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Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

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451–460 of 881 posts

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#453

Interesting timing. I'm quitting my development job at the end of the month and going back to school full-time to become a furniture maker. I have a lot of reasons for wanting to do this. The most straightforward ones are that I want to create something tangible and enduring with my time.

> The most straightforward ones are that I want to create something tangible and enduring with my time. Maybe not tangible, but a lot of the backend code in financial organizations etc. is pretty enduring ;)

"Enduring" is quite a nice way to decribe "old and too risky to replace". ¬_¬

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#456
post #264

I would love to get into structural engineering. I just can't justify the cost of school, and the end salaries are not even going to be better than a software developer's. Or maybe be an auto mechanic. Or a woodworker/metal worker/welder. Or a farmer (seriously). Part of me wants to embrace the city and "book" knowledge to further my career, and part of me wants to abandon it and go back to a rural life and just make…

Same. I'm a software engineer who's been going down the metal fab/welder pathway for the last 1.5 years. It's highly rewarding, but also the overhead continues to grow and grow. Probably because the scale continues to grow as well.

I need to be happy making small physical things instead of huge physical things... http://www.breefield.com/projects/prodigal-swan

I've also looked into the timeline involved in becoming a PE. Not only do you have to take 6 years of school but you have to work under a PE for 2 years to become one. The pay doesn't seem to justify that much training (considering my anecdotal interest in the field).

Call me new-school, but I continue to enjoy working on systems that can't kill or maim people.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#457
Chocolatier. Nearly went into it before taking this job, but the numbers didn't add up and wanted to try a different city. Whenever I've had a hard day I was wonder what if... It's easy and therapeutic, and a great conversation starter. A few examples http://stevefarnworth.com/channel/taste

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#459
post #309
post #88

I'd open a bar/pub with good cask ale and decent electronic music. Actually whenever I get too stressed out at work I consider doing this, I've got the necessary capital and in a city like Oslo where people don't care about beer prices it can surely be made into a profitable thing.

https://www.jwz.org/about.html

I'm not sure if you linked to the right page / responded to the correct comment?

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#460
Travel writer/photographer: I travel enough for pleasure as it is, I could probably do this as a side gig, but doing it full time would be interesting.

Indy rapper: My favorite artists are all YouTube stars (Futuristic, Devon Terrell, Kyle KiD), and I have some talent for music and I've been freestyle rapping in my car for decades. I could bring a unique perspective to rap as a black software engineer turned rapper (from python to gettin my rhyme on?).

Motivational speaker: My first career was teaching so I have experience with public speaking. Specifically I'd like to create a series of seminars that teach people how to negotiate pay raises. I'm horrified when I hear about people who don't negotiate, or accept 3% raises. I have averaged an 20% increase annually over the past 10 years and I think I can teach others to do the same.

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