Switch to managing other programmers, switch to a PM role if you don't mind sitting in meetings all day, take night classes and then switch to being a tech-savvy sales/marketing guy, or take up a life of crime.

Boy do I know how you feel, DSGamer. If you ever do decide on taking up a life of crime, let me know. We can start by holding my manager hostage for ransom.

Oh, I know that deep down. It's just a little scary when you realize that you're in a very specific field and you'd be basically starting from scratch. Giving up a high salary to jump off a cliff and not know what's below.

I plan to. Actually, my wife and I talked about this more last night and I am going to start with networking some. I played college football. So I have plenty of friends who are either coaching or working as asst. coaches. My former high school coach is an AD and my best friend from high school is a basketball coach. So there are people I can talk to about what it's like, maybe doing it part time and how to get into that. So that's indeed where I'll start.

Actually the "laugh if you want" part had more to do with the fact that I don't exactly write prose when I post on the boards here. I can write, though.

Another option is to switch sectors. I work in higher education, and personally I cannot possibly imagine working for a typical 'business'. It just isn't me - never has been and never will be. I love the culture in academia, the interesting people & happenings. On top of that, as a programmer I get to work on smaller projects that are more interesting & experimental than what I believe I'd be working on in a large corporate shop.

I know this environment isn't for everyone, but just thought I'd toss that out.

A friend of mine in IT just did exactly that. He went from the corporate environment to working for a University. He loves it now.

I had a very similar experience. I was a programmer/systems analyst for about 8 years. I got a degree in business and self taught myself COBOL. I got an internship with a local (Tampa Bay) company and turned it into a programming job. Over the next few years I followed the twists and turns of the industry and became a web developer for a while and then ended up in data warehousing. All the while I just became less and less interested in programming and computers in general. I worked in several sectors, financial, retail, drugs, etc. My last job I was a systems analyst with a big 3 accounting firm. I had a huge salary and all the benefits you could dream of. I was allowed to work from home one day a week, it was a fantastic job with fantastic people. But I was miserable.

I couldn't sleep, I would sleep too much. I wouldn't eat, then too much. My emotions were on a roller coaster. I was unhappy, the wife was unhappy. Despite having a cake job, I felt stressed all the time. On top of it all I was starting to do a poor job at work. I just didn't care. So I became a police officer.

Obviously there is a lot more to the story, but I won't bore you with the details. What worked for me won't necessarily work for anyone else. But I think the saying is true, "If you love what you do you will never work a day in your life". I wish I hadn't waited so long.

I hear the same kind of complaints a lot. People don't know what they want to do, but they know they aren't doing it. I guess I was lucky, in that I had some idea.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to being PAID to learn to shoot an AR-15 rifle.

Sounds like classic burnout to me. I hit the wall a few years ago and I'm still recovering. Here are a few points that I realized during my own struggle:

1. There are a TON of jobs out there for people who know what they're doing with technology.

2. You can't change the culture where you work. If they lionize 'cowboys' who work 60+ hours a week, there isn't much you can do about it but find another job.

3. If you're working more than 40 hours a week, management has failed. If this consistently happens, it won't ever change.

4. I know it sucks, but start to play the dreaded game of workplace politics. If you're working 60+ hours a week, make damn sure everyone knows about it. Approach it like any other engineering problem - determine what the requirements are and exceed them in the most efficient way possible. Some suggestions:

Pick a crucial piece of technology you can become a Subject Matter Expert in. SMEs tend to get much better treatment. You seem to have been chasing the 'new hotness' for most of your career, but that will always be there - maybe it's time you found a niche.

Fight for yourself in all those damn meetings where work is portioned out. To paraphrase Sun Tzu:

I ended up finding a new job with a company where work-life balance is emphasized. I went from dreading work to looking forward to it each day.

Hey! I resemble that remark!! But seriously. While I haven't done SW development my entire career I have stayed in the computer field. So when I first started it was as desktop support. Which gave me an opportunity to learn networks and servers. Then I began to dabble in SW development ala VB which landed me my first real "programming job". Then I transitioned to entrepreneur mode as I used my skills as a consultant and then opened my own LAN Gaming center which I closed last year. Now I am doing web development for a corporation. Each phase lasted about 5 - 7 years before I started going crazy and had to make a change. I figure I have about 2-3 more years before the madness returns.

