I’m two quarters away from either a CS or a pure math degree, so am really looking ‘job-forward’ right now. I feel I don’t fit in inside professional environments at all and it’s been a big obstacle for me in pursuing any professional type of work. Do you have any tips?<p>I took almost all my classes online, and I completely dread the formalism required vs my previous jobs (logging, construction, etc). I don’t personally know any professionals like this either. I’ve been trying to read books on identity and self esteem to grapple with these issues holding me back, but I’m having a hard time, I just feel like a fish out of water. To me it signals I need to work on myself, but I don’t know how to begin feeling ‘professional’ and not alienated. For context I run a farm by myself, I talk to maybe 6 people a month in a rural area. It’s extremely intimidating to jump into applying for programming jobs for me right now and I know my self doubt is going to shine through in any interview.
A job is something you do for money. Everyone looks like they're fitting in because they're trying to look like they fit in.<p>A job is not our natural state; hunting and gathering is our natural state. Anything beyond that is unnatural.<p>So you do what needs to be done to bring in the money to give you the freedom to do what you actually want to do. Focus on that.<p>For context I spent 5 years maintaining a small farm while working remote as a software dev. You do what you have to.<p>Also, finish your degree. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Nothing's stopping you from entering the farm automation game.
Based on what you describe, consider looking into something like consulting or freelancing.<p>You can spend most of the time on your farm.<p>You can avoid the corporate office politics and BS.<p>You can work on more casual and smaller projects in a more relaxed environment.<p>You might have a niche in a rural area such as helping other farmers get setup with selling some of their products online.