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Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

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Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

#181

Post by the_new_guy_29 »

nik1aa5 wrote: post #147
tudorconstantin wrote: post #89

By far, applying to work remote for a US based company 3 years ago. I am living in Romania. I still work for them. Theoretically I should be able to retire in about 5-10 years, in my mid 40s, depending on how frugal I am with my expenses. This wouldn't have been possible working for a local software company, even though I was paid about 3 times the average national income.

How did you find the vacancy? Isn't there some dedicated website for Europeans who want to work for an US company remotely?

Im also interested in this

Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

#184

Post by glogla »

yutyut wrote: post #134

I was a mid-level developer at a large software company making a very competitive salary and quit to join the U.S. Marine Corps and train to become a Naval Aviator. I'm now a 'mid-level' AH-1Z pilot. I work longer hours and have generally a lower quality of life but there's something to be said for the immensely unique things I've gotten to do and how profoundly well-rounded the entire experience has made me. I will…

Cool! Congratulations on cool job.

I'm jealous. I always wanted to do something like that, but my eyes suck.

Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

#186

Post by teknico »

vegcel wrote: post #21

A bit of an unethical life pro tip, but to lie. Lying allows you like no other skill to get a huge jumpstart in your career. I'm not talking about some basic white lie, but some Death Note-level type of deceptive schemes where you can then act on the deception. It also trains you for leadership, as deception is an incredibly important skill the higher you get. http://fortune.com/2016/06/02/lying-leadership-skills-exp…

"Thou who shalt be king hereafter, protect yourself vigorously from the Lie; the man who shall be a lie-follower, him do thou punish well, if thus thou shall think. May my country be secure!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie#In_Zoroastrianism

Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

#187

Post by qualsiasi »

tudorconstantin wrote: post #89

By far, applying to work remote for a US based company 3 years ago. I am living in Romania. I still work for them. Theoretically I should be able to retire in about 5-10 years, in my mid 40s, depending on how frugal I am with my expenses. This wouldn't have been possible working for a local software company, even though I was paid about 3 times the average national income.

Could you please tell us how you got that job? I'm constantly on the look for a full-remote job, but I find difficult to get one.

Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

#188

Post by FahadUddin92 »

malux85 wrote: post #163
FahadUddin92 wrote: post #129

I did following things that helped me grow, 1. My engineering ended in 2013. I was shit broke. I started doing online courses in 2016. Till now I have done 51 online courses in different things and just a month ago I got moved into a DevOps role (from a WordPress developer role). $0 invested in it. 2. The other best thing is growing my LinkedIn network. I grew my network from 200 people to to 15000 people (most of wh…

Hey, can you mail me (in my profile) would love to chat

Hey! Thanks. I have emailed you.

Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

#189

Post by edent »

Joining a trade union.

When I got made redundant from a very large company, they were able to secure me a severance package which I pivoted into running my own startup.

They also gave me a huge amount of training on pensions and dispute resolution, which I still use to this day.

They also helped boost my confidence in public speaking by inviting me to address a huge conference. I was a few speakers before the then Prime Minister.

Being a union member also got me face to face with several senior leaders within my industry, and with people from a wide range of backgrounds that I'd never have encountered otherwise.

Basically, for a few quid a month, I was able to completely transform my relationship with work and my peers.

Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?

#190

Post by lewisjoe »

DIVx0 wrote: post #38

Taking a chance and joining a very large corporation. Previously I was all about startups or small companies and was very much against the mega-corp environment. Over several months a colleague "recruited" me to join their team and I don't regret it. I've been able to climb pretty high within this corp and it has been a wild ride. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd have any sort of influence over techn…

I did something similar. The HN community had been pretty much my virtual mentor ever since I stumbled upon here. Consequently, I had a subconsciously ingrained aversion for BigCorps and joined a (3 person)startup right out of college.

On hindsight, I consider it a mistake. Micromanagement, lack of depth in terms of engineering & vision made me rethink my career path. Joined a BigCorp as a result and I regret not doing it early enough.

Work-life balance, clear decision makings, freedom to experiment with new tech, time to work on personal projects, financial stability and most importantly ability to bring real impact to real users – I clearly see now things that I'd have missed if I continued with that startup.

patio11 wrote a brilliant piece here regarding this, along with other awesome career advice - https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...

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