My guess is you are at that stage. This is a time of soul searching and asking yourself what you want to do when you grow up. I still ask myself that question at least twice a week. Some aptitude testing could reveal some hidden desires but the key is to ask your self "What do I like doing?"

Find out what you like spending 8-10 hours a day doing and find a way to get paid for it! What I want to do next is code games. But I'm afraid coding games may not be as much fun as playing them!

Where can I sign up for HIS job?? Oh wait.... been there ... done that ... got the discharge! Sigh.

Had a good meeting with my boss. He's going to talk to his boss about getting me severed with a solid package. We'll see. Can I still post here if I'm unemployed?

Have you considered corporate insurance? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Wordsmythe.

In honesty, I think you're getting to the point where you should be looking to advance to something like project management if you want to stay in your field. Otherwise, you might like a calmer atmosphere like a university or in-house tech at some 9-5.

I met a gentleman a few years ago by the name of Paul Kramer. He had worked his way from the age of 18 way way back in the 70's assembling HP computers, taught himself how to program, and spent time with the group that developed Sun Microsystem's Solaris-- or so we heard.

He had dropped out of programming for a bit to save his sanity.
He worked at a small cigar shop for a pithy wage, smoked between golf trips he could barely afford and generally just got his sanity back. When he finally decided to get back into the field the reading he had to do just to catch up after a year outside the field was incredible. He went back into the valley just as crazy as he was when he left it, but at least a bit more resolved about the insanity of punching code.
Thank god I'm not a programmer I think my skull would cave in.

Maybe you should take a break, drink some beer in Mexico, drop out into something more conducive to your mental state for a while. Do whatever you have to do! Just don't end up a savage lunatic babbling Python or Linux in Golden Gate Park, that would be far too much fun for everyone here to watch but not very helpful for your sanity. I suggest playing soccer, or something physically active. Anything that gets you away from these infernal machines for a time.

Be sure to do your homework if you're switching fields entirely; my school is full of people who enrolled because they wanted a "change", and they love watching the Food Network. Now, $20k in tuition later, they're discovering that being a chef tends to have worse pay, hours, and a harder lifestyle than the fields they left.

On the other hand, I work with a guy who left his $60k gig with Homeland Security to make $13 an hour at a hotel, and he loves it. So it depends on what you want.

I've hesitated posting in here. DS, your post is drawing freaky similarities to my own life right now. Maybe it's an early 30's IT thing? I'm not a programmer, because I can't stand the "tediousness" of it. Apologies (and more power) to those who can, but I can't write or look at code all day. Of course, as a sysadmin, I spend plenty of time looking through text configuration files. Go figure. The demands and progressions are somewhat similar. I also fell into it as a "backup career".

My wife has been using the term "restless".

I'm tired of reading certification material, product manuals, etc. in my spare time. I'm tired of always leaving work late, and checking the BlackBerry every time it buzzes on my hip. I'm tired of the 3AM phone calls for really stupid sh*t. I'm, well, tired.

I started to go back to school at night for a degree. Any degree would do really. I started in accounting, until I realized that I hated accounting. Then work changed my schedule and squashed it anyway. In my short time though, I was introduced to a wonderful economics professor. I started reading, and reading, and reading some more. Blogs, textbooks, trade rags, whatever I could get my hands on. After a while, I realized I was attacking microeconomics with the same passion I used to hit technical books. My current plan is now to go back and finish up that degree, but in economics. Unfortunately, school doesn't pay the bills. Still trying to figure out how to make it happen, while maintaining my sanity. I think it's going to involve selling the house and moving wherever my wife wants to attend grad school.

Sorry I don't have any advice for you, because I'm stuck there with you right now. I suppose I just hope that knowing you're not alone provides a small amount of comfort and perspective.

Did you all get that TPS report?

It may sound a little cliche', but you could always go get your MBA then buy a sports car - works for a lot of my friends.