alt Hacker NewsA "high tech" dead end career that my friends, family, and society were happy to usher me into with big promises of a bright shining tomorrow, only for me to find out too late that it's a dead end, worthless job.
Much of this time I wanted to switch into computer programming instead, which I've been doing on my own since I was 8 years old. Over the years I've built my own Linux distro from scratch, developed a heavily customized version of the Chromium web browser, and other interesting stuff. But oh noes, I don't have the right piece of paper to prove I'm worth anything, and I'm not planning to waste 4+ years of my life and $50k+ to get said paper, so nobody has any use for me.
Once I dared to become self-employed and stayed out of the job market a few years, then I was considered forever useless and unemployable on that basis alone. The job market doesn't want employees, or business owners, it wants slaves. Any extended period of "unemployment" (or underemployment) is the kiss of death.
Frankly, a lot of the programming jobs these days are shit anyhow (especially the type of crap posted to HN's Who's Hiring) so it's hard to get excited about any of it, and at 40+ I am now unemployable due to age anyway, so it's pointless to apply for anything.
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Community college programs are extremely cheap, and state schools are a thing. It's also not unheard of for any state workers to get lower tuition costs as a benefit.
You're 40+, you have like potentially another 40+ years to live a life you want. If all it takes is a degree from a public university and some white knuckling for 4-6 years to then get the life you want to work in, is that such a burden to bare?
Wouldn't you want to at least try to achieve your dreams before giving up? You have the experience and smarts to know how to succeed if you want, so why give up 4 decades before the game is over?
The job market doesn't want employees, or business owners, it wants slaves.
I know plenty of people who went into contracting (aka self-employment) and later found full-time jobs (frequently with clients) across multiple white collar industries, including programming. They were all in their 30s and 40s. In many cases, going the self-employment route actually made them more valuable to future employers. I also know plenty of people without a degree who went into programming.
Over the years I've built my own Linux distro from scratch, developed a heavily customized version of the Chromium web browser, and other interesting stuff.
If this were true you'd be gainfully employed by now. Coming out of COVID, companies were hiring people just because they knew what an IDE was.
Based on your comments though, it's easy to understand why you haven't been able to find a job. I wouldn't want to work with someone as negative as you and I can't imagine anyone would want to work with someone so emotionally draining.