Ask HN: How did you get to your current job/startup?

Post by crisopolis » Tue, Nov 24, 2015, 4:35 PM UTC

27 years old, almost 28 in 11 days. I passed high school some how I was like #534 out of #540 of the class. I was accepted to sub-campus college dropped out and then I was accepted into another sub-campus college kicked out for low GPA. I started my working career as a Pharmacy Technician for a local grocer then in 2006 I changed companies to work as a Pharmacy Technician for a health insurance company.

While working at this new employer I was able to show my superiors I knew how to provide solutions to their problems without the need for IT overhead. So I created a basic CRM in MS Access that integrated with our autodialer, pharmacy system, fax system this system was used to outreach members about a pharmacy benefit of switching to a cheaper generic drug rather than the expensive drug they were taking. At this point my title then changed to Analyst.

After that journey I decided to switch roles within the same company and move to Florida where I was given the title of Applications Engineer. I worked on a Care Management system for remote nurses going in-home to at-risk members. This system was horrid and looked like Windows 98 ... so I asked if I could re-build it with a JavaScript/Bootstrap front-end and re-wire a bit of the backend with the other 6 engineers on the team. My request was granted and I was tasked to other projects to beautify and re-engineer.

Now I'm a Systems Analyst for a Oracle-owned Talent Management System with the same company (7 years) ... pretty much doing configuration, answering questions and consulting.

So... I really want a programming job (I'm looking) and now I'm just working on a side-project to make a Talent Management System better than Oracle's piece of shit.

Post by partyingcat » Sat, Nov 28, 2015, 6:11 AM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #25

41 years old now. Failed out of a top-ten college. Went to work assembling trophies for minimum wage. Lived in a shitty apartment and hung out with people going nowhere. Felt doomed. Got interested in Linux (early 94). Took a job as tech support at local ISP. Accepted back into same top-ten school. Dropped out a year later. Moved to SFBA and took low-wage job as a junior sysadmin with early cable ISP startup. Left af…

When did you move into management? I am coming out of my early 30s and did a lot of things - started as a database programmer then law school + legal aid lawyer/policy maker. Moved back to tech 3 years ago as a data scientist. Doing well and loving it. I get a lot of opportunities and thinking now on whether I should continue honing my hard tech skills (esp when I don't have kids yet or a mortgage) or consider moving to management. Thoughts from a veteran!? Thanks so much.

Re: Ask HN: How did you get to your current job/startup?

Re: Ask HN: How did you get to your current job/startup?