[planert41]

Don't overlook boring non-tech companies as well. I've noticed non-tech companies starting to (almost indiscriminately) hire tech people to upgrade their outdated tech stack. They might pay a little below market, but they are also more forgiving/desperate.

Another is to reach out to old friends from college, or try to search for alumni. Alumni from the college you dropped out of are likely more sympathetic than the others.

FD: Just got a tech job at an insurance company. So speaking from exp.

[avgDev]

I just want to add that I went this route straight out of school. I work at a manufacturing company. It can get tough sometimes as there is almost 0 infrastructure to support development. However, in the almost 2 years I was here we completely revamped the process, previously the company used consultants and one our apps is spaghetti code.

Pros: very laid back, your work will significantly impact day to day of other employees ,You will probably get to decide what framework to use and when to move to new tech ,You will build/debug/maintain

Cons: only few people will understand your struggles(I actually plan on using discord to have people to bounce ideas off and just be a part of dev community) ,often you need to wear different hats ,management may have a hard time understanding that sometimes the simplest things can take days.

As far as pay goes, some non-tech are actually pretty competitive in my area. Also, I interviewed at one of the largest auto auction companies, got an offer but weirdly the CTO told me that the grass is always greener on the other side, as I was telling him I'm thinking to switch to a larger team and a more structured environment, that is way I was considering the move.

[sergiotapia]

My chillest job ever was writing code at a non-tech company. It's exactly as you described. Very rewarding when you can impact your entire team with well placed solutions.