I'd love to get back into music. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay terribly well, but maybe if I can get enough saved up (or perhaps hammer out a couple self-sustaining side projects)...
Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
841–850 of 881 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#842I would work with animals; maybe at a cat shelter, or have a pet "hotel", or maybe a dog daycare or walking service. Animal welfare laws are very strong here and dog owners aren't allowed to leave their dog alone for more than four hours at a time. This means there is a lot of potential business for dog daycare and walking services since not everyone can take their dog to work with them or come home for lunch. But basically anything involving taking care of or helping animals would do.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#843osteopathic medicine, high problem solving to meeting ratio - must like people.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#844Dentist. I was a software developer for 9 years before dental school. This year I am doing my residency. Last week, I did fillings, root canals, extractions, implants, IV sedations, and seeing medical complex patients in hospital. It felt like it's a dream.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#845Earlier quoted context omitted.
My grandfather was a farmer. It always seemed to be quite rewarding and challenging. I've thought about going down that path myself.
Same here - my father's side of the family was from the country. Acres of farm land, crops, and animals. My father was one of the first to shift into a non-farming job. Growing up I always had chances to work on the farm or spend summers down there. There are times I dream about what life would be like for me as a farmer today. Also the reward of a hard day's work is under appreciated in today's society (if you ask m…
> Also the reward of a hard day's work is under appreciated in today's society (if you ask me).
I couldn't agree more. My parents always taught us growing up that my (and my brother) brain was our biggest asset. We both chose career paths that valued brains over brawn.
I recently helped a friend out build shit for a couple days. It was the best time I'd had in a while. Maybe it's not too late for me to switch.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#846Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not that I'm trying to discourage you, but why? Stability ? Money ?
At first because I had an idea for an app which I could not afford to implement unless I did it myself. Now, for love of coding only -- trying to make the switch has cost me everything.
Good luck on your journey !
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#847Earlier quoted context omitted.
"When the tech world moved away from me (doing mainly embedded C for the last thirty years might not have been the best idea for my career)" Strange, why do you say so? We live in the era of IoT and everything has at least one chip inside them. I also do system/embedded programming, but never felt the lack of possibilities to advance my career.
How did you get into doing system/embedded programming?
I was always curious how things and systems work. There's no better to find that out than doing embedded programming, because it touches both hardware and software. I went to embedded programming straight from the university in my final years where I was studying telecommunication engineering. Knowledge of telecommunication systems and electronics besides C programming proved to be enough to get my first few jobs.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#848I am slowly working towards becoming a fiction writer. At the moment I am a software engineer and I feel I can make it if I put enough effort into it. My specialties are psychological terror and sci-fi.
Got any tips for someone trying to do the same?
Write everyday. And read double than that.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#849I am slowly working towards becoming a fiction writer. At the moment I am a software engineer and I feel I can make it if I put enough effort into it. My specialties are psychological terror and sci-fi.
"My specialties are psychological terror" What about moving into project management?
I am not that dark.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#850Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it's not necessary to make $100k+ a year to have a solid middle class life Depends on your circumstances. 100k with one salary?
I live paycheck to paycheck on six figures in the midwest. I'm not broke but I'm certainly not living it up. People act like 100k is life changing money. I think it depends more on circumstances before you get to $100k. If I had parents who paid for school I'd probably be living it up too.
Seeing stuff like this makes me wanna jump in the water and swim across the ocean. On my current salary, I'd have to work nearly 7 years to get 100k. You're living it up.