Ask HN: Where to go from here?  Or, I need out of govet contracting
Hello HN community,

I apologize if this has been addressed before on HN, I'm still scowering the posts via google but I desperately needed to get this up to start the conversation. Apologies for the long post..

About 3 or so months ago I woke up and decided I needed to get out of my current career sector (government contracting - I'm in the Wash DC and surrounding metro areas). For me, the day to day of government contracting has become unbearable. Now I know there are a lot of people in the US hurting right now as far as jobs are concerned, and I don't want to come off as whiny so apologies and I will try to stick to my specific issues. But I think that is part of my disatisfaction as well.

I've been working full time (more or less) as a programmer since 1997. Part of that time was while I was a full time college student, then later during the .com run up I bailed on college for a higher salary. I have since returned and received my BSc and I will complete my MS in comp sci this fall. For most of that time I have been working as a government contractor for various agencies. I also did about 4 years at two private companies - one a product company, and one a services-based company. Well, when I say two private companies, what I really mean is non-government contracting. I currently and always have worked for private companies, not as a government employee.

The allure of government contracting can be strong. I was able to obtain a sought after security clearance. While "even Wayne Gretzky was traded," I have no doubt I could quit my job tomorrow and have multiple offers in a few days. I make a great salary and have great benefits (at least I think so). I never work overtime and my hours are flexible. But the work is killing me.

The emphasis on the "billable hour" is relentless (see: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=650691). Not to mention that probably about 50% of my coworkers are apathetic and are simply putting in the motions day to day - a strong job market (for us) coupled with very little accountability from their parent companies ("..as long as you are billable!") contributes to this situation. It is not uncommon for me to see coworkers doing sudoku puzzles, talking for all hours while doing no real work, or even clipping their finger nails in their cubicles (!). That last one may not be specific to govt contracting..but you get the idea. I know people who will be in that arena for life. Good for them, they are taking care of their families, etc, but I don't want to work a job simply because it is damn near recession proof!

I've decided I want out. I think I have a lot to offer the private sector - I'm intelligent, I understand the theory of computing (some of it, I think!), and I have an aptitude for picking up new tech and thinking through problems. But I'm not sure where or how to start the transition.

I just turned 30, and while I have been somewhat following the non-Microsoft tech scene, I do not claim to be an expert (most of my career has centered around msft technologies). I look at job postings for companies I have identified as being "in" the area I want to be involved with (I call this the "HN arena") and I see things like: Rails, nginx, NoSQL, memcached, etc as some examples. I have no doubt I can learn these new technologies (new for me!) with some competency, and some I have been following for a while but never got around to working with (Rails, for example). And I know that tools don't necessarily make the man. But that is just a small list of some cool stuff I'd like to work with.

I know I learn best by doing, not reading a ton of books. My initial plan is to build up some self-made projects, learn the tech, and begin doing more complex things on my own. Posting code where I can, showing what I can do via github (actually I use mercurial, but you get the idea). I'm not going to up and quit my job right now, but I'd like to begin a learning plan.

So, where do I go from here? Any and all advice is appreciated. Some postings I plan on reading today at lunch:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1830872
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=650437 (I'm not 40, but the title got me)

Thanks for your time. If you know of any gems posted here on HN, I'd love a link.

Thanks.