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

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

#81

Post by ZainRiz »

It's not true that you have to loose work life balance at the higher paying companies.

Speaking as someone who's worked at both Microsoft, Google, and Stripe your work life balance is completely up to you (Amazon is an outlier)

The average engineer at all those places has a decent work life balance, and in fact from what I saw working longer hours did NOT correlate strongly with improved career outcomes.

The only exception to this is that some of the better managers I saw tended to spend more hours working. But I think that came more from their ambition than an innate requirement of their positions: They wanted to keep going up the ladder so they kept trying to take on more and more responsibilities. Other managers I had who weren't as ambitious kept a good work/life balance and were still happy. Again, it's up to you.

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

#82

Post by RickJWagner »

If I were in my mid-20s and not married, here's what I'd do:

- Work like crazy to get a job at one of the big-bucks mills

- Live in a bare-bones apartment, sharing rent with others

- Rack up a big pile of cash, invest it in Boglehead fashion

- Work like that for 10 years, then go do whatever you really want to do

If you don't somehow die early, it should have paid off.

Good luck to you.

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

#83

Post by david38 »

pmiller2 wrote: post #42
davedx wrote: post #13

> But I'm also cautiously thinking how your earning potential lowers as you age. It's not happened to me yet, my earning potential has only increased as I've gained more experience (41 now), especially since I went freelance. I would say in your 20's is a great time to take risks. Usually doing this will give you great experience you can then apply throughout your life, too. For example: - Work for a startup. Here yo…

I’d like to push back a bit on “work for a startup in your 20s.” Sure, if you want to work at a startup, I would say early career is the best time to do so. Best case scenario, you learn a lot, your company has a successful exit, and you make some decent cash. The other side of the coin is that for every well run startup where you can learn a lot, there are a bunch that are terrible, where you won’t learn as much, yo…

You can always quit. I’ve spent time at startups and some have quite good, one fantastic.

The benefit is that in a small startup you get so much more exposure and are not siloed away.

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

#84

Post by non-entity »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #47

It is not a dumb question, it is a question everyone in their 20's should be thinking about. Not surprisingly though, it doesn't have a "right" answer as there are different answers for different people. In my personal experience being 'bored' is a huge red flag for me. When I'm bored I don't do my best work, and I don't engage strongly with the team. Thus someone managing me would get the impression that I'm not ver…

> Step 2 then is to invest time in mitigating the things you don't like about writing software and to start focusing on companies or roles that are more focused on the things you love about writing software.

Unfortunately, in my case, those roles are reserved for people much smarter and credentialed than myself.

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

#85

Post by ChuckMcM »

non-entity wrote: post #84
ChuckMcM wrote: post #47

It is not a dumb question, it is a question everyone in their 20's should be thinking about. Not surprisingly though, it doesn't have a "right" answer as there are different answers for different people. In my personal experience being 'bored' is a huge red flag for me. When I'm bored I don't do my best work, and I don't engage strongly with the team. Thus someone managing me would get the impression that I'm not ver…

> Step 2 then is to invest time in mitigating the things you don't like about writing software and to start focusing on companies or roles that are more focused on the things you love about writing software. Unfortunately, in my case, those roles are reserved for people much smarter and credentialed than myself.

Obviously I don't know anything about your specific situation so humor me if I'm being dense okay?

How exactly are the roles "reserved" ? Do you live somewhere that has more of a patronage mode of filling roles or one where it's more merit based?

For example, one of the engineers I knew at NetApp came to work in the US from Mumbai because they could not advance as a software engineer without a degree from one of the "ITS" schools (they went to a second tier school). In the US that wasn't a problem, in India it was. Their solution was to change countries (as hard as that is).

If that is not the case, are you constrained in some way from upgrading your credentials to the ones you need?

I have also observed that smaller companies are more focused on who can do the job rather than their credentials. Sometimes moving to a company that needs your skills more than they care to look good on paper might be worth looking into.

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

#87

Post by foogazi »

T-hawk wrote: post #15

I'm an example of your #2. I have a pretty easy and cushy 40-hour software development job, in a fairly quiet company and industry. I could be making more or doing splashier work at a FAANG, but I'm happy to compartmentalize software into that box, and spend the rest of my time on non-technical hobbies and interests. Not everyone has to be a world-smashing rock star startup. Hacker News certainly has an exposure bias…

> I could be making more or doing splashier work at a FAANG, but I'm happy to compartmentalize software into that box, and spend the rest of my time on non-technical hobbies and interests.

Do you think FAANG people have no hobbies?

They are just like you and me.

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

#88

Post by non-entity »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #85
non-entity wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Step 2 then is to invest time in mitigating the things you don't like about writing software and to start focusing on companies or roles that are more focused on the things you love about writing software. Unfortunately, in my case, those roles are reserved for people much smarter and credentialed than myself.

Obviously I don't know anything about your specific situation so humor me if I'm being dense okay? How exactly are the roles "reserved" ? Do you live somewhere that has more of a patronage mode of filling roles or one where it's more merit based? For example, one of the engineers I knew at NetApp came to work in the US from Mumbai because they could not advance as a software engineer without a degree from one of the…

Eh, part of it is just that "the things I love about writing software" just aren't very important or in demand in a business setting. There certainly are positions I think I would enjoy, but they are fewer in number most of the positions prefer people with graduate degrees (I know not to put too much trust in job listings, but some domains do tend to be more strict on that sort of requirements, whether it be a culture thing or otherwise) and I never went to school at all.

> If that is not the case, are you constrained in some way from upgrading your credentials to the ones you need?

Money, and to a lesser extent time. I can't be considered a resident of the state I reside in "for tuition purposes" at least for a couple years, so there's no in-state tuition for me. On top of that I make enough money not to qualify for any aid, but not enough to fork out nearly six figures in a reasonable time. I could maybe pull out private loans, but for just an undergrad degree, it honestly doesn't feel worth it.

> I have also observed that smaller companies are more focused on who can do the job rather than their credentials. Sometimes moving to a company that needs your skills more than they care to look good on paper might be worth looking into.

Yeah, I'm not fully given up quite yet, hell several years back, I didn't think I would ever get a software development positions period, but I managed to get in.

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

#89

Post by badpun »

candiodari wrote: post #75
pradn wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your 20s are actually a bad time to join a startup. Every dollar you earn in your 20s is worth more than a dollar you earn later in your life, because of compound interest. Financially, you're nearly guaranteed to make more money at a FAANMG, and you don't have to play the lottery or (generally) work crazy hours. You might learn a lot by jumping into a startup, but your chances of failing are probably higher…

This is a good other way to go, I've met 2 people who played the game this way. They became engineers at huge, kinda pointless, companies (Alcatell-Lucent) and achieved a decent but not spectacular position. Something akin to tech-lead. Leading a decent team, but not as a people manager. Then they joined a not-gonna-happen startup (to do with optical fibers) as a CEO, investing something like $50k of their own money…

> huge, kinda pointless, companies (Alcatell-Lucent)

Why is Alcatell-Lucent kinda pointless?

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

#90

Post by badpun »

cyberpunk wrote: post #61
kblev wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much can you earn as senior devops freelancer in Europe? Have you considered relocating to the US? I'm a devops contractor in the UK and looking at options to maximize income.

Around 100euro/hour - depending on the city. Nah, quality of life wouldn't be there for me, personally. London is still probably highest rates for devops in the EU, Munich/Frankfurt/Amterdam/Paris aren't far behind but the work is more boring, Berlin rates are less but everything is quite cheap..

Are you a freelancer or a contractor? I.e. are your engagements on the order of weeks or months/years?
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