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Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#81

Post by AtomicOrbital »

Shared404 wrote: post #37
yobert wrote: post #16

I've had really good luck going for what is now called DevOps. You end up working with every team, doing all sorts of strange tasks, and building strange glue to make strange systems work together. Any time there is a problem, you're involved in the fix. Almost any computer skill you have will be used at some point, at least in my experience.

Any advice on getting into DevOps?

teach yourself linux ... rent a remote linux server ( VPS ) on say ovh.com or any vps hosting provider ... learn how to spin up a server on a cloud provider ( aws, google cloud ) ... pickup containers like docker ... learn TLS cert as well as DNS registrar ... on a DNS registrar get yourself a toy domain name like myname.com ... write a tiny server in golang then bundle it into a docker container which you execute on a remote cloud provider ... define the IP of remote host to link to the DNS of your domain name so you are able to enter into a browser this domain url so your browser now talks to your own server you just deployed ... do this manually then learn programming ( golang and bash ) so you can automate all of above steps

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#83

Post by mooreds »

chadcmulligan wrote: post #19

Most jack of all trades jobs are at small companies in my experience, I've found most small places advertise themselves, not through agencies, so you can get a jack of all trades job there. They don't pay as well though, it's the trade off imho, interesting work that keeps you busy, or specialise and become a corporate consultant - lots of money but boring af. Other alternatives: - move into management - found your o…

Tons and tons of small web consulting companies would love to have OP. I was director of engineering for one such and would have loved to hire someone with OP's experience. (Of course, salaries at such a small consulting shop won't compare with some of the eye-popping numbers you hear about, so you want to factor that in.)

I'm not sure how to find them other than to ask in your community.

Ones that I know of (in Colorado, my stomping ground):

* https://www.culturefoundry.com/

* https://crowandraven.com/

* https://devetry.com/

Not sure where you are located, but I'd search for "web development " and see what pops up as a starting point.

I recently moved into devrel for a smaller company and can vouch for the fact that it is a great position if you are a jack of all trades. In the last week or so I have:

* worked on ad landing pages

* written code for an example app

* recorded and edited a video

* filed a couple of bugs against the product

* responded to support requests

* written a blog post

* stood up cloud infrastructure to help me document a new feature

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#84

Post by stevenhubertron »

snickell wrote: post #8

I'm in the same boat, inside any given org I can tangibly feel that "jack of all trades" is in huge demand... and I find myself working long hours due to internal demand for this role inside companies. Like you, in my 20 years doing this type of role (wearing a large variety of different title hats) I've never been HIRED to the role. This feels odd, given playing the role always keeps me in high demand internally to…

Your experience truly does mirror my own. I have actually been able to successfully hire that trait however. Part of it is luck, but my interview questions usually entail a question or two as to how you would solve a problem outside of the role they are applying for. You can get alot of information about the person if they answer: "Create a ticket for that department to do" vs "contact that PM, discuss the problem found, brainstorm solutions and then create a ticket".

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#85

Post by stevenhubertron »

iRomain wrote: post #60
snickell wrote: post #8

I'm in the same boat, inside any given org I can tangibly feel that "jack of all trades" is in huge demand... and I find myself working long hours due to internal demand for this role inside companies. Like you, in my 20 years doing this type of role (wearing a large variety of different title hats) I've never been HIRED to the role. This feels odd, given playing the role always keeps me in high demand internally to…

> ... in my 20 years doing this type of role Same here. I started as a webmaster. > The problem is there's a similar appearing archetype to "jack of all trades" the "always reading never doing" person. A good metric I used is to check their Github profile. I believe a "doer" jack of all trades will have to experiment often. But I agree that they are really really hard to find! > But even if they spent serious time us…

Exactly this, but if you look at my Github you will see flurry of activity for a few months, than nothing for a few months (because I am working in sketch or working with my team directly on a new product that doesn't need any real front end work) so at best a recruiter would see inconsistency.

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#86

Post by stevenhubertron »

caymanjim wrote: post #28

Consider consulting. I like the variety of roles, and changing clients periodically keeps things fresh and exposes me to a lot of technology. I prefer working for a company so I don't have to find my own clients, and get benefits and a steady paycheck. If you can manage your own network, you can potentially earn more, but it's a lot of work finding a steady stream of clients on your own.

Everything I have heard about consulting is the hours and the travel are brutal if you have a family. Gone 6-9 months of every 12 would be a long time to be away from my children. Is that your experience?

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#87

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

stevenhubertron wrote: post #86
caymanjim wrote: post #28

Consider consulting. I like the variety of roles, and changing clients periodically keeps things fresh and exposes me to a lot of technology. I prefer working for a company so I don't have to find my own clients, and get benefits and a steady paycheck. If you can manage your own network, you can potentially earn more, but it's a lot of work finding a steady stream of clients on your own.

Everything I have heard about consulting is the hours and the travel are brutal if you have a family. Gone 6-9 months of every 12 would be a long time to be away from my children. Is that your experience?

You don't want to work for a consulting company (i.e Accenture, KPMG etc), you want to be a consultant.

For the first type of role, you're essentially hired help to solve non-technical problems in broken well-capitalised businesses, whereas in the second you're hired individually for your own skills. The second type are normally much more flexible with respect to remote and lack of travelling.

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#88

Post by adambware »

I’ve got slightly less experience and just moved to Product Management because it seemed like a blend of all of my flavors of knowledge. The PM Role is also helping me gain more knowledge to one day run my own company.

If you’re looking to be more hands-on with the engineering, I’d recommend management. Engineering Manager seems like the best fit given your description.

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#89

Post by cpach »

mooreds wrote: post #83
chadcmulligan wrote: post #19

Most jack of all trades jobs are at small companies in my experience, I've found most small places advertise themselves, not through agencies, so you can get a jack of all trades job there. They don't pay as well though, it's the trade off imho, interesting work that keeps you busy, or specialise and become a corporate consultant - lots of money but boring af. Other alternatives: - move into management - found your o…

Tons and tons of small web consulting companies would love to have OP. I was director of engineering for one such and would have loved to hire someone with OP's experience. (Of course, salaries at such a small consulting shop won't compare with some of the eye-popping numbers you hear about, so you want to factor that in.) I'm not sure how to find them other than to ask in your community. Ones that I know of (in Colo…

Sounds like a fun role!

As Robert A Heinlein wrote: “Specialization is for insects.”

Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?

#90

Post by cpach »

KiranRao0 wrote: post #51
atoav wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not every nation on earth underpays their public sector workers.

Can you provide an example of a public sector job/country that pays their employees well while also not being extremely corrupt?

Sweden – keep in mind though that we have a much much more compressed salary variation than the US. That goes for both private companies and government agencies.
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