31–40 of 62 posts
If you're good you can do well with a lot of career paths, e.g. master woodworker, or expert welder or a good accountant. Of course, you'd have to learn a lot of new things first and that takes years, so it's probably not such a good idea to switch profession without a good reason, and it's even more unlikely that you'll really have to switch it ever...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lawyers earn a median amount of $120,000 a year - https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm#tab-5 Chefs and head cooks earn a median amount of around $50,000 a year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/chefs-a... So I'm not so sure about your point.
The point is that there is a pretty big disparity between the big paying law jobs and the normal jobs on a frequency basis, the median earning value doesn't demonstrate this reality. I did the research on this when I thought I wanted to go into law myself.
You can work on a bakery, waiter, cleaner, sales and a lot of other jobs. Even if you are an introvert, there will be a job for you. But I don't believe tech is going away. You better work on getting this anxiety away, you were probably thinking "oh shit, things are going down because there are too much clowns getting funding and giving web dev projects that makes no money for them and go bankrupt". I did that freque…
Everything computer-related is best right now. (Web design, UX, "social media person".) However, if for some reason you want to change that, I have found that writing and composing music are also well suited for the same type of mind. (You need imagination, constrained by rules. We're good with rules and, as far as I can tell, we're not bad at creativity either.)
I'm not even sure how to approach criticizing this, because I'm sure you mean well, but if someone aims to make a living in these two things, they better get ready for a lifelong dose of failure.
There is a difference between getting an education and being educated. If you focus on educating yourself without worrying about what your title you have the chance of learning about subject matter transcendence i.e. you will become skilled at some mixture of subjects without being "the best" at any one of them.
This subject matter transcendence I believe is one of the keys to staying relevant and aware of what is going on around you as it gives you an intuitive understanding of how various areas could be connected.
As typical example is the designer/developer. A person who both know how to design and how to code. That person might not be the best at the individual disciplines but the combination is in itself providing them with an edge on 80% of the people BOTH in the design field AND in the development field.
Don't worry about confining yourself into becoming an expert in one field who then will need to compete with other experts.
Instead become an expert in your own chosen subject matter no matter how fractured and you will be able to if nothing else, start your own company solving a problem your unique understanding of the world might lead you to.
In other words. Don't worry just keep educating yourself that's the best you can do.
Your real issue here is the irrational worry, not the lack of alternative career paths. I'd look into techniques for coping with anxiety if this seriously bothers you.
So I would say that diversifying and investing in the future is a good idea.
Depending on where you are, a tugboat captain can clear $500k/year, and you'll have a 6 figure pension when you retire. Other hands on jobs that have lots of overtime potential (e.g. police or fire department, oil, welding, etc) can also pay really well depending on your level.
That would be a really interesting project to work on. Some Tesla engineers that work on self-driving cars could probably do very well if they started their own company doing this for tugboats, or just the shipping industry in general.
Now that I think about it, autonomous self-flying airplanes should be coming pretty soon. Found this article about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/business/airplanes-unmann...
We're going to look back on this period of time and shudder at the thought of humans in the cockpit, or humans working as air traffic controllers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point is that there is a pretty big disparity between the big paying law jobs and the normal jobs on a frequency basis, the median earning value doesn't demonstrate this reality. I did the research on this when I thought I wanted to go into law myself.
Wait that’s why you use the median
What might be relevant for the discussion here is that lawyer salaries have been unimodal 25 years ago but have changed over the course of time. It has been argued here on HN [2][3] and elsewhere [4] that developer salaries are bound to suffer the same fate.
[1] https://www.biglawinvestor.com/bimodal-salary-distribution-c...
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16337434
https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/msc-softwar...
Applicants are normally expected to be predicted or have achieved a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours (or equivalent international qualifications), as a minimum, in a related subject, such as computer science, informatics or engineering.
For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.5 out of 4.0.
Applications are invited from anyone with sufficient experience or proven ability in software, security, or data engineering. A typical applicant will have at least two years' experience in a professional environment, and an undergraduate degree in a related subject. However, more extensive experience may compensate for a lack of formal qualifications, and a strong, immediately-relevant qualification may compensate for a lack of professional experience.
Emphasis not in original