Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#11

Post by tptacek » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:40 PM UTC

I had just moved to Ann Arbor and started at Arbor Networks after the failure of the first company I founded. My son was 2 years old and my daughter had just been born.

I'd have done a much better job handling my personal relationships.

Nothing I did at age 25 had really any material impact on my career. I liked A2 and the people I worked with at Arbor but I can sum the career value up as "can occasionally write an authoritative-sounding comment on HN about ISP backbone networks or DDoS attacks".

The relationship stuff though, that stuff stuck. It is kind of a miracle my marriage survived 25-year-old me. Lots of my friendships didn't survive.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#12

Post by languagehacker » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:40 PM UTC

I was working at a coupon code website in Austin, Texas. I don't have any good professional advice for me back then. I'm pretty sure I did all the right stuff. I had a company fly me out to the Bay Area for a job interview, and then snuck some time during that visit to interview with another company for a job with a better title and salary, a relocation bonus, and a less despicable vertical (the other one was in "debt relief").

It wasn't a great job, but I stuck it out until I didn't have to pay back the relocation bonus, and then enjoyed a couple of amazing jobs in SF before having my fill of the Bay Area.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#13

Post by deforciant » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:40 PM UTC

Moved to London, started several side projects, joined a startup that was actually paying very well and was doing an interesting technology.

What would I change? Probably nothing, but I would want to change what I was doing at ~21, where computer games were dominating my spare time, I wish I started working on side projects early on. Nowadays I find building things more rewarding.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#14

Post by johnnyletrois » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:40 PM UTC

Working on megayachts as a deck officer spending summers in the Med and winters in the Caribbean. Eleven years later I'm a lawyer working in house.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#15

Post by mr_overalls » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

Suffering from untreated anxiety/panic disorder, still working on finishing a BS. I would gently and firmly tell my former self to take a break, get some help, and return to school when I was better.

And more generally, to anyone struggling against personal problems (mental illness, substance abuse, family issues, etc.) while trying to achieve a career goal: at some threshold of severity, it's a better use of your time to focus on fixing those issues, and only _then_ returning the focus to career. Not to mention that it will save you some suffering.

Luckily for me, things eventually worked out, but I wasted several years trying to ride two horses at once.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#16

Post by sndean » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:44 PM UTC

(I'm 28.)

I'd tell myself to focus a bit more on finishing up my PhD than following dead ends. That and go outside more and eat better. It took ~2-2.5 years after graduating to regain sanity and lose ~50 pounds.

And I'm pretty happy with my current job.

Generally, I'd say that's advice I'm going to try to stick to (whether it's a job, PhD, whatever): focus more, go outside more, and maybe eat some vegetables every once in a while.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#17

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:45 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #11

I had just moved to Ann Arbor and started at Arbor Networks after the failure of the first company I founded. My son was 2 years old and my daughter had just been born. I'd have done a much better job handling my personal relationships. Nothing I did at age 25 had really any material impact on my career. I liked A2 and the people I worked with at Arbor but I can sum the career value up as "can occasionally write an a…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#18

Post by mcjiggerlog » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:45 PM UTC

I left the UK for Spain whilst working remotely. Best decision I ever made, wouldn't change a thing!

You have to take risks if you want to lead an interesting life. 25 is the perfect age to do some "crazy" things like moving to another country.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#19

Post by stephengillie » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:45 PM UTC

At 25 I was completing my sophomore year in college. This was because my father decided to stop filing his taxes for the 10 years (1995-2005) that my sister and I would have gone to college, so we had no ability to even apply for college loans. Her and I have no idea why he did that, and I'm not sure how to ask him today.

So I worked at Safeway until I could start paying for college at 23, then could file as an independent student at 24 and started getting financial aid.

The advice I'd give myself is to go back to when I was 15, when this all started, and file my parents taxes for them.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#20

Post by tenaciousDaniel » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 8:46 PM UTC

It was 2009, and I was working odd jobs to support myself while trying to be an artist. I was incredibly depressed at the time. I had graduated with a fine arts degree in 2008, and the recession made it extremely difficult to find even normal work, much less anything arts-related.

The best advice I would have for myself, both then and now, is to work smarter, not harder.