Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#21

Post by Absolute0 » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 4:49 AM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #18

I fully appreciate you have a language barrier, and have considered that when reading your post; maybe I'm wrong but my first impression is that you are yet another young uni student with a big ego, no notable accomplishments, and absolute certainty of greatness and success. > Here is my case: 1: I am 22 years and 3 weeks old > by the time I graduate I would still be 22 years and 11 months old Why are you so concerne…

I agree I sound like someone big ego. However all I state in this post are my expectation, probably I will fail or die tomorrow while crossing the road. yet till now setting highest expectations has worked for me.

Scared of Doing PhD: The scare is due to the bureaucracy involved + unbreakable commitment for four years. One of My best friend got 3rd [last] option as his advisor, which means he will have to work for four years with him. Also being an alien student complicates the matter, you just cant say bye after an M.S. degree. That is my source of fear and not the research it self.

Regarding Solving problem: Sorry but In fact I was talking about people who are naturally drawn to programming the true and best top coders who love to code. [I am not that kind] When I said I wanted to solve problems, I meant that I started with Matlab to perform computation, When I realized its shortcoming, then I moved on to Python and onwards. Thus my drive for coding is generated by problem at hand. The Way i look at it Programming is a tool but not a pastime, As far as websites. I created a small webapp which was part of my project on Google App Engine few months after it was introduce. Thus i mean no slight to the coders.

Regarding the Greed Part, to be honest yes; I do feel a need for Monetary success. But I have met few Analyst and People who work in strategy or product development. And looking at their work I feel that they are much better suited at making significant decisions. A Startup provides similar opportunity, but again being an Alien student it is difficult to participate in the experience.

Regarding the MBA: An Intern from a One of the best business schools works along me at my current internship. When I look at the job she has been assigned. I realize that MBA is essential for getting those kinds of responsibilities. E.g. My current work might increase profits by [Best case - Impossible] few percents but her work could open a completely new segment. Now this is possible by gaining experience in a field yet it takes several years and significant office politics is involved.

Regarding the Quant job, it is a last as well as completely unrealistic option.

Thanks again for your comments.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#22

Post by Absolute0 » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 4:56 AM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #20

Absolute0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks Regarding laundry list of jobs: I dont think there is anything wrong in determining what I feel is the best suited job for me (based on my current self (mis-)appreciation. Plus never have I stated in my post that I am Good enough to become a Google Engineer or FB Engineer. [I just mention it is really hard] Finally Open Source is a good alternative to display your capabilities. But the fields in which I curren…

These days, if all you have to show is good grades, I don't think you're going to achieve the immediate success you are seeking. You see, as the parent post stated, there are young kids who are knocking balls out of the park, so to speak, in the actual real world of open source. These are the people you are competing against. If it is your perfect marks in school vs someone that is pumping out good code on a real-wor…

Again you miss my point. Consider Machine Learning. There is an amazing open source software called as WEKA. however contributing to WEKA isn't as much significant as say presenting a significant work in ICML or NIPS or writing a paper in JMLR.

Open Source is amazing for programmers, but for someone who wants to develop say a novel recommendation system or special Computer Vision algorithm. Open Source participation is secondary. Also in many case ML algorithms tend to be trivial in their implementation.

Also my time is limited, I could try getting involved in Weka and implement recently discovered algorithms in it Or I can read papers, explore different datasets and try to come up with new ideas. Second case makes more sense to me.

All I am saying is that it makes more sense for me to display my capabilities in developing better algorithms rather than ironing out their implementations.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#23

Post by starkfist » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 5:00 AM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #20

Absolute0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks Regarding laundry list of jobs: I dont think there is anything wrong in determining what I feel is the best suited job for me (based on my current self (mis-)appreciation. Plus never have I stated in my post that I am Good enough to become a Google Engineer or FB Engineer. [I just mention it is really hard] Finally Open Source is a good alternative to display your capabilities. But the fields in which I curren…

These days, if all you have to show is good grades, I don't think you're going to achieve the immediate success you are seeking. You see, as the parent post stated, there are young kids who are knocking balls out of the park, so to speak, in the actual real world of open source. These are the people you are competing against. If it is your perfect marks in school vs someone that is pumping out good code on a real-wor…

Well, if his dream really is to work for McKinsey, he's right... they care more about grades then they do about open source contributions. However, given his preferred career path I don't know why he's studying computer science at all. He should be studying economics and finance.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#24

Post by Absolute0 » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 5:22 AM UTC

starkfist wrote: post #23

mistermann wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days, if all you have to show is good grades, I don't think you're going to achieve the immediate success you are seeking. You see, as the parent post stated, there are young kids who are knocking balls out of the park, so to speak, in the actual real world of open source. These are the people you are competing against. If it is your perfect marks in school vs someone that is pumping out good code on a real-wor…

Well, if his dream really is to work for McKinsey, he's right... they care more about grades then they do about open source contributions. However, given his preferred career path I don't know why he's studying computer science at all. He should be studying economics and finance.

