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

Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 221 posts

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#191

Post by donretag »

grecy wrote: post #183
donretag wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I remember, the southeast corner, bordering Uganda and Rwanda, is/was the most unstable. Burundi had issues because of the election. Not sure where it stands now. I did not go to Burundi since the travel visa was expensive. I was traveling on public buses, so even a three day visa might not be enough.

Thanks for the info. It seems virtually every country on the continent has issues around elections, and should be avoided. DRC, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Mali, etc. all have recently been not-good places to be due to elections

Enjoy your time. I dream about going back to Africa. If I had to do it again, I would do it exactly like you are doing, using self-transport. Besides setting your own schedule, you get to pack your own food. Much of Africa simply does not have stores. However, I would travel with others.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#192

Post by chadcmulligan »

shshhdhs wrote: post #180
chadcmulligan wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known a few people who've successfully retired using this approach. For me I don't see the point, who wants to spend their lives just saving every penny, they seem to get great satisfaction out of it though. Personally I've found a better way is to find work you enjoy and people will pay you for, find somewhere you like to live and enjoy the rest of your life without counting pennies on bars of soap.

I'm doing all of the above: living in a place so like, working at a job that is interesting and pays well. My new job has tripled my salary, and so rather than inflating my lifestyle, I've just been saving & investing the new money. I'm happy spending the same old amount based on my old salary, and just taking a couple more vacations a year.

good on you, living the dream :-)

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#193

Post by zump »

HFTGuru wrote: post #65
voidz wrote: post #16

I became a full time father and results have been stellar. My boy is now one year old and turns out to be very clever... And very strong. He could crawl at seven months and started to learn how to walk at 11 months. His first word was 'hunger' (in Dutch, it sounds virtually the same) at two months, maybe it was imaginative but he was happy to eat after we we heard him say it, haha. Now he can also say 'mama' and 'pap…

I've been developing in C, in the finance industry as a high frequency trader as well as being a father. My son is home schooled and is typing elementary level sentences at 3 years old, he can also strum the guitar playing notes C D E F G A B on request. The down side is I work 10-12 hour days, but I get a performance bonus between 400k and 800k every year. I'm hoping I can retire in my late 30's, but I do miss out o…

Not this again. Someone will always make a post about earning a ridiculous salary that will ruin my entire week. I just don't believe people can add 800k of value to an organisation.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#194

Post by querulous »

i quit the industry for nearly a decade in my mid 20s. i went to work in the film industry in various on set roles (carpenter, painter, setdec, grip). i got to the point where i was mostly middle management and the hours were long and the money good-but-inconsistent so i got back into programming and returned to dev full time 2.5 years ago

i don't regret leaving dev but i'm also glad i returned

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#195

Post by trcollinson »

zump wrote: post #193
HFTGuru wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been developing in C, in the finance industry as a high frequency trader as well as being a father. My son is home schooled and is typing elementary level sentences at 3 years old, he can also strum the guitar playing notes C D E F G A B on request. The down side is I work 10-12 hour days, but I get a performance bonus between 400k and 800k every year. I'm hoping I can retire in my late 30's, but I do miss out o…

Not this again. Someone will always make a post about earning a ridiculous salary that will ruin my entire week. I just don't believe people can add 800k of value to an organisation.

Really? That's a bit short sighted. I have worked with numerous teams that have produced far more value to the organization than that, and I wasn't in high frequency trading. For example, at HP my team of 10 individuals (1 sales, 1 marketing, 1 PM, 7 engineers) produced a well known SaaS product which produced about $800MM in gross revenue at about a 60% margin for HP. That's a whole lot of value per employee.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#196

Post by schlumpf »

bfrog wrote: post #117
HFTGuru wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been developing in C, in the finance industry as a high frequency trader as well as being a father. My son is home schooled and is typing elementary level sentences at 3 years old, he can also strum the guitar playing notes C D E F G A B on request. The down side is I work 10-12 hour days, but I get a performance bonus between 400k and 800k every year. I'm hoping I can retire in my late 30's, but I do miss out o…

How have you not retired yet with a 400-800K bonus is the better question?

Because, the IRS.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#197

Post by zump »

trcollinson wrote: post #195
zump wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not this again. Someone will always make a post about earning a ridiculous salary that will ruin my entire week. I just don't believe people can add 800k of value to an organisation.

Really? That's a bit short sighted. I have worked with numerous teams that have produced far more value to the organization than that, and I wasn't in high frequency trading. For example, at HP my team of 10 individuals (1 sales, 1 marketing, 1 PM, 7 engineers) produced a well known SaaS product which produced about $800MM in gross revenue at about a 60% margin for HP. That's a whole lot of value per employee.

Did you get appropriately reimbursed?

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#198

Post by DCoder »

potterboy67 wrote: post #13

I would think long and hard about leaving an industry you're established into, before doing it. I left in 2008 because, after two mergers, I had run out of steam and felt I wasn't wanted. I lost money because the crash caused the options I had to be worth less than I had hoped, but I attempted to make a living making wood-fired pots. I'd been making pots for ages, but they weren't good enough, and I didn't know how t…

> find an unrelated but expensive hobby

Why expensive?

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#199

Post by trcollinson »

zump wrote: post #197
trcollinson wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? That's a bit short sighted. I have worked with numerous teams that have produced far more value to the organization than that, and I wasn't in high frequency trading. For example, at HP my team of 10 individuals (1 sales, 1 marketing, 1 PM, 7 engineers) produced a well known SaaS product which produced about $800MM in gross revenue at about a 60% margin for HP. That's a whole lot of value per employee.

Did you get appropriately reimbursed?

The quick answer is no. The funnier answer is we received an award for this particular piece of software (which is still in use and sold for phenomenal profits to this day). We were invited to go to an HP board meeting and receive the award directly from Meg. Unfortunately our entire office was shut down and we were all laid off before the reward date so that our division could save on overhead. Our division manager (who I met on the day we were laid off) accepted the award graciously.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#200

Post by zump »

trcollinson wrote: post #199
zump wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you get appropriately reimbursed?

The quick answer is no. The funnier answer is we received an award for this particular piece of software (which is still in use and sold for phenomenal profits to this day). We were invited to go to an HP board meeting and receive the award directly from Meg. Unfortunately our entire office was shut down and we were all laid off before the reward date so that our division could save on overhead. Our division manager…

Funny, perhaps HFT is an industry you should consider if you wish to be generously rewarded.
Post reply on HN