Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

Find a smallish company that exists for 15+ years and isn't acting like they're about to solve the biggest problem in human history or boasting about 12 gigabillion percent of growth in the last year. There are plenty of them but they easily fly under the radar, especially in older industries (real estate, newspapers, banking, &c.). You can try working for a governmental or non profit thing too

A colleague of mine is developing an internal tool nobody needs in a large IT corporation. Since it's not client facing, there's no rush from project managers. It's dragged on so long that other internal tools have already implemented most of the needed functionality - so there's no good value proposition now. The only argument keeping it alive is sunk cost fallacy. Colleague works minimal required 3 day weeks, spends maybe 2 hours in the office drinking coffee, and tells me how he enjoys life with lots of hikes and outdoor activities.

If you like tech (sw dev in particular based on the roles) enough to do it but can't motivate yourself to do it for a job, consider making it a hobby and changing careers. Don't ruin your passion by making it a chore.

Jobs that are "low effort" are rare, usually you need one of:

- time: job is time consuming (think monitoring cameras for N hours a day)

- physical: job requires physical work (think sorting boxes in a warehouse or janitorial work)

- skilled: job requires certification/skill (think electrician or engineering)

- social: job requires interacting with humans (think customer support or sales)

Depending on you skillset/preferences select one or two and search for vocations/jobs. Jobs usually have a mix of them (and there are likely some more categories). Jobs always require effort, that's why people are paying for it. If you want to reduce time look for "part time" jobs.

If you are fine with mid-low pay, take a look at jobs in public institutions (Education, Government). They tend to have rather good long term working conditions and are commonly open to people changing careers into public service.

It is against my interests to post this, but I'm slightly self-hating about my lack of work ethic so I will anyway.

I have had around 8 jobs and only one of them required a full day's work. Usually they are around 20 hour weeks, and occasionally a job has been 5 hour weeks discounting meetings. My managers usually love me and may even extoll my virtues to the team. I've spent a lot of time wondering how this is possible for me, since I'm not seeking out such jobs, and it seems unusual among my peers, so it must be at least in part what is specific to my own actions. Here's my working theory based on what I've done without meaning to.

First, work in a field that is technically easy, such as React or basic Rails CRUD. There are a lot of developers here and they are mostly terrible. Then, become extremely skilled in that field; learn every aspect of the thing beyond what is typical. Live and breath it.

Now you are by far the most skilled person most managers have ever seen for this role. Don't let them know that. When you start the job, pretend to be approximately average for the team you're on. Complete tasks in an average or slightly below average amount of time. You may be able to knock out the week's tickets on Monday (rewrite your commits before pushes each day to appear spread out).

So now you're not doing much and it's an easy job, but you're just a slightly below average employee, which isn't great. Here's the secret sauce to make your manager love you. You have more bandwidth than anyone else because you're mostly not working. You have to use this bandwidth for two things. One, if your manager asks for something, or points out an issue, you drop everything and immediately do/fix that thing. You'll be able to do it quicker than anyone and your real tasks won't suffer much. Two, in the first 6 months or so, use your extra bandwidth to do high visibility tasks that no one wants or has time to do, such as refactor a gross module, or write detailed documentation. Don't tell anyone you're going to do these, just pull them out fully completed with "I had some spare time." With those two techniques, you look like the employee that is extremely competent and on-the-ball, and you're still barely working.

The problem with this method is that it requires you to actually be highly skilled, which is not possible to fake.

Government jobs. But my experience tells me that getting away with doing nothing is very corrosive to the soul and will be regretted later.

I know someone working in Cyber Security, basically his job is to set a bunch of alerts for the client companies, all already predefined by a software, he basically sits, checks for new alerts from time to time and reports any issues, it does not require more than a 3 min investigation per alert or more work than to block the attacker IP in obvious cases.

I'm thinking of leaving my job and join the same company, it even pays decently.

Entire roles have been created for people to do this, in exchange the headcount makes your manager look more important. In tech alone there exists: product managers, scrum masters, middle managers of all kinds.

If you want to stay in tech, look for roles that can be filled by someone who doesn't know how to build or sell the product. Every business has to deal with supply and demand, the further you are from those things, the more likely the job is bullshit, and not doing it will be unnoticeable.

Do what you love; you'll never work another day in your life.

I don't know if you have dependents; that personal fact alone would make a big difference in what you can and should do.

But if you are free to choose, find or expand upon what you enjoy doing, and do it and keep doing it until you're satisfied that you're the best you can be. Whether you're hand-carving figurines (or making any kind of art), exploring the world (or leading local tourist hikes), or hacking the perfect free tier prompt and creating software filters that blow our minds, you can do what you want, and you will, if you focus on what you love to do anyway.

If you would do it even if/when no one pays you, you may have found your way.

> im not challenged well in my job

A leap of faith (in yourself) is often needed; a drastic change in environment can become necessary. Either challenge yourself to squeeze all the skill-growth-juice out of your current position, or go a step further and take all your time back, for an investment in yourself, where you find what you love to do and spend all your time doing it, even if you're not getting paid for a while.

Defense industry. You get paid reasonably well to work at the pace of your government customers, who are almost never in a hurry.

I suppose I am on a similar boat wrt job satisfaction and the direction things have gone and are going in this industry. I am also one step ahead of you, from the sound of it, in a job that doesn't require me to devote my life to it and gives me time for personal projects, gym, and just figuring out shit in life. This is not to boast, but to give you a heads-up: I haven't figured out much of anything just yet, and I am not strictly sure my current position is significantly better than what was before it. Perhaps slightly better, with more time to think, and having somewhat detached myself emotionally from the job. Which is to say, if you can take a break altogether with somebody else supporting you financially, I'd do that and really consider things as an "outsider" to your own life. Also talk to people to get more perspective. Otherwise, I think I concur with the other suggestions given here.