Thats exactly my problem, I cant start studying economics and finance right away due to financial/immigration reasons. Additionally I do believe I have acquired some skills over last few years in specific areas within cs. I am trying to explore option which would allow me apply those skills for next few years after which I can join a good business school. Certain jobs [Including startup] tend to be favorable if one is planning for business school later in life. I am trying to find those options.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#25

Post by xel02 » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 5:55 AM UTC

Reading your responses below it sounds like you want to work on interesting problems that have a quick turnaround in terms of real-life implementation.

I'm in a similar situation and I'm looking into doing a graduate degree in Operations Research (OR) or Industrial Engineering, which is usually offered either in Business schools or Engineering schools. You essentially do research on solving real-world problems with quantitative methods.

Many of the OR graduates (even those with PhD's) end up not in academia but in business. If you have more questions feel free to email me.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#26

Post by Absolute0 » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 6:03 AM UTC

xel02 wrote: post #25

Reading your responses below it sounds like you want to work on interesting problems that have a quick turnaround in terms of real-life implementation. I'm in a similar situation and I'm looking into doing a graduate degree in Operations Research (OR) or Industrial Engineering, which is usually offered either in Business schools or Engineering schools. You essentially do research on solving real-world problems with q…

An interesting option is MBA-PhD in OR from Stern NYU. Which is something i am seriously considering. I have looked at a profile of a guy there who did MS CS. Worked for topcoder or did research about it. And now studies in Stern. This could be the golden mean which i seem to be looking for.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#27

Post by Absolute0 » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 6:05 AM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #18

I fully appreciate you have a language barrier, and have considered that when reading your post; maybe I'm wrong but my first impression is that you are yet another young uni student with a big ego, no notable accomplishments, and absolute certainty of greatness and success. > Here is my case: 1: I am 22 years and 3 weeks old > by the time I graduate I would still be 22 years and 11 months old Why are you so concerne…

Here is a recent post by someone else on HN http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1467116

To quote that guy """

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely listen to the Merlin Mann/John Gruber talk. I agree that money doesn't come without producing value first. I guess I was just a confused engineer frustrated at the slow growth rate rather than thinking about the value I can produce. """

And he works in an Top SF company probably Google/FB etc! I am realizing the same thing before and trying to design an appropriate career path.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#28

Post by mistermann » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 7:10 AM UTC

Absolute0 wrote: post #21

mistermann wrote: post #18

I fully appreciate you have a language barrier, and have considered that when reading your post; maybe I'm wrong but my first impression is that you are yet another young uni student with a big ego, no notable accomplishments, and absolute certainty of greatness and success. > Here is my case: 1: I am 22 years and 3 weeks old > by the time I graduate I would still be 22 years and 11 months old Why are you so concerne…

I agree I sound like someone big ego. However all I state in this post are my expectation, probably I will fail or die tomorrow while crossing the road. yet till now setting highest expectations has worked for me. Scared of Doing PhD: The scare is due to the bureaucracy involved + unbreakable commitment for four years. One of My best friend got 3rd [last] option as his advisor, which means he will have to work for fo…

I've got to say, you are truly a unique guy, I really hope you stick around here and give us updates on your progress.

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#29

Post by kunjaan » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 8:54 AM UTC

Absolute0 wrote: post #6

karanbhangui wrote: post #4

Are you doing your masters at georgia tech, doing your internship at Yahoo! and an indian from IIT?

No. I am from India, though not from IIT. Yet my undergrad school was very specialized and as good as IIT [in that subject alone though].

I don't understand the secrecy. What stops you from telling us you undergrad school?

Re: Ask HN: Requesting HN'ers to give me Career advice

#30

Post by ig1 » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 10:25 AM UTC

starkfist wrote: post #23

mistermann wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days, if all you have to show is good grades, I don't think you're going to achieve the immediate success you are seeking. You see, as the parent post stated, there are young kids who are knocking balls out of the park, so to speak, in the actual real world of open source. These are the people you are competing against. If it is your perfect marks in school vs someone that is pumping out good code on a real-wor…

Well, if his dream really is to work for McKinsey, he's right... they care more about grades then they do about open source contributions. However, given his preferred career path I don't know why he's studying computer science at all. He should be studying economics and finance.

McKinsey/BCG/etc don't just hire "economics and finance" students (neither do the banks), that's just an urban myth. CS is fine for both, you do need relevant work experience + a good uni though.