To leave it all behind

[drucer]

Do you ever get the urge to leave it all behind? I mean - leaving your job and finding something else in this life. It seems like IT jobs these days are very stressful - sometimes I think I've had enough of it, but I've never got the courage to make the move. I keep on thinking about alternate ways of spending my life more and more so I guess it's just a matter of time.

Ideally I'd like to spend the time I've been given on this planet to music. Writing songs, learning more about music, playing, recording.. but yes, I know - you got to buy some food and stuff, so you have to have a job also. But is it really worth to spend your life feeling stress all the time? I don't think so. So some alternative job might be the solution for me. Something totally different. I'm IT admin now, I could be something else tomorrow.

[DoctorMO]

strategic retreat? you need to work out how you can live on less; with less and be happy with less.

Finding out how to reduce the amount of money required to survive is important. but people are always going to want to buy ipods.

[Rhubarb]

Know exactly what you mean, have allready made the choice to switch careers 2 years ago. Work in finance now, which should be stressfull, but compared to IT, it's really stress free for me.
Which gives me more time to tinker with Ubuntu at home :-D

[mips]

Yes, after working in the IT industry for almost ten years I also came to the conclusion that it is a load of BS. I left and decided to take a break from it all, that break is coming to an end now.

[slimdog360]

I think about throwing it all in everyday. The only way I get through my day is by becoming an empty shell and just doing what I have to do until its done.

[mips]

If you think of all the time and energy you invest working in the IT industry it is scary.

You go to work, then you might be on standby/callout for afterhours stuff, you have to constantly recertify which is study time after work, you might have to deal with a clueless micro-management style boss which just takes more of your time.

The pay might be good but you have stop, sit down and think to yourself "Is it really worth it, am I happy ?"

[fuscia]

my job - teaching teenage girls (who want to be the next 'american idol') how to sing. nope, i'm staying.

[prizrak]

Do you ever get the urge to leave it all behind? I mean - leaving your job and finding something else in this life. It seems like IT jobs these days are very stressful - sometimes I think I've had enough of it, but I've never got the courage to make the move. I keep on thinking about alternate ways of spending my life more and more so I guess it's just a matter of time.

Ideally I'd like to spend the time I've been given on this planet to music. Writing songs, learning more about music, playing, recording.. but yes, I know - you got to buy some food and stuff, so you have to have a job also. But is it really worth to spend your life feeling stress all the time? I don't think so. So some alternative job might be the solution for me. Something totally different. I'm IT admin now, I could be something else tomorrow.

Yes I do have the urge to just leave it all behind sometimes it's nothing but the weak side of me not wanting to deal with things though.

[maniacmusician]

my job - teaching teenage girls (who want to be the next 'american idol') how to sing. nope, i'm staying.
haha i need voice lessons too!

[Onyros]

I know exactly what you mean, mate... I once had a sort of an IT job, I was PR of a somewhat innovative software company here in Portugal, therefore I had to be as involved as I could be. As I accumulated the Press Department with all public relations, it became too stressful, so I left... for advertising :P

Yep, it was even more stressful. Deadlines, the pressure of having to be creative when you're too tired to even think straight (sometimes that helped), few moments to relax while working, the complete loss of personal life (working overtime almost every single day)... It completely destroyed my mental health.

I then took the plunge. Set up my own business, doing what I think I do best, what gives me the most pleasure in terms of work and what can sustain myself, my wife and our 8 pets (2 dogs and 6 cats) the best way possible, while we still don't have kids.

I live a simple, yet full life now. I have time for myself and for all the things I want to do, even though I had to give up some hours of sleep (because I work mostly during the night, so I can have the day free for everything else). It's a good trade-off, and one that isn't too hard on me. I barely need 4 hours of sleep per day.

Unfortunately, people subject themselves to the most heinous things... just because they need to earn a living. But there are always alternatives.

Just keep this in mind: most of the times, those people who do earn a whole lot of money aren't the happiest. I know construction workers, mechanics who make just enough money to go through life with some comfort, but who are happier than, say my brother, who works his butt off, earns a lot of money but doesn't have the time to enjoy it! :P

There's nothing like being happy with what you do. Really. This is what really gives sense to the old "Money isn't everything" saying.

[henriquemaia]

Yes, I do sometimes feel that urge. But questions arouse on my mind, like "what will I do?" or "Is this serious or just being fed up with things for the moment?"

