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Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

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21–30 of 82 posts

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#21

I can't provide much help with advice for a career change, but I have some thoughts on your current situation... > I feel like my skillset (Python and Django) is slowly fading into irrelevance (everyone seems to be about machine learning and data science nowadays) Machine learning and data science are certainly trendy, but there are still 100s of developers for everyone in those areas, and will be for a long time. Th…

What kind of pathways have you seen that lead in to product management?

I'm yet to see a job listing for a PM that doesn't require experience as a PM.

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#22
post #16
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the pay there? My biggest concern about leaving IT is that the salaries we get as developers are pretty generous compared to other fields.

Is the pay more important then your wish to have more interaction with people?

Not the OP, but when you have children good pay is essential.

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#23
I was a web developer for a few years out of college, but I eventually realized I got much more pleasure out of helping my colleagues solve challenges in their own work (obscure bugs or browser compatibility issues) than building my own assigned pages and apps. I transitioned to technical product/developer support engineering which I've now done at two companies for a combined six years or so, and it's been great.

There's definitely more interaction with people, as your day-to-day work is more about helping people succeed than building things. But you still use a lot of the same skills you've built up in development work - especially if you've spent any time debugging code.

Whether this will appeal to you depends on what motivates you. For me, I really like feeling like I've made a difference and one of the most powerful ways to get that feeling is to solve a problem for someone, so this is a very satisfying line of work.

Also, I've done a lot of interviewing of candidates for this role - and I can tell you that at least on my team, lack of experience isn't really a blocker. It's common to need to quickly learn a new product or feature to solve a customer/developer's problem with it, so we look more for quick learning and problem-solving instincts than built-up experience or domain expertise.

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#24

I felt like that a few years ago. I didnt end up leaving my career, what i did instead was use my skills in a different way. Instead of being a web developer, i became a business consultant. Like you i didnt care about the latest fashion in the space and in general my interest was no longer in programming, however, 60%-80% of my time today is still writing code, but i'm much happier. What i do now is i work with non-…

Did you mean to say you're earning 3 times as much?

Yes, granted its 3 times as much revenue and not 3 times profit, as i have employees and an office etc now, but yes, i'm earning a lot more.

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#25

I felt like that a few years ago. I didnt end up leaving my career, what i did instead was use my skills in a different way. Instead of being a web developer, i became a business consultant. Like you i didnt care about the latest fashion in the space and in general my interest was no longer in programming, however, 60%-80% of my time today is still writing code, but i'm much happier. What i do now is i work with non-…

Can you speak to how you initially made the move and got clients, and how you get them now?

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#26

I felt like that a few years ago. I didnt end up leaving my career, what i did instead was use my skills in a different way. Instead of being a web developer, i became a business consultant. Like you i didnt care about the latest fashion in the space and in general my interest was no longer in programming, however, 60%-80% of my time today is still writing code, but i'm much happier. What i do now is i work with non-…

I'm thinking of doing exactly that switch. How did you get first customers?

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#27

I was a web developer for a few years out of college, but I eventually realized I got much more pleasure out of helping my colleagues solve challenges in their own work (obscure bugs or browser compatibility issues) than building my own assigned pages and apps. I transitioned to technical product/developer support engineering which I've now done at two companies for a combined six years or so, and it's been great. Th…

I know this is a little direct, but how's the pay compare to your old jobs and to your colleagues in dev?

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#28
post #19
post #14

> Note that I am only 20 so I don't have that much experience either, and finding a good developer's job seems hard given the competition for all the good startups. If you don't have a CS degree, then I would pursue it if I were you. I used to be like you (I was 20, now I'm 30 with CS degree), and it's been the best investment I've made. > After a year at my job it seems like I'm no longer interested in programming -…

If someone's not enjoying programming, suggesting to study CS doesn't seem ideal. Whilst CS != programming, there is a lot of overlap.

Lot of overlap but lot of learning to in broad spectrum of subjects. Maybe he'll be more into low level programming, maybe security. Or maybe once he understands magic behind ML, he'll like it. To me CS degree was about expanding views. I still sucked at programming after getting MSc.

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#29
post #21

I can't provide much help with advice for a career change, but I have some thoughts on your current situation... > I feel like my skillset (Python and Django) is slowly fading into irrelevance (everyone seems to be about machine learning and data science nowadays) Machine learning and data science are certainly trendy, but there are still 100s of developers for everyone in those areas, and will be for a long time. Th…

What kind of pathways have you seen that lead in to product management? I'm yet to see a job listing for a PM that doesn't require experience as a PM.

One common path I've seen is to prove yourself inside a company and “step up” (volunteer yourself for the new position). 1-2 recommendations later, it'll be a done deal.

Re: Ask HN: Web developer and looking for a career change, what are my options?

#30
post #12

> I am no longer excited about new frameworks, etc To me this is rather a sign of common sense than a lack of interest in programming. You could try moving to a company that has its own product - these often have interacting with customers or other companies listed as one of the responsibilities. EDIT: paragraphs.

Correct, why should we be excited at the newest schizophrenic fad.js?
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