State schools is what you want. Strict 9-5, no overtime, no expectations, insane bureaucracy that makes everything slow down to a crawl. You can spend years there without doing anything at all.

Would not hire someone like you.

The right question you should ask is, is the 8hrs work day plus endless meetings most companies embrace killing workers morale and productivity.

Its your responsibility to commit to your craft when you sign that contract, period

Find a role at a large "non-tech" comapny in a large department on a mid sized team. I had several jobs like that and the amount of effort required in the average day was minimal. Probably less than an hour a day of actual meaningful work. You'll hate your job but it's extremely easy and pays decent.

Scrum Master or Project Manager. However, I'd assume in the current market these jobs are not easy to find.

I can understand you are like this. Just be upfront about it during interviews. You might be surprised there are companies which are absolutely fine with that.

I'm on the other end, I do think your life should revolve around the thing that you are doing 8+ hours a day. I currently have colleagues which are the same like you and it feels I have to pull them through the mud. Just be upfront about it and find a good fit ( I too should find a better fit 8) )

This accurately describes many tech jobs outside of FAANG or the startup scene. Lay low, close your tickets, and invest aggressively into the S&P 500. You'll be done in about 12 years. Most you'll need to worry about are fudging annual "goals" that have nothing to do with the actual work.

Really this sounds like apathy and disillusionment with the state of the mainstream, a sentiment i understand perfectly. I would encourage you to consider web contracting for local businesses or communities you're a part of. You'll have to take ownership of what you do and care about it, but consider that will be much easier to do when you actually do value what you're a part of and what you're doing. When it's not making gambling apps, slop generators, or DRM for juice presses, you might be surprised at how your outlook on work changes.

Working on the tech department of a big slow non-tech corporation, like a railroad or a bank or something. Make a low end software engineer salary, ime little pressure to overachieve or work extra hours, usually have an excuse to delay stuff (waiting on another department, bureaucracy, etc). I've found those jobs pretty low pressure without a ton of actual work to do.

I've been working part-time for two years, works great for me! It's not easy to negotiate—and not with every company—but feasible.

Maybe tech isn't the thing? For making money without too much real work, landlording can be good.

I would aim... Away from the glare of the software world.

There are plenty of smallish companies that just bob along. If you pinch your nose for long enough you quickly become indispensable, and your productivity will rarely be very challenged.

But... Be aware. "Bullshit jobs" can be enjoyed only by the right mind. Most people find them miserable anyway, it doesn't really matter if they are easy, or low effort. (This means also that I disagree with recommending to become Project or Product Manager - when those roles are properly useless... They are also soul crushing, with layers of stress on top)

I had one of these. Comfortable income; not big tech but well over USA median. Remote. Put in 5-15 hours a week.

Strongly recommend against it.

What I would recommend instead is have a hard look at what's causing pain in your current situation. Try and get as concrete as possible. Try going one level deeper from 'world is hyper capitalistic' to what hurts. When I talk to people that express similar views there is usually some other deep hurt that is going unaddressed. ie 'im not being valued for my work', 'I have a deep fear I will not be able to provide or be valued', 'I like tech, but the current structure of tech employers doesnt fit well with me(weird noises in offices are deeply uncomfortable)' etc.

It's almost counterintuitive but 60 hard hours / week at something you enjoy and thrive in will be easier and feel better like 5 hours at something you hate. Most everyone has a desire to feel valued and needed, so look for what that can be for you. Note prestige of impact != internal satisfaction. If you enjoy serving tea, then doing that for little money (and lots of time) will feel better in the long run than doing a few hours of tech work you despise.

Also... strongly recommend tuning out from the internet / news / social media. Sensationalist headlines can obscure our felt experience of life.

Reading between the lines of your post, Im not sure if what you want is a job with low hours or to solve your deep unhappiness? If I told you I had a job that paid well but you would still be happy would you take it?

Literally any job in big tech

Haha I have the same feeling and goal, my friend.

20 years in this field, I’ve done a lot, I’ve learned a lot, but I haven’t given a real shit about the career part in half a decade now. Since early 2025 I have gone all in downsizing my life so I do not have to put up with this nonsense to have a roof over my head. I don’t care about AI, about cloud, about navigating the job market which has been utterly broken the past 5 years, React, Kubernetes. Right now I am being paid a lot to write software for a megacorp, that gets scrapped 6 months later without ever seeing production, without anyone appreciating the effort that went into it. Endless meeting, ever-changing specs that I somehow deliver on time because I am decent at this career, yet it’s all for naught. It’s so fucking soul crushing I want out.

I have gone from needing 4 grand/month to survive in London, to savings all I can so I can buy the cheapest house in a cheap country in mainland Europe, and live with 1/10th the cost. Then I can dedicate my time doing what I truly love (research into OS dev and language design), dedicating 3 months a year to prostit^Wselling myself cheaply as a consultant to fill the coffers again. Maybe my cost of living will be so small I can survive doing open source.

I can’t remember being this excited about not having to have a real job any more, especially not in software engineering.

Here is the advice for you, so obvious in hindsight, no one really pays attention to it: the difference between poverty and wealth is spending less than you earn. That’s literally all there is to it. Want to work less? Spend less. Move to a lower cost of living part of the world.

"Part-time" is the keyword you are looking for. Besides coding, if you want to get into bullshit jobs, become an agile coach, scrum master, product owner, etc...

Government-related jobs.

I feel exactly the same as you my friend.

<3

webcam/drugselling if IT-related, pentesting if the real IT.

Please note that if you have a job in which you're mostly idle, it will break your soul. I lost almost all of my initiative for more than a decade after my stint as a very under-worked system administrator.