What would you choose as other profession than software engineer, given the free choice?

[Jan de Boer]

I actually wanted to be a stand-up comedian, or at least something artistic. My mom even stimulated me to go to acting class, but I was good in exact science too, and that future looked far more secure. Given a free choice again, would you become a software engineer again in a second life? Choose anything, dont mind if you have talent for it or not.

[Bear Bibeault]

[Chan Ag]

I'd probably be selling the softwares, if I wasn't developing ( big word, yeah. But we are software developers, right! So I'll use the word. ) them along with others that work with me.

Or I'd be running a nerd's coffee shop with a library -- I would allow my customers to read books or work on their laptops and have coffee with snacks, cookies, and stuff like that. That sounds kinda exciting already. :-)

If I got bored of that, I'd probably be learning and teaching the latin american dance styles. Or may be not.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

I would become a software engineer again. I knew I wanted to do "something with computers" since I was a little kid.

[Matthew Brown]

I suppose I'm really a failed academic, so ideally I'd have been an un-failed academic.

[Jesper de Jong]

As a kid I was very interested in animals and the natural world so if there would not have been computers, I might have become a biologist. I would love to have done what David Attenborough has done.

But I'm perfectly happy as a software engineer, I think it's one of the best jobs someone can have in the modern world where computers are absolutely everywhere.

[Jelle Klap]

Batman.

[Chris Barrett]

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:I knew I wanted to do "something with computers" since I was a little kid.

I'm very envious of folks like Jeanne who get it right the first time at bat - great job Jeanne in following your passion!

We are very luck we live in a time when you can make second choices. I went the opposite way. I spent 15 years in finance before realizing I was just not engaged any longer. Now, I'm moving into programming. Life is long. Find something you are passionate about and pursue it. Don't look back on your deathbed and say, "You know, I wish...".

[H Paul]

"To thine own self be true"

[Jan de Boer]

Chris R Barrett wrote:We are very luck we live in a time when you can make second choices.

Can we really? I do not agree with you. I know half a dozen ex school mates who studied a number of interesting things. Chemistry, Physics, even tropical Agriculture. They all did not find a job in research, got married had children, and then became something in IT because they needed the money. The second chance, is the second choice. Not your real passion, but something that puts food on the table and is not that bad. For me, information technology is not even the second choice. It is the third or maybe even fourth. First I wanted to be something artistic, but I was good at Physics so I chose to do that. That did not work out, and I would have chosen to study History but that does not pay, so in the end, I found out I was not that bad in programming, did not mind the work, and you were sure of getting a job in that area. I was jealous at the ex school mates, who did manage to finish Physics at the university, but now, we are all in the same boat anyway, so it does not matter. I must admit though, unfortunately computers are not my real passion.

[Guillermo Ishi]

^ You can live your first choice if you want to. If you choose comfort instead, that's your choice. But you can survive on your first choice. You are being looked after.

[Jan de Boer]

Ishi you work 40 hours a week, but there are 128 other hours in a week. Why does you job has to be your dream, your life fulfillment? I work to live, I dont live to work. I dont think that is wrong as long as you dont really dislike what you are doing.

[Chris Barrett]

Jan de Boer wrote:Can we really? I do not agree with you.

There is no question that as you get older, life will make wholesale changes harder. And some changes will be impossible (I fear my chances of becoming a professional hockey player at 40 are none).
I'm lucky. I have an awesome wife and family that said if programming was what I wanted to pursue, I should try it. This wasn't a decision made overnight. Months of planning, budgeting, and analysis of the sacrifices we would be required to make went into the process. Bridges and networks within previous industries had to be maintained incase things didn't work out and I discovered my passion was more a flight of fancy (so far that hasn't happened).

Perhaps a wholesale career change isn't for you. Or, the change isn't completely realistic. That doesn't mean you cannot pursue your passions and see where they go. You want be a comedian? Start doing open mic nights at comedy clubs. Or, think about how you can combine what you want to do with what you do do. You know programming. You like mentoring (else you wouldn't be helping here). You enjoy academia. Try teaching programming at a local technical/community college. Goodness knows, I would love to have a programming instructor that engaged me with humour and (at least where I live) the technical/community colleges love instructors with industry experience.

[Guillermo Ishi]

Jan de Boer wrote:Ishi you work 40 hours a week, but there are 128 other hours in a week. Why does you job has to be your dream, your life fulfillment? I work to live, I dont live to work. I dont think that is wrong as long as you dont really dislike what you are doing.

Sure. Whatever you want. My point was there's no need to be afraid.

There are things that require youth, like becoming an NHL star, and it might be too late for that! But trying anyway is guaranteed to be an adventure!

[Jan de Boer]

I am not sure what NHL is, ice hockey? But if you compare that to football, soccer, also these guys are not involved with their work 24 by seven. I once read an interview with a player. He said: "You might think we watch the other games, and are totally focused on football (soccer) here, but if you do that all day, to relax you want to do something different. So we play cards and do video games". Also why should I be afraid? I am not afraid, I just say that my job is not the only and most important thing in my life. I can for example make money as software engineer, and then study history and physics for fun in my free time. Frankly I am just too versatile to totally commit myself to a job, I think. If I would do that one dream job, for hours and weeks and years, I would get tired of that dream job too. Just like these professional soccer players get tired of soccer in the end. Piet Keizer played for Ajax in the seventies, was brilliant, but after his career he would not even kick a football back, if you threw it at him, so tired he was of his dream job. I am like Piet Keizer in that sense. Piet is now a scout at his club again by the way, but only part time, not like doing nothing else than football his whole life.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Jan de Boer wrote:I am not sure what NHL is, ice hockey?

Yes. US ice hockey.

[Brian Schuetz]

Well, I would choose something that uses my math skills. Maybe an actuary. But if I had it to do over, I'd probably still choose programming.