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Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#131

Post by hiram112 »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #62
komali2 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you ask them why they turned you down, what do they say? Have you tried asking for resume feedback?

Most of the job ads (Dice, Indeed, etc.) obfuscate the actual company behind a recruiter and no-reply email addresses. I would love to reply and ask, but in 99% of cases the reply email is noreply@somerecruitmentfirm.com. I have talked to a couple of real people, one over the phone and one over email. In both cases I feel like I had a good rapport built. The first guy turned me down because his company only had the b…

Many of the job ads are fake. They are simply going through the necessary motions to prove that they couldn't find a qualified candidate; then they can qualify for an H1B visa.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#132

Post by fizx »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #106
atsaloli wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's DI?

Dependency Injection. It's an over complicated term for a really trivial pattern in development. func addOp(a, b, op){ return op(a) + op(b); } Here op is a function being injected into another function. Nobody uses the term in functional/procedural programming because this pattern is obvious and ubiquitous in Higher order functions like map, reduce or filter. When people use DI though it's used in the context of OOP,…

> It's an over complicated term for a really trivial pattern in development.

Yes, but...

The objective of most business-oriented programs is to create the One True Function(tm), usually known to developers as a the "application." For everyone's sanity, this should be composed of smaller functions, which are sometimes called "objects." An object is just a function that was created using a specific creation template, usually called a "constructor."

For a pretty moderately sized application, the One True Function might be a tree of sub-functions which has hundreds or thousands of branches. Sometimes you might want to write the straightforward boilerplate code to attach items to this tree, but that could get tedious to maintain.

Other times, you might find a library that will automatically assemble your tree for you, as long as you specify up front in configuration that all of your fruits are apples and all of your leaves are green. This program is usually called a "DI framework."

Hopefully, this saves you a lot of typing, which you can then use to type up HN comments.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#133

Post by fizx »

ccdev wrote: post #103
brd wrote: post #10

It's all about latching on to domain expertise. Rarely is a developer a pure technologist, there is always some niche you've become involved in whether it be related to payments or UX or a subset of businesses functions. Assuming you have some meaningful knowledge of something non-technical, you can take that with you into a different area of software development. I've transitioned across various technical roles by u…

I am trying to specialize more in graphics, though I still have to figure out how large is my skills gap between "doing solo graphics projects" and "full-time graphics programmer", especially in math. After getting advice on my resume on how to hide the slow career growth, I've been told to spin it to show I am interested in this niche and show direction towards that. If you had been able to read my un-revised resume…

It's probably better to specialize in business verticals than tech choices, and better to choose something that doesn't have so many kids learning it to build games. YMMV

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#134

Post by JeremyNT »

I'm not sure whether this qualifies exactly, but when I first got into tech I thought ops was what I wanted to do. I always dabbled in programming (I did learn rails when it first came out) and followed generally the state of web development, but my skills simply never developed in that direction. I was boxed in by my job, and I learned nothing new there. I ultimately decided there was no path forward - so I went backwards.

I switched from a senior Linux admin to a junior rails development job a bit over one year ago now.

It's humbling to start over at my age. The degree to which one can specialize in IT is striking, and the amount of knowledge you learn and internalize is vast. I learn something new nearly every day now, and little (though some) of my prior skillset directly translates.

I'm very glad I took this step, but it's not been easy. I think a lot of humility is required, especially for somebody who is comfy and well established in their current position. But I'm lucky enough to work somewhere with patient and helpful colleagues, who do not view my age and lack of direct experience as a detriment.

One benefit of starting over when you're older: this time around, I fully realize how much I don't know, and I'm never afraid to ask stupid questions. The same was certainly not true of 24 year old me.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#135

Post by nightsd01 »

In university, I was studying biology. In my free time however, one day I had the strange desire to build a simple app that would simulate the solar system.

After spending months learning how to build software, I realized just how deeply satisfying software development was to me. So I started doing small, low paid freelance work building apps to build up a portfolio. Every time a project ended, I’d move on to bigger projects with higher pay. I’ve never looked back. I dropped out of school and my passion & skill have grown ever since. Eventually I had a good resume and the recruiters came to me.

Now I am working at an amazing company in the Bay Area. I love it. It’s a job where I actually look forward to going to work every day, which is fortunate and lucky.

Given that the software world is always changing, I am always learning something new. Lately I’ve been learning React-Native.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#136

Post by [deleted] »

ElectronicE wrote: post #28

I got a super comfortable job for the past 15years as a work from home C++ server programmer. It has allowed me to be around and watch my kid grow rather than be away 8-6PM and just come home to dinner and put them to bed. It was very good pay at the beginning but it hasn't keep up and now it's not that good (to bad either). A few years ago I started playing with electronics (Arduinos, Raspberry PIs and stuff like th…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#137

Post by crimsonalucard »

fizx wrote: post #132
crimsonalucard wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dependency Injection. It's an over complicated term for a really trivial pattern in development. func addOp(a, b, op){ return op(a) + op(b); } Here op is a function being injected into another function. Nobody uses the term in functional/procedural programming because this pattern is obvious and ubiquitous in Higher order functions like map, reduce or filter. When people use DI though it's used in the context of OOP,…

> It's an over complicated term for a really trivial pattern in development. Yes, but... The objective of most business-oriented programs is to create the One True Function(tm), usually known to developers as a the "application." For everyone's sanity, this should be composed of smaller functions, which are sometimes called "objects." An object is just a function that was created using a specific creation template, u…

Objects and functions are different. An object retains state, a function should be stateless. Objects cannot be evaluated and do not have return values.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#138

Post by crimsonalucard »

matte_black wrote: post #122
crimsonalucard wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't learn the language. Learn the fundamentals. The fundamentals remain constant.

Tough to get hired on fundamentals these days.

A lot of jobs out there only test you on fundamentals. Hackerrank questions allow you to pick whatever language you like.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#139

Post by ElectronicE »

spookthesunset wrote: post #66
ElectronicE wrote: post #28

I got a super comfortable job for the past 15years as a work from home C++ server programmer. It has allowed me to be around and watch my kid grow rather than be away 8-6PM and just come home to dinner and put them to bed. It was very good pay at the beginning but it hasn't keep up and now it's not that good (to bad either). A few years ago I started playing with electronics (Arduinos, Raspberry PIs and stuff like th…

What kinds of projects are you taking on in the land of electronics? I find this area very interesting, but can't seem to figure out how you can make a living on it....

Well there had been a lot of "I want to make a device to do X". Then I will cook a proposal to do it using a rapberry pi or a MCU depending of what it is.

People wanting to make gadgets using Bluetooth is a big one and I have been using Nordic Semi line of BLE SoCs very succefully.

Most of the business lately has been coming from a couple of companies that I made some work for and keep requesting changes or more features. I had to disable my Upwork profile as I didnt had the rrsources to keep up with the projects coming from there, even after upping my rates a few times.

Re: Ask HN: Have you successfully done a career do-over, and how did you do it?

#140

Post by ElectronicE »

geoffmac wrote: post #68
ElectronicE wrote: post #28

I got a super comfortable job for the past 15years as a work from home C++ server programmer. It has allowed me to be around and watch my kid grow rather than be away 8-6PM and just come home to dinner and put them to bed. It was very good pay at the beginning but it hasn't keep up and now it's not that good (to bad either). A few years ago I started playing with electronics (Arduinos, Raspberry PIs and stuff like th…

' and now it's not that good (to bad either)' looks like a few other skills have depreciated too

I'm not a native English speaker and didn't bother to proof read my writing. Anyway I can't edit it now.
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