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AdamH12113 parent
If you're willing to leave Silicon Valley, there are a lot of small companies out there that need one or two or a handful of decent software developers to do useful but non-cutting-edge work. They can't pay Silicon Valley money, obviously, but you get to be a lot closer to other kinds of work, which you might find satisfying in its own way.
eikenberry
How do you find these positions?
scarface_74
There are around 3 million software developers in the US, most working for regular old enterprise companies in most major metropolitan areas in the US. All of the job boards have openings for those positions.

I spent my entire career from 1996-2020 working locally in Atlanta - 7 jobs in all - until my last three jobs that have been remote.

eikenberry
Which job boards? Monster is out of business and Indeed is so flooded with garbage that it is mostly useless.
bluefirebrand
I would also like to know

I've never worked in Silicon Valley but every company I've worked for is infected with Silicon Valley brainrot

dehugger
Look for large companies dealing in physical goods. I work on warehouse software for a company selling motorcycle helmets and bbqs. Its a great intersection of tech and industry.
bluefirebrand
That's pretty cool. I would expect most of that sort of company to be buying off the shelf products these days but I guess some still roll their own

Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate that you took the time to do that. Very kind of you

dehugger
Once you hit scale there are very few off the shelf solutions. Every major application is going to have some degree of customization involved.

Personally, I maintain a legacy codebase of a propietary application running several distribution centers. New feature requests, bug fixes, integrations, ever-changing business requirements mean its worth having staff on payroll to do it, as the contractor costs to do so are exorbitant.

netbioserror
I work at exactly one of these companies. It's been thoroughly refreshing, picking my tools and language, being able to defend my choices and help make new ones, have ownership of my part of the product, and see that all bear fruit going from a product that was on fire and mired in tech debt when I got there, to a smoothly running machine with my code at its heart now.

They definitely can't pay inflated Silicon Valley salaries, but I'm also at much less risk of getting that pink slip when some far-off executive decides I'm extraneous. I'm two hops from the company CEO, and even though I haven't met him, he's quite aware of my contribution and has requested projects for my skillset. I have direct lines to most of the executive engineers. That's gratifying.

MongooseStudios
I actually specifically look for those smaller companies. I don't live in Silicon Valley, nor have I ever made Silicon Valley money. I've never wanted to live there and I haven't wanted to work for FAANG since Google did away with "don't be evil."

If you happen to know where they are posting jobs, aside from the normal terrible job sites because I've been on them since November, I'm interested.

AdamH12113 OP
I wish I had something more specific for you, but my experience is more on the demand-adjacent side (as an EE) rather than directly on the software side. The companies I've worked at have posted on the regular job sites but mainly worked through recruiters. Companies do often post announcements on their LinkedIn, if they have one.

I share your frustration with the fad-driven, cramming-AI-into-everything, rent-seeking model of modern software, and I wish you luck in your search.

MongooseStudios
No LinkedIn, I couldn't take another "this is what appendicitis taught me about B2B sales" post. But I bothered all the recruiters I know and fed my resume into the paper shredder of all the companies candidate portal early on.

I suspect all those great little companies are either laying low or staffed up with the glut of ex-<prestigious name> devs. Or the huge pool of ex federal employees who have lots of experience in "legacy" systems.

scarface_74
Well, you can either be righteous with your pride or go on LinkedIn where the jknd snd recruiters are.
Animats
Here's a typical job in that category. Boring but practical Chicago Dryer.[1]

    Industrial Controls Engineer
    Chicago Dryer
    Chicago, IL

    $80,000 to $110,000 Yearly
    Vision, Medical, Dental, Paid Time Off, Life Insurance, Retirement
    Full-Time

    5+ years of experience in controls & software engineering
    High-level knowledge of one or more programming languages (C, Pascal(structured-text))
    Familiarity with Windows, Linux & Realtime operating systems
    Familiarity with electrical codes for industrial machinery
    Electrical design & CAD experience for automation-controls
    Solid knowledge of classical-physics (mechanics & motion)
    Mechanical aptitude and ability to work with hand tools
    Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
    Ability to work well with personnel at all levels
    Beckhoff TwinCat3 experience is a plus
    Jira and GIT experience is a plus
    Electronics design & trouble-shooting is a plus
Leader in the heavy machinery that takes clean linen items after washing and dries, sorts, folds, and stacks them by the ton. There are vision systems and robotic grippers involved. They've been in business for over a century, building heavy duty laundry equipment. It's a very steady business. Probably good job security. The startups making all the noise in clothes folding, such as Foldimate and Laundroid, went bust. Chicago Dryer equipment processed a few tons of laundry while you were reading this.

That's what a blue-collar programming job looks like. But it will be a very clean blue collar.

[1] https://www.ziprecruiter.com/c/Chicago-Dryer/Job/Industrial-...

MongooseStudios
How strict is something like that on the demands for CAD and Electrical Design stuff? Because I've never done any of that. I'd be happy to learn it, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore.
AnimalMuppet
Wisdom in the past was, if you have half of it, apply, because it's always a wish list. I don't know if that still applies, though,

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