This is a question I’ve been thinking about for quite a few. I’m currently studying Computer Science, and personally I choose this major because it aligned with my talents and interests, however after 2 years of college its very apparent that I don’t relate to or even like the majority of my peers in this field, in fact most of my friends study Biology or something.
The problem is with this annoying rat racey mentality and obsession with money. Everyone wants to work in California, almost everyone is in the field to maximize their earning potential. And ideas like the “only purpose of college is to land a job,” “less time to eat = more time to work” (many of my peers eat 1-2 meals a day), and behaviors like sucking up to people with better connections/coops or remodeling your entire personality towards company values, or doxing your interviewer in advance to pretend to have common interests to increase their chances of landing a job offer are not only prevalent but seen as normal.
Problem is, I don’t want to live in California, that place’s cultural runs completely against my beliefs. I don’t want to sacrifice all my time and life/hobbies/friends for work. And I want to make friends with normal, chill people, and not a bunch of insecure pretentious assholes, which I now fear every high paying tech area in the US will be chock full of.
I’m curious if there are places in the global south where I can pursue a fulfilling career in my field. Income is not an issue, at this point I care about quality of life significantly more. I’ve been eyeing Shenzhen for a while, although China’s 996 culture also seems to be a little worrying and Shenzhen’s cost of living is quite high as well. I wanted to get some input on this issue from individuals who have a more open mind about non-western countries.
This is my first post in Lemmygrad btw, sorry if it’s in the wrong place.
Edit: Thanks for all the responses everyone! I really appreciate the advice and just general reassurance, especially at the existence of non-liberal subcultures even in the bay area. I’ll keep in mind that the world is bigger than just 1 university campus, and I’ll be open to exploring new opportunities and finding my own niche.
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If you don’t care about the fluff that goes along with college like the other courses and sportsball, you can pretty much get the same experience learning to program from an online boot camp, a study and practice routine that you can stick to and a bit of discipline.
There are a few dozen online courses on Udemy and similar that will run you through the fundamentals, and you can often grab them for free or maybe bundled for cheap. YouTube is ironically a good source for a bunch of free tutorials from independent content creators that work in the field as well.
I really wish I would have gone this route because I wouldn’t be in nearly as much debt as I am now, and honestly I barely learned shit in school expect how much capitalism sucks. I took some econ and history classes that I really enjoyed lol.
Pick a language that interests you and start looking for courses if you are interested in it. After fundamentals just start writing stuff that helps you solve problems and start working on small projects.
I live in the town that my company is in but we still do WFH because my boss is a really chill dude. So something else to consider is that WFH isn’t really going anywhere. If you land a good job and the powers that be are ok with it, you might be able to go work in a GS country. I have a co-worker that up and moved halfway across the country and I’ve worked from out of state for a week. Don’t limit yourself to being stuck here if you don’t have to and definitely don’t limit yourself to thinking you need an expensive degree. Especially if you have a knack for code.