[bonzodog]

I "left it all behind" a couple of years back. I put just 2 small boxes of books and odd items in my parents garage, sold my house with ALL it's furniture and crockery etc, sold anything else I couldn't fit in a backpack, and went hitch-hiking for a year up the west coast of scotland then down the west coast of Ireland, living in a tent sometimes and othertimes renting a small room for a while.

Best thing I have EVER done. I got odd jobs as I went round to get some extra money, but reducing my wordly goods to a backpack and some clothes was a real eye-opener for me. It was the most fun I have ever had. This was only 2 years ago, and I am 33 now. I have now settled again, but live in Ireland now, and have slowly rebuilt my wordly goods, but I realised I couldn't work in IT.

I drive a van for a living, delivering bread. I love the open air and the country, am more or less my own boss (I have a boss at the depot, but speak to him maybe 10 minutes a week), and am never jealous of office bound people even when the weather is bad.
It also pays quite well, at least as well as most sysadmin jobs - I earn about 26,000 euros a year.

Wouldn't change a thing now. :D

[djsroknrol]

I threw everything away when I decided we were moving to Arizona from Los Angeles 2 1/2 years ago....cold turkey, no job and just 2K in my pocket.

I put my family thru pure hell for the first year, but I wanted a better life for my kids away from the big city scene.

My children are doing the best ever in school and my job is nothing like the middle management stuff I did in L.A. Looking back now, we don't regret making that leap of faith...

[mips]

I drive a van for a living, delivering bread.

That would drive me insane. I love the smell of fresh warm bread almost as much as the smell of freshly cut grass.

[raublekick]

this summer, before entering my 5th and hopefully(?) final year of college, i thought about this a lot. is computer science really what i want? it's not even a matter of money. i don't care about money and i don't particularly care about possestions, well, except for books and music right now. i don't plan on using my career to put me in a big house with lots of extravagances.

i've kinda come to terms that, even though computer science isn't a lofty career, it's what i chose and what i'm good at. life is a game and i'm going to play it. we're all gonna have to deal with a few years of crap to get to something good.

i realized that what i want is really retirement. i want to live like my grandparents with a modest house and a nice backyard, and a lot of free time for gardening and whatever else i want to do. but, i'm not gonna get that right now, and i can't really rely on social security to let me do that later, so i gotta deal with crap for now and hopefully get my reward later.

but, i am learning to enjoy life now, despite the fact that it isn't what i idealy want.

[drucer]

Thanks for your thoughs guys! And it's not about me being lazy. I've had this Unix sysadmin job for 8 years now and I've been anything but lazy. It's been a great job, but I'd say in last two years it has changed a lot. We're not basically allowed to do good quality job administrating our systems any more, because everything has to be done faster and faster, no matter what the quality is. This lets me down, because I want to do good quality job. It is also very rare to get any satisfaction or feeling of accomplishment nowadays even though we often work at late hours to solve some problems. The customer takes it as it would've been a simple thing if we have solved some major problem and often do not even care to thank us.

Systems are getting more complex and we have to administrate more and more systems. This means more and more tasks per day, but new guys are not hired very easily, because that would cost money.

This is all happening because companies want to please their shareholders and want to make it all happen faster and faster and cheaper and cheaper than before. Quality suffers, but what the heck! Shareholders are happy. Management does not understand the situation - they do not understand about computer stuff.

We're doing on call duty shifts.. most of the days after work I feel so stressed that I can not even pick up my guitar even though music is the most important thing in my life. I just can not do it. Might sound silly, but I'm sure some of you understand the situation. I'm just thinking about work related tasks most of the time and can not live normal life. And I'm not the only one - majority of the team members are feeling the same.

This job pays well, but it really makes me wonder if it's worth it to spend my life living this way. I've bought the guitars, amps, microphones and I've done the neccessary things to make my Linux computer a very well performing digital audio workstation so I've got all the tools to make some great music and my long time dream is true now, but what I'm lacking is just the energy to pick up the guitar and start recording because my job drains all the energy out of me.

Like I said - I find myself thinking about these things more and more every day. I should take "the leap of faith" as someone said (very good way to describe it! thanks!), but I haven't yet got the courage to do it.

--

Like someone has said (can't remember who it was) "Music was my first love and it will be my last" - that's the way it is when it comes to me.

[mips]

I think your last post summed it up pretty well.

[mips]

At the end of the day your are enriching shareholders.

When I left work I made more money investing my capital than actually working. Scary, is'nt it ?

[djsroknrol]

At the end of the day your are enriching shareholders.

When I left work I made more money investing my capital than actually working. Scary, is'nt it ?


They say that when you stop "working" is when you make money...