101–110 of 171 posts
1. More technical knowledge.
2. Ability to identify sooner which startups will fail, and what the red flags are early on for startups that will die. You might even have a startup die, but that's kind of a right of passage... and you'll learn a lot from it.
3. More future employment leverage that comes with the more technical knowledge/domain expertise(s) you develop
4. Maybe a successful business!
I think you want to seek out companies where the main business risk is technology risk still. That would be database companies, developer tools, artificial intelligence startups, operating systems, ... Probably drones and sensor-companies also qualify but don't really know much about that industry. SpaceX's reusable rocket is a great example of technology risk and so is Tesla's affordable electric car. Most startups…
> I think you want to seek out companies where the main business risk is technology risk still. That would be database companies, developer tools, artificial intelligence startups, operating systems, ... This is only true for established companies. At early stages those still might not have a proper engineering culture, whicih makes them turn into pyramid schemes sellling the dream, getting hackier and scammier with…
Also, the smaller companies tend to need good software people that can take the excel/matlab models and turn them into something enterprise.
I just want to point out that engineers are in no way the "peasant" cast in any organization that's worth its salt. If you feel that way, I'd look for a new job. In most tech companies, senior engineers make as much if not more than senior managers. It's not until you get to the director level that you probably start passing engineers in salary. I think you need a better job before you decide to bootstrap your own co…
This hits home. I was in a startup together with very smart people, way smarter than me. We tried to pull off the impossible and were succeeding quite well in that. Unfortunately nobody pays you for solving problems that no customer has. So the company ran out of money. Now I am in a big global company and my life sucks in a way it never has sucked before. I do not know how I will proceed from here, maybe I should le…
I think you want to seek out companies where the main business risk is technology risk still. That would be database companies, developer tools, artificial intelligence startups, operating systems, ... Probably drones and sensor-companies also qualify but don't really know much about that industry. SpaceX's reusable rocket is a great example of technology risk and so is Tesla's affordable electric car. Most startups…
I like how you phrased that. In the past I've said that I want to work for a technical manager on tech product for a tech company, but that wasn't quite right.
I read it through the lens of American history, an exciting frontier was conquered by interesting gunslingers but now its just a bunch of strip malls and Wendy's.
"go back to academia" doesn't mean you have to go back there and collect certificates, take classes and pass exams. Find a prof working on something interesting to you and offer to help. Better still submit a patch to whatever source code they have put out in the public domain. Its a great way to get your leg in the door. Lots of the labs in the country have techies on staff. It leaves the subject matter experts free…
My PhD friend is doing data science for a startup which grew out of a biology lab.
The team is basically her, the engineers and one dude keeping the business side running.
They now have their own office with plants.
University, not necessarily studying there, is great place to find these sorts of groups.
All the better if you are the lab tech who “makes computers do magic”.
> [...] the hacker ethos was lost. the culture changed
I'm 41 so I probably entered the IT industry a decade before you. Nothing changed. It was always like that. And I just strongly suspect it's not just IT. That's basically what 'work' and 'business' is.
Basically start having life outside of work. Work is just a source of money. Switch it every 2 years or so to whoever offers you more and chill. If you accidentally land in places that are not horrible then it's a bonus, but job shouldn't be in your top 3 (or even top 5) sources of satisfaction. Try different sized companies, try different modes of work. Just keep your salary climbing and figure out why life is worth living. And I'm not trying to push kids on you. I don't have any. You could just reach back and look at the stuff you did that made you tick. Try to rediscover and extend it. I'm sure dreams of developing groundbreaking technology in business setting wasn't the only thing that made you interested in technology.
90s hacker culture still exists; it's in a few startups, and particularly ones oriented around decentralized systems and payment; maybe data science stuff also. Probably in other places; embedded systems I'm guessing is good, industrial research labs can also be fun. If you're working in some horrid "make an app/website which does things" grind, of course it is boring. That was only exciting when nobody knew how to d…