I had to do something completely different. I drove a city bus for a year. It was a very rewarding experience because I learned about the struggles people have and how to be good to them no matter how annoying they were. Coding was fun again when I started back up.
That is really cool! I'm excited because I did similar and figured it was unusual. Would be very curious to hear more.
Myself after burning out from software, I spent a while working for Door dash and Uber, as well as a brief stint driving an NYC yellow taxi. Being able earn money without having to use and squeze allthe jucie out of my conscious mind so much all the time really helped.
It was also really interesting (I eventually got to have fun making spreadsheets to computer optimal strategies and stuff-- quite a lot of strategy involved in doing gig driving jobs really, your wage can be very different depending on your choices and insight into the local market)..... and honestly kind of chastening and disturbing, being on the "other side" of an app. When you work a gig app job, the app is your boss, and he's a shitty boss. A bug is just another jira ticket to a Dev but to an Uber driver a bug can mean losing significant revenue with no recourse and no human to persuade of anything. Such as an order just getting stuck and the app won't let you finish it or take another one and there's a long line for support. So now your shift is involuntarily over and, if it's the busiest part of day or week, you won't get that chance again for a few days. Permanently lost revenue.
Anyway, for a burntout software engineer I can't recommend this staretgy more. Just get a random job that does not involve staring at a computer and does not require a lot of education.
