Audio engineer or full-time musician.
Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
551–560 of 881 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#552A USATF certified coach, probably focusing on distance running with one-on-one training for adults. There are apps with algorithms that create personalized training programs for things like marathons and 1/2s but they aren't there yet. Plus, nothing is like in person human interaction for on the fly adjustments to training and for motivation.
http://www.usatf.org/Resources-for---/Coaches/Coaching-Educa...
OR
Somehow get into climate science. I almost went to school for meteorology in the early 00s but on a tour of a college atmospheric sciences department when I was 17 an old professor told me it was a hard career to get into with very limited job prospects. :(
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#553Woodworker. From running two small ecommerce companies I think I've learned enough about MVP, shipping, inventory management, etc. From 25 years as a software engineer I've learned about building tools to automate steps. I'd pick some "hard to find / expensive niche (e.g. Greene and Greene, Art Nouveau, etc.), but offer repeatable designs, not do custom work. That would allow for lots of jigs, fixtures, using cheap m…
Manufacturing of any kind is as competitive as hell. Certainly it is possible to succeed there, but I think many manufacturers are already far ahead of the average software shop in terms of automation.
High quality and custom made stuff are always hard to find.
You normally can't build a big business on any of those niches, but it may be enough to sustain a single-person shop.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#554I have a few options/dreams. 1. Become a musician. I love all kinds of music and drums/percussion in particular. On the side, I'm working my way to being able to play drums+timbales for Cuban timba music. I've only been doing this for about a year and think I have a talent for it. 2. Go into criminology and/or politics. Crime is one of the biggest problems in Venezuela, with murder and kidnappings at all time highs,…
Re:2, I've know people who work for the police in the Uk, and from the stories I've heard, the police have absolutely no respect for any civilian's opinion. Statistician telling cops they're spending all their resources on the wrong thing? Got facts and figures to show that throwing more uniforms at a problem won't help? They won't listen and then will tell you that you don't understand policing.
Well, I wouldn't expect to walk in there and tell everyone what to do. I'd have to do my research first, i.e. study criminology, learn about the field, work with them.
But yes, it would be hard regardless. That's ok.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#555Music Typesetting. I've published a book and have been involved with a few related projects. I do pretty good work here. It pains me showing up to rehearsal and seeing poor quality sheet music on my stand. It's worse when these mistakes cause stoppage during rehearsals--usually easy mistakes that the person creating the end product could have fixed saving rehearsal time.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#556A truck (lorry) driver ideally in the states. I found something oddly relaxing about driving, full throttle, 18 wheeler down the road through Rocky Mountains or Alps. I actually have lorry driving licence (C class here in EU), I need only one class higher (C+E) to drive a proper 18 wheeler.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#557interior design
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#558I do exactly that as a break from my other businesses of lighting and network installation. Mining is awesome stuff. You get outdoors, you see awesome views, you can go it solo or with friends, and if you use your brain a little bit, you can make some serious cash in a short period of time. There are tons of BLM lands with abandoned claims just waiting for someone to re-register the claim and open it back up, or land…
How does one go about re-registering abandoned claims?
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#559Something that doesn't have a process or technique. Something that can be done out of my heart.
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Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#560Interesting 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.
Congrats, that sounds awesome! What are the economics of that business like? I love woodworking (as a hobbyist) but it seems like most people that manage to make a living at it are doing so through volume (e.g., cabinetmakers) vs. something like custom fine furniture commission work.
Thanks! This is going to sound absurdly short-sighted, but I haven't yet figured out exactly how I'm going to parlay my to-be acquired skills into income.
I've talked to a number of people who are professional woodworkers, and they all make their living a little differently. One guy I've talked to does primarily architectural woodwork, but also does furniture commissions, a couple people do repair and restoration in addition to commissions. A guy not far from my sister-in-law's house does a lot of clock restoration (both cases and movements), as well as furniture work. Pete Galbert seems to make a living largely doing Windsor chairs on commission and teaching classes on making them (and he's an outstanding teacher). He also wrote a series of blog posts about doing woodworking professionally [0].
The school I'll be attending is the Furniture Institute of Massachusetts[1]. The owner, Phillip Lowe, does restoration and commission work as well as teaching classes, and I'm hoping to learn a little bit about how he goes about drumming up business in the course of my schooling there.
In the short term, after finishing, I'm hoping to find either a cooperative shop or an established business to work in for a few years, eventually, I'd probably like to have my own shop doing largely commission work.
In the very short term, my partner is going to continue working her full time job, and I hope that my current company will take me back over the summer.
[0] http://chairnotes.blogspot.com/2015/06/letter-to-woodworker-... http://chairnotes.blogspot.com/2015/06/letter-to-woodworker-... http://chairnotes.blogspot.com/2015/06/letter-to-woodworker-...