[krasicki]

You can be even more creative than that.

Almost thirty years ago, my wife and I were in the process of adopting our two sons (now in their thirties). I had defined my career at the time as a Software engineer for hire (consultant). Technical projects, then and now, really require full attention and devotion to getting things done so I had to find a way to step out of that for a while without losing too much money or technical chops.

I found a position as a Technical Writer having Software reverse-engineering skills which was a step off of the more intense technical treadmill. Over time I found that experience complemented my original trajectory as companies are always looking for better communicators.

Given the rate of change, managing your career in consideration to your life goals is worth curating.

[woollymallard]

I just took up a position involving coding and technical writing and it's been great! I've been keeping my own tech and life blog for years and have been getting more into writing, but have been hesitant to apply for technical writer positions because I didn't want to fully give up code either. I wanted both.

So far it's been a really great balance of coding and writing, and it's been really nice to switch between modes. I'm still feeling quite stressed and time-pressured as my first two projects involved creating quite large demos in a language I hadn't used in a while (and then writing about them!), but I think I'll find a nice mental load balance there with more practice.

[claudiulodro]

Similarly, a person I know took a Customer Support role (the technical kind) for a few years as a "rest" after their startup died. It makes sense -- the technical skills help a lot with debugging issues, and support at big tech co's is fairly well-paid.

[mxuribe]

> ...I found a position as a Technical Writer...

That's quite a clever move...I would have not thought about! You got me thinking; thanks!

[deanmoriarty]

This is brilliant. How much was the pay cut, if any?

[krasicki]

Because it was a contracting gig I think it was more or less lateral. If it was less, not by much.