CoastFI career options for Software Engineer

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Currently working at a Big Tech company, I’m intrigued by the idea of CoastFI. Namely, getting back time for myself and family by reducing the work load/stress. Working part-time at my current company is virtually non-existent (although, technically possible). And, even if approved, it may, at the end of the day, lead to more stress for less pay. Therefore, collecting feedback for other options.

According to my understanding, the low-stress option that many tech folks choose in the US is military. Not sure if it’s the same here (is it?).

Talking to Swiss people around me, it seems that a teacher’s career is quite nice (lots of holidays, easy to go part-time). I like teaching, but I’m not sure that I want to do another Masters for it (is it always required?).

I must say it’s a very exploratory idea, so any thoughts on the topic are welcome.

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If you’re ok with the lower salary, a standard IT job, 9 to 5 is probably low stress (and I assume they’d be ok with part time). Might feel a bit boring tho depending on the place (I feel like there’s quite a bit more initiative in US-style tech).

Otherwise maybe lower stress team at your current company?

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Go consulting/freelancing and command your own hours?

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For teaching, I believe it’s a two-year degree if you already have a master.
While the work conditions are pretty chill generally, with good salaries especially for Sec I/II, handling teenagers is not for everyone. I know someone who did the reconversion, all the trainings, … But they only lasted a few days once they were in front of a class for real.

Maths and CS has a lot of demand, and part time is very easy to get. Usually it’s even pretty much impossible to get full time as a beginner anyway.

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And delusional parents.

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What’s a “standard it job”? From what I see around me, jobs at smaller companies come with less pay, but not necessarily other benefits.

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Isn’t 9-5, pull tickets off a queue, detach at end of day, style IT jobs more common in more traditional companies? (not even necessarily smaller)

(that said, part-time or at least no overtime should also be doable in bigtech, though with less upward mobility for most people who do that – but some still manage to move upwards)

edit: really depends what you’re after in any case :slight_smile:

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I will second that.
In Romandie, it could be link to industries.
You should avoid financial/banking/trading sectors and aim for IT in public sector like public transport TPG, energy supplier with SIG and state administration.
I have this feedback from friends that work in those sectors. Sometimes you can do 7-3pm.

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Thanks. Does 9-5 or 7-3 mean no lunch break? Or less than 40h work week at 100% FTE?

What kind of job is it? Does it have creative aspect / involve problem solving? Or more like maintenance?

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It is for 100% FTE, I guess it is more a 45 minutes lunch break than a 2h for sport activity. You should finish at 6pm if you are doing this kind of measure break.
It can be anything from SharePoint t development, C#/Java development, solution anrchitect SAP even project management.

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Thanks. I didn’t know less than 40h per week existed in Switzerland. But, yeah, the nature of work day to day needs further research.

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I would challenge these assumptions. Has anybody done it at your company? If so, it can be done again.

Part-time + BigTech combination is in my mind a really good arrangement and the compensation / WLB combo cannot be easily beaten.

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I agree. Even if they haven’t, just try if you feel like it and can afford it. That’s the whole point of FIRE, having fu money and all those terms, isn’t it?

At first, your peers may laugh condescendingly and your manager is skeptical, at best. But there’s a chance you get it approved, nevertheless, and it works out just fine.
There’s even a chance that the same people will follow suit a few years later and enjoy their life.

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In my compagny, part Time is usually restricted for pregnant/young mom with 80% ratio.
However, one colleague was done with the job and resigned and instead managed to negotiate a 60% rate which he find good for the long term. However he cannot do remote days anymore.

So I believe you can negotiate if you are ready to go.

I find it hard to implement as a manager if your team is working 100%.

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Yes, it’s been done at the company. Not sure about the exact organizational unit, there might be more local policies in place. I’ll find out soon(ish).

My main worry though is that the workload would not scale accordingly. First, we don’t really track time, so scaling down is a non-trivial exercise for managers in terms of setting expectations and stack-ranking. And, second, we don’t have a strict top down culture, so there’s a constant amount of time one needs to spend to just not lag behind. Now, the first concern motivates to go to 60% or lower to make a clear distinction from 100%. The second one motivates to go to 90% :slight_smile:

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I’ve been working 80% in a similar environment, and for me, it just worked. I’ve never run into any issues with it. I work kind of regular hours, I have 1 day off per week, and I never do any work on the day off. I had multiple managers, and I haven’t felt once, that they would expect more than an 80% workload from me.

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I wonder how does 80% work, when you have regular unpaid overtime?

Say you have a contracted 35 hours per week, but in reality, you work 50 hours a week. If you then go to 80%, do you go down to 40 hours per week, or 28 hours per week?

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I’ve worked both at a ‘Magnificent Seven’ company in Switzerland and also in the Swiss Public Sector.

Public sector: Super chill when you’re used to Big Tech. It’s hard to keep up in Big Tech and suddenly that falls away and everything seems so easy. People are more human too. My recommendation for this route is freelancing. I earned significantly more than the employees but didn’t work more. In fact, I had a 4 day work week with a 5 day salary. It was chill and well paid that way.

Big Tech: I worked for one of the biggest one’s and I had a colleague that did strictly 9-5. Still advanced the ranks, just took more time. For myself I decided on some measures tor my long term sanity that I can recommend if you stay there:

a) Build your boundaries. This means learn to say ‘no’ to assignments and become protective of your time. There’s a book by ‘nedra glover tawwab’ on this and I can also recommend looking up a coach for some practical training. Helped me a ton to regulate things like work hours, acceptable meeting times etc.

b) I decided against 80% part time for the same worry as you mentioned: You have less time but the same workload will try to creep up on you. Then you need to be even stronger with the boundaries and that is already tough with 100% time in those environments. Instead, you could opt to lower your performance intentionally and get comfortable missing some expectations and strategically dissapointing some people. If you have home office, this can buy you family time. In any case it can buy you a more relaxed work reality. Perhaps something like Mark Manson’s well known book might help you build that mindset.
If you’re good at it - failing with the less important assignments while still acing the top priorities - you might not even need to sacrifice career progression so much.

Just my few cents from personal experience. HTH.

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In such situations i am told by colleagues at 80% that the first port of call is to stick with 100% but assert firmer boundaries on your time to mean that you are actually working 100% rather than 120%.

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Thanks for sharing. Did I get it right that you work(ed) for the government as a freelancer? How does it work?