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Posted by johnathandos 12/22/2025

Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

This question generated some very interesting discussions in another online community I’m in. I would likely pursue a career in occupational therapy or speech-language pathology. I would love to do work that directly benefits the lives of others and to spend more time interacting with people from all walks.
62 points | 141 commentspage 3
JTbane 12/22/2025|
Probably something blue collar like electrician, plumbing or auto repair.
ProllyInfamous 12/22/2025|
I became a union electrician specifically to get away from tech and then found myself spending most of my apprenticeship wiring data centers.

Can't seem to escape from the tech gods.

Unfortunately blue collar labor takes its toll on bodies — probably best-left to hobby grunt work (and not full-time) unless you like back/knee/hip pain =D

I'm currently attempting to transition back into white collar tech (early 40s) but we all know how that's going (in this economy). Fortunately twisting wires together for decades has allowed me to stack enough savings that I'm not in a rush / desperate for re-training/employment.

crossroadsguy 12/22/2025||
One of these or a mix of - history, archaeology, and literature. But as they say, you never know.

I absolutely knew even when I left school ("school" school) that none of these would pay, so I assume your question has an implicit "if money was no concern". Because money/job was the reason I picked engineering and CS in college. While I did quite well (academically and professionally), I never loved it. Maybe I liked it here and there. Then I knew this would happen; that's the reason I was at least prudent enough to never do that CS MS (with multiple options for full scholarships in Europe around a decade ago). But not prudent enough to explore masters in many of the non-STEM fields that were there for the taking pretty much. Some of those might have paired well with this STEM bachelors in some way or the other.

schmookeeg 12/22/2025||
I fully expected to age out of tech by the time I hit 40 (just hit 49, still in tech) -- so I do flight instruction, aircraft inspections and relocation. It's tech money but not tech consistency, and has basically pivoted my favorite hobby and turned it into a job, which has its own challenges.

I'm still building it out. Going for my Repair Station license next year and hoping to add pitot-static and transponder calibration to my services menu. I wrench on my own plane, but the liability exposure is insane, so I won't sign work for others.

It's really odd, but I think when I disclose this to my tech masters, there is something of a novelty value, and they appreciate that I can sling code... and also other things. That old "well rounded" trope I guess.

_alternator_ 12/22/2025||
I’ve made some interesting things in the past few years, in particular singing Tesla coils and digitally-controlled plasma tube lights. Was thinking about making bespoke musical instruments based on some of these learnings.

Of particular interest was some interesting types of feedback that came from the Tesla coils. Basically we modulated the frequency we drove the coils to produce sound, but the coils would interfere with one another because that’s how electromagnetism works. We had to tune them to different resonant frequencies to play sound. But the interference itself could sound unique and eerie, sometimes like an old-timey radio. It’s similar in principle to a theremin but a very different sound.

Or I could just get a soul sucking job and do this in early retirement. Shrug.

trenning 12/22/2025||
Before I got my degree I was a machinist/ millwright and doing various things in between. Took a break after covid to go back for a little to decompress from tech but inevitably came back to programming.

Love the work but hate the pay and toll it took on my body.

Carpentry is fun too but metal is better.

bicx 12/23/2025|
I’ve looked into putting together a small shop, but you’re right. Startup cost is really high, pay is shit.
drunken_thor 12/22/2025||
All the jobs I rather be doing are antiquated. Furniture maker but it’s not a viable job anymore either. A machinist, tool-die maker. Or mechanic maybe. I have always thought that mechanics are just debugging a very specific architecture. None of these make money though.
jtolds 12/22/2025||
> Ford CEO says he has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with up to 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/ford-ceo-manufacturing-jobs-t...
speakfreely 12/22/2025||
"Up to" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
lesuorac 12/22/2025||
Honestly, it seems to me that it's "undoing" a lot of work.

Labor Rate at dealerships around me are over $200/h. Granted the mechanic doesn't get 100% of that but 200 * 52 * 8 is nearly 600k. It seems like you could go somewhere else and get the same amount of money as Ford (or more) and don't need to worry about future salary increases not occurring.

speakfreely 12/22/2025||
The problem is that the mechanics are paid fixed hours for a given type of job (according to the dealership's standard for how long a given job should take). They are not truly being paid per hour. While it's supposed to encourage efficiency, you can imagine how this negatively affects the mechanics as well as the work quality outcomes.
Froedlich 12/23/2025||
A friend of mine is getting ready to retire after 30-odd years in IT. He has already tooled up and trained for his retirement profession: farrier; the guy who makes and installs horse shoes. It's more profitable than it used to be since few people do it any more, and farriers typically work on their own schedule.
Desafinado 12/22/2025||
Do I need to make money? If the answer is no, then I would do something physical and mindless like stocking shelves or landscaping.

If the answer is yes, I'll stick with software.

When I was in college I did residential landscaping in the summers, and in retrospect it was a good time.

mikewarot 12/25/2025||
I spent 5 years making gears, mostly bevel gears. If you see a Marvel 18" bandsaw made between 2015 and 2020, I probably cut the teeth on the band wheel and its pinion that drives it.

Some of the gears I helped make will still be in use in a century. I find great comfort in that for some reason. The job was rewarding, and interesting, but the pay and commute really sucked.

As for helping others, there were a handful of us in the job shop before it was bought by a bigger machine shop. It's a fairly solitary job.

benlivengood 12/22/2025||
I think I would enjoy building houses, or solar-battery-electrical installations. I like infrastructure (my favorite games include Factorio) and being able do that in the real world sounds both useful and enjoyable/satisfying.
markus_zhang 12/23/2025|
I don't really know what I would do. I'll probably find some other jobs that I don't need to talk to other people very often, but there are not many of these. I don't care too much about salary because I can always scale back to backbone lifestyle.

Maybe a janitor/security job or a bus driver job suits me well. Neither requires a huge amount of training, and neither requires a lot of brain activity so I can preserve my brain cells for hobby programming. Both have a non-trivial number of job openings too, especially for janitors/securities.

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