Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 217 posts

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#81

Post by czbond »

exterrestrial wrote: post #73
akcreek wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in college at the time, so student loans kept me afloat. I was definitely not using that money correctly, but I believed I was using it wisely. The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. That was a large sum for them, but they believed they would see it again and they have always wanted to help my siblings and I in any way possible. It turned out to be one of their better investments a…

>The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. Thanks for being honest. It might help to put this in the first comment though.

Why? Means little. You can put a $44k deal together, even if you're a college student with no connections. It takes vision, some hustle, and an action plan. You might not think you can, but I sure know many can (including you and others reading this).

Most sellers are open to creative deals. No money down, seller financing (this applies to real estate and software).

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#82

Post by akcreek »

chirau wrote: post #61
akcreek wrote: post #51

I have a wide-ranging self-taught skill set as well that I've developed over the last 14 years of running my own businesses. I'll share what I'm doing from a high level as it might not be the most common path. I've been acquiring small but promising businesses that don't have the right team in place to move them forward. I bootstrap them on my own and replace my roles as the business can afford staff. Once enough rol…

This business of buying and selling businesses, I have heard a bit about it here and there but i don't even know where to start looking for people who are either selling or who are buying. I'd love to look into it as I think I would quite enjoy it. Any resources you could point to?

Buying online businesses wasn't even on my radar at the start, but I stumbled onto the first one via a blog that I followed. They posted that they were going to sell their online business and to drop them an email if interested.

I read that and immediately thought, well that's for me, so I sent them an email. I had zero clue what I was doing at that point.

The last business I acquired was though a broker; FE International. They have some interesting SaaS listings from time to time. QuietLight is another broker I watch listings from, but they are more in the ecomm, FBA, etc. space though. Less pure software. There are other brokers as well such as Empire Flippers.

There are some marketplaces like Flippa, Sideprojectors, Transferslot, etc.

You can also find a business you are interested in and call them up and see if they might be interested in selling. I almost bought a business this way last year after seeing it on Indie Hackers and reaching out to the owner. We couldn't get together on price though. I was happy to overpay since the business wasn't on the market and I believed in the future potential, but the owner's expectation was just way too out there so I couldn't justify it.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#83

Post by antoncohen »

Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)[1]. Read the SRE book (https://landing.google.com/sre/books/). Study any gaps you have. Tailor your resume and talking points to the job/direction you want, meaning de-emphasize some things, while still showing your career path and depth. Look to work at a big-ish company that is respected for engineering quality, where you can learn from others and from existing good practices. It doesn't need to be a Google or Facebook sized company, something around the size of Dropbox, Lyft, Stripe, and similar would be good.

[1] Really, "Development (full stack), server admin, data center management, DevOps, project management, managing teams, VoIP, routing/switching" is a perfect fit for SRE, and SRE probably is the most in-demand and highly paid of all the related fields (software development, etc.).

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#84

Post by federicosan »

Did you ever think about becoming an entrepreneur? You have an interesting set of skills that would give you at least some start, of course, you would have to learn some things about marketing and branding. Check indiehackers.com maybe you get some ideas. I have the same problem as you, it seems product managers and CEOS have multiple skills.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#86

Post by rdbell »

exterrestrial wrote: post #73
akcreek wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in college at the time, so student loans kept me afloat. I was definitely not using that money correctly, but I believed I was using it wisely. The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. That was a large sum for them, but they believed they would see it again and they have always wanted to help my siblings and I in any way possible. It turned out to be one of their better investments a…

>The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. Thanks for being honest. It might help to put this in the first comment though.

Many people like to use examples like this to argue that people with family loans have an easy path to success.

$44k is an excellent launchpad but the reality is that most people given opportunity to take $44k would quickly turn it into $0.

I personally love hearing success stories like this and give full credit to people that can pull it off.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#87

Post by Spooky23 »

exterrestrial wrote: post #73
akcreek wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in college at the time, so student loans kept me afloat. I was definitely not using that money correctly, but I believed I was using it wisely. The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. That was a large sum for them, but they believed they would see it again and they have always wanted to help my siblings and I in any way possible. It turned out to be one of their better investments a…

>The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. Thanks for being honest. It might help to put this in the first comment though.

If you have some hustle anyone can raise that type of money.

When I worked retail in college, a coworker was able to get $150k together to lease a 737 and crew for a couple of trips. He was then able to leverage his girlfriend’s boss (travel agent) to get some trips to Aruba and some other island. He netted enough to pay for his tuition, which was the goal.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#88

Post by ProZsolt »

shepardrtc wrote: post #33

DevOps I had the same issues for many years, but the past 2 positions have been official "DevOps" positions and they more often than not have me doing so many random things that require all sorts of skills. I love it. It keeps things interesting, and it makes me very valuable to the company because I can do whatever they need. Sure, some places have a very narrow definition of DevOps, but that's usually the large com…

Agree, but a lot of companies use this title as a CloudOps so basically Ops but on AWS/GCP

At my previous company, I work as one and really enjoyed it. I was a software engineer, but I was also responsible for infrastructure, tests, CD/CI.

Now, I'm looking for a job like this, but most of the companies just want ops people who can code a little bit for automation and support other developers work "thrown over the fence"

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#89

Post by hanoz »

akcreek wrote: post #51

I have a wide-ranging self-taught skill set as well that I've developed over the last 14 years of running my own businesses. I'll share what I'm doing from a high level as it might not be the most common path. I've been acquiring small but promising businesses that don't have the right team in place to move them forward. I bootstrap them on my own and replace my roles as the business can afford staff. Once enough rol…

That's facinating. Do you tend to buy the entity of the business, or would the original owner keep a small stake? And do you get any professional help with the accountancy and legal aspects of the original purchase?

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#90

Post by redsymbol »

exterrestrial wrote: post #73
akcreek wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in college at the time, so student loans kept me afloat. I was definitely not using that money correctly, but I believed I was using it wisely. The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. That was a large sum for them, but they believed they would see it again and they have always wanted to help my siblings and I in any way possible. It turned out to be one of their better investments a…

>The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. Thanks for being honest. It might help to put this in the first comment though.

Why?

How does it matter? Not meaning to challenge you in any way, just sincerely want to understand your thinking.

Post reply on HN