Hi, I'm 27 years old and I'm a software developer at a particularly toxic family-run software company, and I absolutely want to make a change.

I'm also trying to graduate. I'm halfway through and I think it'll take me several more years.

My goals, which are mutually exclusive, are to earn enough to move out on my own, graduate, and travel the world since I've barely left my hometown and I'm almost 30. My past life choices have led me to not being the person I wish I was

My concerns are:

  • Should I look for a part-time job so I can have more time to study even though I'm close to being 30?

  • Should I look for a remote job so I can travel in the meantime?

  • Should I join a consulting firm (e.g. Accenture) to expand my skills since they're very demanding, or should I join a firm focused on a single product to continue on the knowledge I have (.Net) even if it's not very specialized?

I'd be very grateful to anyone who can guide me...

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[–] 6 points 9 months ago (1 child)

By graduate, I'm assuming undergrad?

I'm in my 40s and I'll try to contextualize my advice.

  • College degrees are all but unnecessary at this point. If you are taking college courses paid for by your company, I'd keep going but if you are paying out of pocket, I'd really wonder if it's worth it. If you are only a few credits shy, it might be worth it to continue.
  • Money buys happiness. I hate that it does and I hate the state of our late-stage capitalism but you can't do much if you don't have money unless you're willing to significantly lower your standard of living. Maybe you're willing to. I wasn't. That said, you can travel but finding a remote job that allows you to work anywhere can be extremely challenging. I just wrapped up my job search and every interview I got was for a remote job except two. I got an offer for a remote job as well as an on-site job and ended up taking the on-site job because the salary and benefits were much better. I'm not going to tell you what to do because it really depends on your priorities but if I were in your shoes, I'd rather focus on building savings and then spend that savings to travel than try to travel and work at the same time.
  • It's hard to answer your question regarding where to take your career. I'd say it's better to expand your skills since you never know what's going to be in demand when you job search next. AI is the hotness right now but most of my interviews have been in the DevOps space.
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