I started consulting. Now it would be really hard to go back to doing a single aspect when as a consultant, I get to do many (GUI/computer vision/graphics/embedded).
Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#12Realizing the amount of value you can create as a programmer working for a company is an eye-opener.
I've worked at a startup making millions of dollar in revenue every quarter. Realized that I was just making someone else rich and got paid in pennies. Quit the job and took the plunge.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#13I’m trying to find a job right now and it isn’t going well. I have my PhD in computer science and I’ve run my own bootstraped company before and took it to over a million in profit for a couple years. I want to find a job as a engineering manager or something similar, but the feedback I’m getting is I don’t have enough corporate experience for that type of job, because I’ve just been doing my own thing for so long. I…
What a curious career! Trades in general, and plumbing in particular, seem pretty lucrative, particularly where I am (Sydney - we've had a crazy property and construction boom). And the path to small business ownership is fairly well trodden.
I'd say most 'entrepreneurs' are probably in trades, we just don't just that word for some reason.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#14I started consulting. Now it would be really hard to go back to doing a single aspect when as a consultant, I get to do many (GUI/computer vision/graphics/embedded).
What sort of customers? That's a similar set of skills to me, but I am struggling to see a path to consulting.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#15I'm starting my own software consulting business. I only have about 1.5 years of experience (full time), mainly self taught. I just recently started to go look for clients and realizing that after learning programming, now I have to learn sales, lol.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#16I’m trying to find a job right now and it isn’t going well. I have my PhD in computer science and I’ve run my own bootstraped company before and took it to over a million in profit for a couple years. I want to find a job as a engineering manager or something similar, but the feedback I’m getting is I don’t have enough corporate experience for that type of job, because I’ve just been doing my own thing for so long. I…
What a curious career! Trades in general, and plumbing in particular, seem pretty lucrative, particularly where I am (Sydney - we've had a crazy property and construction boom). And the path to small business ownership is fairly well trodden. I'd say most 'entrepreneurs' are probably in trades, we just don't just that word for some reason.
Nowadays trades are lucrative everywhere.
The existent low competition is mind boggling but the career change is not that easy for people coming from intelectual challenging careers. It feels like a 'downgrade'. For the typical HNer selling is the only challenge there.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#17I am thinking about it a lot lately. I have worked with a high growth startup (outside SV) for 2 years. And another year with a SV based but slightly less growth startup in early stage. Last year I emigrated to EU for a new job. After few months I din't like the job. I stared looking for a new job and I am getting lowball offers from everywhere. I am thinking if it makes more sense to start my own business instead of finding that perfect job.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#18I worked in construction for 20 years. I thought I was doing the right thing by going back to college to advance my career but it didn't work out like that.
I only got half-way on my route to becoming a surveyor since I simply could not afford the time away from work. So I found myself in a situation where I was better qualified than my boss but not so well qualified that there were many alternatives other than looking for similar work elsewhere.
By then, at the age of 40, I was, in the eyes of potential employers, over qualified for the roles I was applying for or just too old. So I gave up.
After a spell of unemployment while tinkering around with different ideas I fell into web development and started earning a bit of money. I figured I may as well pursue this since there wasn't anyone around at the time to tell me not to. After struggling for a few years I got to the stage where I was earning as much as I was in my previous career so stuck with it.
Some years later I have a lifestyle business that enables me to travel whenever and wherever I like and work whatever hours I want to (within reason). I don't earn a huge amount of money but I do earn enough to live on and save for my retirement.
I'm reasonably happy with the way things worked out.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#19I started consulting. Now it would be really hard to go back to doing a single aspect when as a consultant, I get to do many (GUI/computer vision/graphics/embedded).
What sort of customers? That's a similar set of skills to me, but I am struggling to see a path to consulting.
Small companies and a couple of big ones.
The golf ball vision project was a small company, like 6 people. Another vision one is for a tiny medical startup. The laser product was for a large company. I’d worked for the director like 10 years earlier. The radar graphics is for a medium (50?) sized company.
3drocketsurgery.com
I get the gigs mostly through friends.
Re: Ask HN: Have you started a business because nobody wanted to hire you?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a curious career! Trades in general, and plumbing in particular, seem pretty lucrative, particularly where I am (Sydney - we've had a crazy property and construction boom). And the path to small business ownership is fairly well trodden. I'd say most 'entrepreneurs' are probably in trades, we just don't just that word for some reason.
Nowadays trades are lucrative everywhere. The existent low competition is mind boggling but the career change is not that easy for people coming from intelectual challenging careers. It feels like a 'downgrade'. For the typical HNer selling is the only challenge there.
It's funny it feels like a 'downgrade' as it is more lucrative. It is also really fun. You feel like a superhero when you show up at peoples house and rescue them from their problem (which if you are a plumber is often serious). I also noticed that we did a fair bit of almost counseling when we showed up at peoples houses, which also felt great. It got me out of the house and meeting people. To me it seems like a good noble career.
And let's not forget what Einstein said.. "If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances."