Stop
Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#32There are definitely other roles than webdev out there.
Some examples:
https://oxide.computer/careers
https://latacora.github.io/careers/
https://fly.io/blog/fly-io-is-hiring-rust-developers/
https://www.nccgroupplc.com/careers/
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#33I want to thank everyone for their comments. I'm a long-time and avid Hacker News reader and this was my first real post I guess. The community here is really solid and is largely what got me hooked on programming. All your responses -- from don't give up on web dev totally because it can open doors, to try embedded software (I hadn't even heard of the term until today) -- have given me so much to think about. Thanks…
That’s awesome. Godspeed!
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#34App development is a different beast. You get the same joy of building stuff, and it's often the same stuff as web. iOS is simpler, not necessarily easier. I've always enjoyed Android though, as it's low level enough that you're messing with the OS and threads but you're not messing with CSS and browser stuff.
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#35I'm surprised there are not many answers pushing you to learn embedded software. I have never had a primarily web development role (my early roles had some web dev for embedded front-ends, but not consumer web). It is a wonderful field where you can really make am impact. Currently I work on medical robotics. Embedded software is a wide field too - you can learn operating systems, drivers, low level embedded, communi…
> learn embedded software.
Make sure you know what you're getting into, and what areas pay well.
Embedded has a terrible reputation for underpaying (even in the US) or breaking into the industry, with similar issues to game dev.
Most of the articles written by apparently successful embedded software engineers are actually ... successful electronics engineers, who were then asked to do the project software too.
Having said that, I guess if you follow kickstarters, you might be able to cold call those projects if you know your stuff.
Source: I have done embedded software before.
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#36Forget about the technology. What are you interested in? Why do you want to "break into software engineering"?
Is Blockchain or Crypto of interest? Go for Solidity. Do you want to code for embedded hardware? C++ (or you can start with Arduino or something and work your way up). AI Data-rangling and ML/AI? Python is a good place to start.
Rather than pick the technology, focus on what you want to do.
The nice thing about starting with web dev is that it's a nice starting point. You can build an interface and get people playing with it, and enjoy that process. Then you can build a back-end and learn what that's all about. You can keep adding areas that interest you.
You're not going to get into Software Engineering without knowing how to code first, which means you've got your own path to create. I did it, but that was back in the day when you could just open the console and often play with the little bit of JS that was on the page. It was much easier to understand what was happening back then.
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#37Come work in Visual Effects!
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#38OP is asking about how to avoid web dev but 3/4 of the comments are recommending different types of web dev.
I think they want to learn more about the world of mobile apps, desktop software, graphics, games, embedded systems, ai, audio processing, etc
In games, the pay sucks and you should avoid it. It can be lucrative for founders however, it’s just the employees who lose out
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#39I want to thank everyone for their comments. I'm a long-time and avid Hacker News reader and this was my first real post I guess. The community here is really solid and is largely what got me hooked on programming. All your responses -- from don't give up on web dev totally because it can open doors, to try embedded software (I hadn't even heard of the term until today) -- have given me so much to think about. Thanks…
When in-person events open up, look to see if there is a makerspace near you. Sometimes hardware problems are better solved with someone nearby as a sounding board.
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#40I'm surprised there are not many answers pushing you to learn embedded software. I have never had a primarily web development role (my early roles had some web dev for embedded front-ends, but not consumer web). It is a wonderful field where you can really make am impact. Currently I work on medical robotics. Embedded software is a wide field too - you can learn operating systems, drivers, low level embedded, communi…
Probably because it's specialized enough that the available positions tend to be for experienced people, or those with degrees in related technical fields like EE. I've been primarily an embedded developer for the majority of my 25+ years in the software field with occasional forays into desktop, web and app development. The only newbie devs I've seen doing low-level MCU development already had backgrounds in EE or C…
On a related note, I get the idea that a lot of the companies working on embedded products have a culture where that degree is valued regardless of whether you can do the work or not.
Additionally, I very rarely see roles in that area listed that someone from another fields could “break into”. Often they’re looking for someone who has significant domain experience, and by domain experience I don’t just mean my embedded software in general, but experience around the actual product target business itself (medical devices, cellular networks, whatever).
For example I looked at a job near working working on integrating 5G chipsets into boards. The work was relatively high level (you weren’t designing the 5G stack or anything, maybe at most writing some modem drivers) but they were looking for people who from that domain and had experience with all sorts of strange proprietary Qualcomm crap.