Pivoting out of tech/burnt out

I've been an SE for almost 8 years now, and briefly was in professional services for 1.5 years out of school. I've worked at 4 top tech companies in the SaaS and data infrastructure space. My current company and my last company I would say have been my "dream" companies to work for. Top in the industry and selling the exact product/platforms that I enjoy.

About 2 years into the 3 companies I've been an SE at I get bored. The job becomes easy, I still have to be constantly learning, but I put in way less effort than I did at the beginning, when I was learning the platforms. I've taken notice to this, a couple of times in the past I thought I wanted to pivot out of being an SE, but decided I would like it more at a better company selling a different platform that more so aligned with my interests. This is not the case, I just don't like sales. I get along fine with my sales rep, but I just don't like the goal of Saas sales. I never feel like I accomplish anything, my job just requires getting my customers to consume more quarter over quarter.

To me sales doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing anything, the finish line just gets moved ahead every quarter. I also don't feel I'm contributing anything to society, I'm selling software to other companies so they can accomplish and build things. For the longest time I told myself I didn't feel I needed to be satisfied by my job, I would collect a paycheck and get the satisfaction outside of work. For me personally, I no longer feel that's the case. I don't want to look back on my life, having spent most of it working from home by myself in a career I think provides little value to society. The golden handcuffs are real though, but I'm also single with no kids so I think I could swallow a pay cut. Curious to hear what others in a similar situation have done. I think I want out of tech entirely, but not sure what I'd go into, I also don't really want to go back to school. I live in DC so I'm considering public policy.

Posted Jul 21, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

10

Comments aren't archived yet

Comments for this period haven't been loaded into the archive yet.