the middle of the night and it's your reputation or your sanity lol
exotic-emerald•5mo ago
Lol I'm sure. I was thinking of either getting a j3 or just doing side projects for small companies as my j3. Build it up slowly over time with the idea of eventually quitting j1 and j2 when I have a good nest egg, to only take as much gig work as I feel like
Or maybe I'll just get a j3 and grind for a few years. Haven't decided. But I have some family who are very into the small business community (they all own their own businesses) and might be able to help me get a web dev shop off the ground through referrals
@totaldev so you don't think you could negotiate summers off at any of the jobs you've had since doing oe?
If you didn't feel like you need the money, would you take more time off?
environmental-rose•5mo ago
definitely not
only parental leave is what i can shoot for
maybe at one of m Js i can shoot for 6 weeks
but anything longer will def need VP approval -- and ill probably get it for one year, but probably not the next
if i didn't need the money sure yeah!
i'd love to take more time off lol
exotic-emerald•5mo ago
Sounds like being your own boss is the way to go if unlimited time off is your priority. It's a whole different skill set though to sell yourself and your skills
deep-jade•5mo ago
If you have kids, would you be concerned about setting unrealistic expectations for them that this is normal for all jobs and all adults? I know we here on this server are extremely privileged and don't really live like the average person
exotic-emerald•5mo ago
Nah, the real world will crush their dreams eventually with or without my help. More quality time with them while they're young and more adventures will only be a good thing for their development, in my opinion.
foreign-sapphire•4mo ago
maybe you can try to work at a french company because the culture is to take part of the summer off
exotic-emerald•4mo ago
Interesting idea!
adverse-sapphire•4mo ago
You could find a job with a lot of down time. Like I dunno tech support for merchant Marines? They typically jump on a ship for 6 to 10 months then have forced time off for unemployment to pay out for 4 to 8 weeks.
Also being a teacher has built in summers off. We need teachers.
Program humans to program computers.
exotic-emerald•4mo ago
Teachers do get summers off, but from what I've heard, it's the opposite of coasting lol
adverse-sapphire•4mo ago
yeah, it's not easy, but you do get summers off.