I’m a depressed web developer who’s hypothetically thinking about a possible career change. The issue is I live in a rural area. I’m wondering what kind of new career paths would be available to me out in the country? Two I can possibly think of would be a welder and construction, but I have no idea beyond that. Plus there’s the plethora of things I could possibly do online that Inhave no idea about.
I will most likely just stay as a work from home web developer, so don’t worry too much about me. But still wondering what possible alternatives there are out there, if anybody has any ideas they wouldn’t mind sharing.
I also realize that “rural” might not be specific enough, but I don’t want to get any more specific than that for privacy reasons.
When I left IT and changed careers, I became a tree surgeon for a while and then a wildlife ranger, which I stuck with for 20-odd years.
It has to be said that you need a particular motivation to work as a ranger though - at least in the UK. You certainly don’t get into it for the money.
Yes, I’ve accepted the fact that whatever options there are will most likely be a downgrade in pay. Wildlife ranger work does sound nice, though. If it’s one of those ranger jobs where you have to go live out in the woods for an extended period of time, then that might be rough. But patrolling the wilderness sounds like a nice change of pace from IT work.
I spent some time when most of what I was doing was leading volunteer groups and giving talks and tours etc, some years as the only permanent resident on what was effectively an island and quite a range in between. It would depend entirely on where you are, I think.
Either way, I had no regrets and wished I had made the change some time earlier.
Healthcare is a good field to go into, and there’s lots of work in rural areas
I should add that there are programs to forgive student debt for rural doctors, nurses, and lawyers.
That’s true that healthcare jobs are plentiful out in rural areas. I never thought of that. I’m not too sure how I would feel about having to go back to school, but it’s a good option to consider.
You could post (good old-fashioned) flyers around the most visible public places nearby (public library, grocery store, hardware/home center, church, etc.), advertising your IT skills.
Rural folks I know appreciate someone nearby who has even basic IT skills, saving them a trip into the city to a big box store that would charge them an arm and a leg to diagnose and fix the simplest issue.
If you charge less than they do and are conveniently closer, you could have a decent part-time source of income. Not sure how rural you are, how tech-saavy your neighbors may be, or whether you’re hoping to make a bigger shift career-wise, but it’s an option that has worked pretty well in my rural area.That’s a good idea. I’m not the most proficient in terms of tech support, but I guess a lot of that stuff would be googling the issue.
What do you think is contributing to depression? Is it the nature of web development itself? Your employer? Being inside / at a computer all day? I am a software engineer living regionally (not quite rural, but not a city where the jobs are), so work remotely. I just try to spend a lot of time in my gardens and only work 4d/week. That + therapy has helped me a lot with my depression and anxiety over the years.
Definitely my current team is a huge contributor. My previous job was a government contracting job with basically no stress, but now I’m in banking, and the stress is off the charts. My team is also a bit mismanged, which doesn’t help.
I think if I could find another team like my previous job with low stress, then I’d definitely be happy to continue being a web developer.
Yeah that makes sense. Fintech is stressful and often morally ambiguous at best IME. I’d extricate myself from that situation ASAP were I in your position.
IT positions in banking and law are generally stressful.
Onlyfans, you can do onlyfans at home or out in the farm.
Is it possible it is just the wrong jobs?
I’ve worked some web dev jobs that made me hate life and want to quit. I’ve since churned through many jobs and finally found gigs that I actually enjoy, that pay well, that give me ample time off and legit work-life balance.
I also live relatively rural, read: paid a nearby ISP to run fiber to my home.
Yes, it’s a safe bet that it’s just my current job. I was a lot happier at a previous job with a government contractor that was very low stress. I’m going to start applying for new dev jobs.
I’ll most likely stay in the dev field because it’s the path of least resistance for me, and because the job security most definitely shields me from a lot of new stressors I’m probably not even aware of. But I still wonder sometimes what it would be like to have a job outside like that one guy who said he became a wildlife ranger. Or to have a job where you solve physical problems with your hands, instead of abstract problems with your brain.
It’s absolutely not a job for everyone, but damn-near every 911 dispatch center in the country is always hiring.
It may or may not work well with you being depressed. You hear a lot of terrible, depressing things of course, but if your depression is all about your job it might feel good to do something that can make a difference in your community.
That’s a good one, thanks for the suggestion. You mentioned another contributing factor to my hypothetical career change too. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to work at some place that has a more direct impact on my community. My current job is more indirect, I would say.
Solar or wind power are huge, growing industries.
Remote work, you can get internet almost anywhere.
