I left my job to help people quit their jobs. Seriously. Even though I was writing code and managing teams for big clients (Google, Starbucks, P&G) I found people's individual careers more exciting.
Really sorry to hear about your illness and struggles. That sounds pretty tough. Would you say that IT feels like "your calling?"
I've had friends and clients leave tech for more fulfilling, but lower wage work in cooking, farming, design, music, art, after-school work, and non-profit work.
There are a lot of good ideas on this thread, but it would be easier to speak to your situation if I had some more details.
Email me if you're up for sharing more, I'd be happy to help if I can:
I have an MFA in 'Literary Arts' and studied creative writing and visual art in undergrad.
I have worked in a silly amount of industries, from retail to cleaning beach houses to coaching ceos. I have consulted for large energy companies, small non-profits, and, most recently, marketing agencies.
A friend in the startup game inspired me to stop dabbling and make a go of it as a coder, mainly for $$, but also because I enjoy endurance problems and painful growth.
I make art because people are fascinating. The emotional systems they construct around themselves- and the systems they are woven into- endlessly blow my mind.
Making good art requires a fascination with human systems. All of them.
I have stood out to my employers as someone who 'isn't like other coders' because I am interested in the emotional stakes of their lives, and have developed the skill of re-communicating those emotional stakes back to them in an artful way.
Art teaches you to see. This is helpful, socially, professionally, because most people want to be seen.
This understanding has been powerful and lucrative, for sure.
The creative writing workshop process also thickened my hide and killed unproductive parts of my ego.
Most professional meetings with supposedly 'high stakes' don't come close to the kind of personal vulnerability required to put your poem, your inner life, in front of a group of strangers.
I've read through these reviews- pretty wild how they openly attack anyone who has a negative experience with them, instead of demonstrating drive to fully resolve issues. Being sympathetic, positive and following through are customer service basics, and they are just flailing here.
