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Ask HN: What was your best career decision?

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Re: Ask HN: What was your best career decision?

#21

Post by toomuchtodo »

askafriend wrote: post #18
koolba wrote: post #2

Two fold: 1. Putting aside friends, family, and religion to focus on the task(s) at hand. 2. Saving enough "fuck you" money to be able to do whatever I want. Both are related and the former is pointless unless it's going to lead to the latter.

Good sir, please riddle us with tales of how you have discovered the serenity of "f-u" money. The foundation of this community rests on lore of "f-u" money and we simply ask that you contribute to the lore that keeps this place alive....and that keeps this place....human.

Not OP, but also have a bit of "f--- you" money.

Save diligently. I have enough cash liquid to survive for two years without any income at my current burn rate. You think you need cable TV? You don't. You think you need fancy cafe coffee? You don't. Do you carry balances on your credit cards? You don't anymore. That's a debt emergency, and you're getting out of it ASAP. The list goes on.

Save diligently, and you too can have enough money saved to be confident in your future.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best career decision?

#23

Post by coderKen »

kspaans wrote: post #16

Don't let school get in the way of your education.

This is so true right now especially for me. You sir, have a wealth of experience. I actually focused on teaching my self programming while in school and skipped a lot of classes and it paid off in the end $o much.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best career decision?

#24

Post by coderKen »

1. Focusing on my hobby which was programming while in school and skipping a lot of classes.

2. Invested a lot of my time in learning more(Data structures/algorithms, advanced JavaScript) which gave me the courage to quit my soul sucking job and helped me land a much b€tt€r one.

I'm still very young so I'm actively saving up my "F-u" money.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best career decision?

#25

Post by NetStrikeForce »

Two things:

1) Getting out of my comfort zone:

Changed job position 6 times in the last 6 years, including 2 company changes and one country change. Moved place 5 times, too.

It keeps me motivated to learn, but it also bears some frustration the first weeks after starting on a new position, so be careful with this strategy. Also, make sure the changes are promotions and/or general improvements, otherwise you might fail at job interviews due to the short time you stay at a given position. Sell it as "you'll hire me for this position and you'll be so happy with me, that you'll want to me to take on bigger challenges, creating more revenue and/or profit for your company".

2) Understand the business:

No one owes you anything, not even the company that you've worked for the last years and gave all those extra hours of work. You have to change mentality and think about how can you increase profit and/or revenue for your company. Can you improve processes? can you work smarter? Why don't you tell your boss or some other decision maker?

If you analyse your situation and you can't see how you're making money for the company, you better get ready for the worst case scenario. Some departments are seen as a cost, so the company will always be willing to reduce that cost. Can you change that perception? If you can't, again get ready for the worst case scenario.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best career decision?

#27

Post by fenier »

NetStrikeForce wrote: post #25

Two things: 1) Getting out of my comfort zone: Changed job position 6 times in the last 6 years, including 2 company changes and one country change. Moved place 5 times, too. It keeps me motivated to learn, but it also bears some frustration the first weeks after starting on a new position, so be careful with this strategy. Also, make sure the changes are promotions and/or general improvements, otherwise you might fa…

I second knowing how what you do impacts the company.

If, by changing a process you reduce a vendor's cost for 3 years consecutively, while at the same time improving throughput and make sure they realize it - that does more for you than just working and hoping they realize it.

Re: Ask HN: What was your best career decision?

#30

Post by ottocoder »

Not going to college right away after high school.

I wanted to be a trombone player in a major US symphony but realized that while I could be accepted by many good schools, I wasn't good enough to get accepted into the "greats" (e.g. Julliard, Curtis, etc). I decided instead to join the Marines and became a Marine musician (the military is one of the largest employers of musicians in the US). I am very lucky to have made that choice for a number of reasons, but ultimately it made me realize that I didn't love music as much as I thought.

The military isn't for everyone, but I recommend everyone give it some serious consideration. In addition to the altruistic reasons to join there many great benefits for when you get out. Mine include

   1) Learning my original life-plan for after high school wasn't a good fit for me (while getting paid to make that realization).

   2) Getting college paid for (with some scholarships I was able to stretch the GI bill into nearly 5 years and got a Math/CS double major.

   3) This is the big one: I live in San Diego (a "military friendly town") and having military experience won't guarantee you a job, but many employers here will at least talk to you and give you a chance to make an impression beyond your resume.
A big negative (besides the possibility of risk to life/limb/mental health) is that you give up the "traditional" college experience. It may take some extra time to find where you fit in when/if you do decide to go back to school. However, that's probably true for anybody who delays college for more than a year or two.
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