Optimizing software dev career for free time, not seniority/money

Post date: 2021-03-02 09:54:47

I have a senior developer title now, but I feel out of my depth, and I don't have enough free time or energy to spend with my family, or to pursue personal projects. I would like to work 40 hours (or less?) every week (or almost every week). Pay cut/losing seniority OK. Difficulty: Full-stack web developer, USA.

Several replies in this Reddit thread suggest looking not at tech companies, but in the tech departments of companies in other industries (hotels, insurance, etc). I'd be curious whether anyone agrees or disagrees with that assessment.

But I assume I'll need to switch languages to have more options. Ruby on Rails (the only framework in which I have recent experience) seems to mainly be used in the startup world (which is notoriously bad for WLB). This blog post indicates that Python is going to have the widest pool of jobs to select from. (Seems important if I need to job hop to find the right fit.) Again, counterpoints welcome.

Snowflakes: I have 4 years web dev experience (Ruby), 3 years in a software developer trainer-type job, and 7 years with non-customer-facing enterprise development (not-at-all-modern Java). I am 45 years old. I am self-taught and have no college degree. I've held only fully-remote jobs since 2012.

Since all my recent professional experience is in Ruby, what are the best ways to convince a shop working in another language to take me on? Open-source contributions? Portfolio projects? Certification? Accepting a cut in pay/seniority to learn on the job (and would employers look askance at this)?

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