Ask HN: Which software jobs involve time outdoors?

PLC programming is quite different than traditional programming but is still mentally challenging and could easily involve time outdoors. Take a refinery for example, lots of the equipment and instrumentation you&#x27;d be programming is located outside. Even if you worked on e.g. production lines totally indoors, the production floor is very different from offices!<p>I work in industrial automation and I love how hands on it is. I&#x27;d recommend to any SWE who is bored being cooped up in an office and isn&#x27;t afraid to get a little dirty. Feel free to reach out to me if you&#x27;d liketo know more.

I run a content-based website. It doesn&#x27;t involve working outside, but it does involve working less, and from anywhere. A lot of my work can be done in a pub with a tablet.<p>Last year, it often meant working according to weather patterns, so that I could be outside on sunny days.<p>This might be an alternative way to achieve your goal.

Most jobs that are performed outdoors do not involve the level of programming skill that you can provide. Nor would the type of programming likely be that engaging for you (at least on its own). They would also likely require a lot of skills that a CS degree&#x2F;code camp never prepared you for. If your goal is to not be cooped up then go code on your porch, or in a park. Making a career out of working outdoors would probably require a career change out of straight software. Likely into a labour&#x2F;trades&#x2F;technician role. These have rather different challenges.<p>Land surveyors have to know some basic programming, but their main skillset is knowing how to survey, and being willing to walk around with their equipment all day.<p>Wildlife monitoring and Remote Sensing and GIS tend to be.... remote. Usually the equipment is satellite or set up by a park warden&#x2F;summer student who doesnt have strong programming skills. They might call a contractor if they&#x27;re having problems with it.<p>Industrial automation requires a fair bit of mechanics, circuits, hydraulics, pneumatics, a bit of basic programming and a strong aptitude for physically putting things together&#x2F;taking apart (especially in freezing mud).<p>Geology can split either way, supervising drilling can mean lots of time in a tent staring at drill core as you write the core log report on computer but you might also end up in an office downtown doing oil flow modelling based on the log, or writing a financial report based on the model. (or a mix). Same with mine engineers, petroleum engineers, civil engineers.<p>Lots of these jobs are 12 hrs a day, 10 on 10 off or 14&#x2F;14. You go to cool places but the downside is that you gotta go even if you dont want to. Your wife is due to have your first kid next week? Sucks that you got a two week shift starting tomorrow. Quick 1 day job a few hours drive from town? When an unmapped gas line gets hit it&#x27;ll be week long fiasco of overtime hell. Sent to an offshore rig near Newfoundland? Get stuck there and miss all your other flights as helicopters are grounded by a metre of snow overnight!<p>Field jobs are exciting and interesting stuff is always happening, but its usually not good news. If you&#x27;re feeling cooped up but overall enjoy software, try working from outside your house! If you&#x27;re looking to change careers, becoming a Professional Engineer could be the move. Its not a short path though, and then you&#x27;re responsible when things go wrong

Get a setup like Stephen Wolfram, and any software job can be an outside job: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;writings.stephenwolfram.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;02&#x2F;seeking-the-productive-life-some-details-of-my-personal-infrastructure&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;writings.stephenwolfram.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;02&#x2F;seeking-the-prod...</a>

Oil platform IoT stuff<p>in general security sensitive environments and everything to do with tier-1 support for military hardware<p>though you might end up marooned in barracks on an airfield in Angola or something,not sure if that counts as &quot;outdoors&quot;

I spent a good amount of time outside when I worked for an automotive company. And just a lot of time being active in general. Technically I was just a software engineer, but I was in a department of mostly mechanical engineers.<p>My days were split up by small things to do like go pickup a vehicle from a coworker. Go to the test track to collect data. Help another engineer debug a vehicle. Review functionality of a prototype with a mechanic. Etc.<p>On paper all that sounds a bit annoying, and it was some days. After changing jobs and working fully remote with covid though, I do miss having a reason to get up.

I think there would be some swe that would occasionally need to go to timber mills, mines, sea ports, air ports, oil rigs , farms etc… prob to install or troubleshoot critical systems. I doubt it would be often though.

Welllll doordash is brining back &quot;wedash&quot; [0] which means all empolyees need to complete at least one food delivery a month if that&#x27;s what you mean.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usatoday.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;money&#x2F;food&#x2F;2021&#x2F;12&#x2F;29&#x2F;doordash-food-deliveries-engineers-executives-ceo&#x2F;9045901002&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usatoday.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;money&#x2F;food&#x2F;2021&#x2F;12&#x2F;29&#x2F;doordas...</a>

Not outdoors but post COVID if you are keen on sweaty, grimy, grubby Foxconn&#x2F;HonHai factories, mystery meat delivered for lunch then <i>any</i> name brands consumer electronics(MAAGA-Netflix is out of the question) that makes doodahs is fair game. Typically these companies hire for roles such as software engineer(embedded&#x2F;manufacturing&#x2F;test). I did this once and probably not going to do it again.

Work from home on the back deck.

Get a remote job, and travel the world while you work. As long as you have a decent satellite modem, you should be able to get a decent signal even from the Alps. Camp on the Sierra Nevada while refactoring code, or climb the Andes in between performance reviews.

I can relate to the desire for being outdoors as much as possible. However, I think it&#x27;s important to remember that sometimes the weather outside can be brutal or miserable and at those times it&#x27;s nice to not be required to be outside.

IoT, of course there&#x27;s a lot of indoor development, but for example most LoRa&#x2F;LoRaWAN use cases would require field tests.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usap.gov&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usap.gov&#x2F;</a>

Could some type of GIS role adjacent to civil engineering provide opportunities to venture outside?