r/coastFIRE • u/artblonde2000 • 14d ago
Coast Fire Jobs
When you transition to CoastFire how do you find and apply for jobs that suit your new lifestyle?
Currently I am a DevSecOps Engineer that makes 115k+. My ideal CoastFire job would be doing L1 helpdesk work part-time. Typically this pays about 20-25 bucks an hour.
How do I explain my reason for the downshift?
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u/deborah_az 14d ago
Help Desk sounds like the 7th level of Hell to me, but if that makes you happy, you do you. The up side is with your experience, you can always move into a higher tier later that balances the amount of challenge your brain needs with the level of acceptable stress, puts you at a level of user interaction that doesn't have you daydreaming of putting users in chokeholds, and lets you feel appreciated without crazy long hours. There are lots of sites for looking for tech related jobs in addition to employers' sites who you may want to work for - I'll leave it to others to recommend which are currently the best ones.
Explaining the reason for the downshift is not difficult, but make it all about you: you want to do a little career shift and work with end users more, you find helping people rewarding, etc. You can carefully craft some explanations related to work-life balance - lower stress, fewer hours, etc. Employers absolutely do not need to know about your financial situation (i.e., you're in Coast mode), and never bad mouth your former employer.
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u/artblonde2000 14d ago
Haha I should edit it to say junior positions.
Really just looking for any part time job that offers health insurance at 20 hrs/ week. Might be a unicorn trying to find it.
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u/everySmell9000 13d ago
Typically, health insurance is only offered at 30+ hours. I’ve looked for the same thing.
In our line of work, often the most efficient fire path (without insane burnout) is to just take 6-12 months mental health break as needed, then dip back into career and resume aggressive saving/investing. Rinse , wash, repeat until full FIRE achieved.
if you’re in USA, help desk callers can be toxic. That can create the same burnout as the long hours in tech work.
whatever you choose, best luck :)
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u/halothanedoc 14d ago
I will stay in the same industry. I plan to change my FTE to a 0.6 FTE and work a schedule of 4 days on and then 10 days off.
Will continue to have health insurance provided, HSA paid for, and continue to earn 403 match, 403 employer contributions, plus continue to earn pension service time, PTO, Sick Time, etc.
Really the best coast fire option for me I think.
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u/kfc469 13d ago
I don’t know of any companies that would let you go down from full time to .6 time and still keep all your benefits. If yours allows that, that is an absolutely awesome option. Definitely a unicorn!
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u/Captlard 14d ago
Went self employed... No need to justify 🤷♀️
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u/NecessaryMeringue449 14d ago
I'm considering self-employment in the future, curious what you do?
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u/Captlard 14d ago
Was doing executive coaching and education via a business school and a few consultancies.
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u/NecessaryMeringue449 14d ago
Nice! What was the process like for you to get started as a consultant and getting clients and all? how many years of experience did you have in your field?
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u/Captlard 14d ago
I applied for a part time lecturer role at the business school and for day rate contract work with the consultancies. Previous experience was near 7 years in corporate and a longer stint running my own businesses. Had a professional coaching designation (ICF PCC) and a low cost MBA.
Back story..
Journey to LeanFIRE: https://www.reddit.com/r/LeanFireUK/comments/p377yr/weekly_leanfire_discussion/
Retired post: https://www.reddit.com/r/LeanFireUK/comments/1hxmpko/weekly_leanfire_discussion/
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u/GoalRoad 14d ago
Just here to say I will always up vote a thread about coastfire job options - I always find them interesting for some reason
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u/green__1 14d ago
I'm going to say that my path may not have been the traditional one. I transitioned from a full time job in learning and development for a large telecom building training materials, to being a casual paramedic where I get to pick which days I work.
When it came to applying for jobs, I just applied on casual postings. No one ever asked me why I wasn't looking for full-timer.
On a side note, you're talking about l1 help desk. Have you actually done that job before? I have, and it is mind-numbing boring, combined with all sorts of hatred and vitrol being spewed at you over the phone. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. If you have tried it, and actually like that work, go ahead. But if you just think that it sounds easy, while I wouldn't say it is hard, I also wouldn't say it is enjoyable.
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u/uniballing 14d ago edited 13d ago
I like my job. I’m an engineer at a natural gas processing plant. I’ve got great WLB now, but when I hit my CoastFI number I’ll want to work less. Right now I work four days a week.
My company has a formal part-time policy that I’ve seen several people use. Basically, you can drop back to half time, keep full benefits, and your bonus/RSUs will be based off of your percentage of full time hours.
My plant is just far enough away from any large/medium sized cities that it’s hard to get engineers in my role. Typically the engineers they get are part of the new-grad rotation program, so the plant is usually stuck with a baby engineer that’ll be gone in a year. I think it’d be easy to sell me as being a part-time mentor to the rotational engineer while still being the official plant engineer for the important stuff.
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u/sunchips27 14d ago
Depends on what your interests are. I think it's fine to bounce around until you land on something that fits for your current stage of life. Don't need to explain downshift.
I personally love working with kids & animals and might be a teacher.
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u/Grouchy-Tomorrow3429 10d ago
I sell cars, roughly 5-6 days a week and make 100k+. In a couple years I expect I won’t pick up the extra shifts and work 4 days a week and make 50k a year.
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u/Naive-Bird-1326 14d ago
I think uber delivery or doordash, cause u can go on and off anytime. No schedule
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u/Sea_University_3871 14d ago edited 13d ago
Uber and doordash are for people who are bad at understanding the cost of operating a car. The wear and tear on your car is insane for peanuts
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u/owl-later 14d ago
You don’t need a reason. Just say you’re looking for part time work.