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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?

#261

Post by TheArcane »

RealityVoid wrote: post #255
TheArcane wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work with mobile robotics and machine learning. I wonder if it's too niche for it to enable me to comfortably start contracting instead of jumping from one permanent role to another.

Mobile robotics sounds so cool. But looking around it seems most jobs are concentrated in a couple of locations and the rest of the world seems to be a desert. Just curious where are you located and how is the mobile robotics scene over there?

Montreal. I work with autonomous driving currently, but I agree that jobs in my field are restricted to barely half a dozen cities in 4 countries.

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

#263

Post by meu5 »

Started working less. It forced me to manage my time more efficiently with the result of being more productive and happy in the end.

The second best thing that helped me being happy is just doing what I like. Whenever I see an improvement, technical or business related, I start making a plan to improve it and start talking with co-workers/clients about this. This resulted in me having better relationships at work and just doing what I like instead of building (/programming) something someone else came up with. I really like to be in control of whatever I'm doing. Still in my early twenties and trying to figure things out.

Any advice?

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

#264

Post by Dowwie »

gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #88

tl;dr survivor bias

Sure, and not just survivor bias but creative rationalizing after the moment passed. We put a positive spin on bad decisions or situational decisions beyond one's control. No one can deny doing this but can at least try to be honest about how much control one had.

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

#265

Post by rsrx »

Buying one way ticket to Thailand, leaving Eastern Europe and becoming a digital nomad when I was 24. I'm 29 now and looking to make a home base somewhere in Europe after 5 years of traveling, but the personal growth, people I've met and experiences during this time were invaluable.

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

#266

Post by uxcolumbo »

gadders wrote: post #223

1) Working in Investment Banking - the salaries are significantly higher than you can get anywhere else, at least for the UK 2) Starting contracting - Higher salary, greater variety of roles/projects etc etc.

Are you worried about Brexit - IBs potentially leaving the UK if passporting rights are lost?

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

#267

Post by peteridah »

expathacker wrote: post #235

Emotionally detaching. I was a workaholic from age 16 until 33 and this was my primary identity. I used to always be proud of the work I did, no matter how lame the company or how many times I was screwed over. Then one day my father died, and I was fired from a company who I truly believed in and for whom I had sacrificed. This sounds cynical, but it's really peaceful. With the emotional energy and sheer time saved…

This resonates with me so much. I am currently trying to do the same.

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

#268

Post by laingc »

I wrote a doctorate in Applied Mathematics. The process totally transformed how I think about problems, helped me develop a lot more mathematical maturity, and got me my first job in a then obscure field called "machine learning".

It's certainly not the right choice for many people, but it was for me.

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

#269

Post by kestrelhawk »

DerekQ wrote: post #240
golergka wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does sound like an ideal career path to me – I'm one of those people who gets bored with everything far too quickly. What's your tech stack and how did you make the switch?

C#/.Net. Dev jobs in Ireland are predominantly corporate enterprise software — very few start-ups. This means Java, .Net and front end Javascript roles are most common. I actually landed my first .Net contract after a 10 year career as a C++ developer and learned on the job. There’s an idea out there that contractors need to be expert or top rung developers, but this is not true. You can learn on the job and usually…

I'm also in Ireland and I've also found that a majority of jobs are as you say -- Java, .NET and frontend roles. I work primarily with PHP (three years industry experience) but there are only a fraction of positions available for it and so I've been tempted to step in to contracting, especially as the idea of working more independently really appeals to me.

I have the same assumption in that I've always seen it as a pipe-dream at the moment and that I'll need another five years plus and additional languages under my belt before I'm worthy of even considering contracting, so it's refreshing to hear that this is not the case! I'd be interested in hearing more about your experience in making that step to contracting, and how you felt yourself 'ready' for it.

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

#270

Post by [deleted] »

DerekQ wrote: post #203

Moving from permanent to contractor. I made the jump 5 years ago and have worked for a number of companies since, on 6-12 month contracts. The money has jumped each time, such that I’m on what I consider to be silly money now for the job I do — Ireland, not US. The work is always interesting for at least 6 months and I learn a ton of new stuff with every contract, much of which I use when building my own products (Do…

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