Ask HN: What is the smartest career path to take?

I'll give a bit of a different perspective since I've never worked as a professional developer, unlike the majority of the folks here.

Don't be afraid to reinvent yourself in a completely different industry. I've changed careers three times. I worked as an engineer, then in energy finance, and now as a diplomat. In some cases, it meant a move up, sideways, or even a drastic pay cut and starting over at the bottom.

You'd be surprised how many industries just want people who are fast learners and are willing to put in the work to ramp up quickly.

Pick an industry you think makes a difference. I made my last career move at 37 with a hefty pay cut, and now I'm a lot happier.

In the end, you're not competing with anyone but yourself. You might as well pick something now that you think will meet your long-term goals. And if it doesn't work out like you thought, it's never too late to reinvent yourself.

Totally agreed. I've been at 3 startups. One was a 12 year old "startup" that was just a privately held business with big dreams and no follow through. The second was a later stage (series C or D, I believe) company where I did learn some things, but, not enough to make up for the below market comp and worthless options. The third was a series B startup that was much the same.

For an employee, whether they're looking to learn or earn, I think "go work at a startup" as a blanket piece of advice is a bad idea, unless they know how to spot the red flags a bad startup throws up. The earlier stage the company is, the more potential it has for both learning and earning. But, earlier stage bad companies haven't been weeded out as thoroughly as later stage companies. This is just survivorship bias, although, in this case, it works for you rather than against you.

> I'm also cautiously thinking how your earning potential lowers as you age.

Be wary of that thinking -- It is not your earning potential that wanes, but your chance of a huge startup exit. And aging doesn't mean you cannot try for those opportunities, it means older people have also seen that a good salary, with good savings, and decades of compound interest will still make you a multi-millionaire. But the thought of 20, 30, 40 years of watching interest slowly grow sounds horrible in your twenties. Yet once you've lived 20-30 of those years, it sounds like common sense. Many of us older folk choose to "only" be wealthy, not stinkin' rich, because we feel it is a better life than giving up your twenties chasing unicorns.

> how to suceed at your life.

Find something to do for work that pays decently and doesn't give you mental health problems. Do it well. Do it 40ish hours a week. And then put it away and go live "your life". Make friends/family. Enjoy hobbies. Go enjoy this world, and whatever interests you have in it. Nobody sits on their deathbed wishing they had worked more.

I'm in my late 20s, and went through something similar when I left my first job a few years ago. I'm sure that has both positive and negative implications for my advice!

The book "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport was really beneficial for me to build a mental model about career growth.

In short, "career growth" is basically _building an asset_ and then _bartering that asset_ for things you want. So in your case, it's really important to understand two things:

1. What assets (career capital) do you have? e.g. Authority borne of experience, a history of demonstrating excellence (or at least good-enoughness), a good network/references, etc.

2. What do you want to barter those assets for? What kind of job do you want to have, ideally?

As an example, in my case, I felt my "capital" was fairly low -- I was still a junior developer. But, I really wanted to work remotely, and work-life balance is very important to me. So, I willingly accepted a pay cut to work from home. Then by building more capital over time, I've been able to raise my salary back to the original level, and above.

In your case, perhaps you should evaluate whether you have accumulated enough "capital" to "fund" a significant spike in salary, or not. (Chances are, if you've been working at a place for years, you have also made some demonstrable growth. If not, you might want to think about how to grow your responsibility at your current gig.)

I don't think its possible to write a guide on how to succeed at life as peoples definitions of success change throughout their life! Some pointers for you based on what you have said:

1. Its nice to be financially well off & saving puts you in a better position. So regardless of whether your on $80k or $100k get saving.

2. Your in the bracket of people who likely wont have an issue earning, congratulations. People in this bracket will rarely if ever look back on a period in life and say "I wish I worked more", esp if you follow 1. So if you have any constructive hobbies outside of work then give them your all. If you have anything you want to try, eg going pro with the photography (never works but fun trying) or politiking (works but you'll end up a politician) nows the time! Dont just smoke weed and play games though.

3. I would recommend against starting a startup unless you really really like building stuff, dont mind crappy jobs and comfortable with a lot of sacrifice. Im a founder and happy, but its most definitely not for everyone.

4. If your looking for v. large salaries down the line optimise wholly for experience in your 20s. It's only when you get into the executive bracket that salaries go completely crazy, they are measured for all technical roles and demand/supply changes. Im not versed on the tech-speciality route, but I do remember high-paying specialities from telco in the 90s all but disappeared now (though a lot of people retired young from them)

Anecdotal, but I spent my 20s not working very hard. Didn't focus on career at all, however was very focussed on "learning". Ended up starting late and overtaking most peers, I think my diverse experience helped with perspective. Made me less institutionalised. Ive seen a few people with similar routes (20s travelling, yachting, building etc etc).