Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 171 posts

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#131

Post by markus_zhang »

cynusx wrote: post #35

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…

Lots of business people don't look at long term, especially the CXOs unless they founded the business themselves. They usually stay for a few years and move on, so quick wins are not only preferred, but are essential to their next move.

If a company has a short-sight problem, you can be sure that it comes from the brain. Ordinary employees, once they are not juniors anymore, tend to stick with a company, because jumping around every couple of years don't really look good on the resumes.

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#132

Post by idoby »

rat9988 wrote: post #125
idoby wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not either/or. Good luck building the next FB/Google/MS/Amazon/Apple without exceptional tech and exceptional tech people. All of those companies had breakthrough tech combined with breakthrough business ideas. Assuming that everything is just about UX, PM and bizdev nets you the kind of mediocrity the OP is talking about. Sometimes what looks like over-engineering to the mediocre actually enables breaking new g…

FB didn't have a breakthrough tech at their beginning.

Maybe not at the dorm room phase but pretty early on after that

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#133

Post by cmos »

Consider the field of Oceanography!

Try hacking an underwater robot to navigate under ice from a ship during a storm. Or adding software on a remote buoy over dicy network connections to help it survive a hardware failure. Work every day knowing you are helping us to understand the worlds most precious resource better.

(shameless plug) https://careers.whoi.edu/

Most importantly work in a field with people who are passionate about their jobs!! It removes all the backstabbing when there is a higher common goal.

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#134

Post by codingdave »

I believe the phrase you are looking for is "mission-driven".

There are organizations out there who care more about their impact on the world than on their profits and growth. They are harder to find. But they value the results of their work, and would probably be a better match for you. This sounds simple, but just go search for: "mission-driven companies", and see what you find.

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#137

Post by leoplct »

This looks the mindset to starts a bootstrapped startup. Build a solution for a problem you (or companies in your industry) have. It could be several iterations of changes until to reach a product-market fit but don't give up until you succeed.

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#138

Post by jl2718 »

I want to tell you something that is probably not what you are looking for, but I can almost guarantee that it is the most important thing by a long shot.

1. Find the right life partner. This is, by far, the most important factor to your success and happiness in life, and you are not going anywhere great until that is settled. Right now you get your affirmation and correction from your job. A good partner will fix that. A bad partner will ruin you to a point you will not recognize yourself. Eventually everyone ends up with someone, good or bad. Make this your top priority. Focus on it now. Do not wait.

2. Find god. Not necessarily religion. Belief in yourself is not enough. You have to find your assignment from an authority greater than yourself, and greater than the love or hatred of every being on earth. It has to be greater than greed or pain or lust or pride. This will come slowly.

3. Be simple. Be frugal. Reduce your needs. Spend less. Have few possessions. Don’t take on debt or long leases. Know exactly what you need for the rest of your life, save it, and don’t take risks on it.

4. If you have anything above what you need for the rest of your life. Be ready to take massive investment risks with it, and jump on anything that you feel in your heart for, especially yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#139

Post by rafiki6 »

idoby wrote: post #97
slavoingilizov wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I'm not suggesting tech isn't important at all. I'm just trying to provide a counter point to the OP, whose argument sounds very one-sided. You can't build the next FB and Amazon without great tech. But they are not in the tech industry. Tech is the key ingredient (out of many)

They're not in the tech industry, but they are tech companies . Tech companies are companies who believe that in tech innovation is not only possible, but necessary to drive exceptional business success. Those are indeed few and far between.

That's a very interesting definition of a tech company and I think I have to agree with it, although I've always been very much "tech companies build tech".

The reality is the companies at the top right now all have EXCELLENT tech cultures, including one's you wouldn't have considered tech companies. An excellent tech culture is a form of operational excellence, which is how companies succeed. That's why all these companies are at the top and some big brand names in tech aren't necessarily at the top.

I know market cap is a very poor measure, but here:https://www.dogsofthedow.com/largest-companies-by-market-cap...

Who are the top companies? Each one of these not only understands their industry extremely well, but they generally speaking, having spectacular operational excellence.

IBM was a top company before. What happened? Why did it fall from grace? It's because they lost that motivation to maintain operational excellence. They just couldn't compete with the new companies who did pursue the better ways of doing things.

Re: Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo

#140

Post by rafiki6 »

I'm very much in the same situation. I also recently finished a MSc in Data Science with the hopes that I can make a career switch into something a bit more exploratory, but that isn't really happening and then COVID happened.

But I think I've come to a realization. What we are experiencing is burn out. We have all the signs. We are jaded, cynical, tired, can't focus, easily agitated. (I'm assuming all this applies to you too).

If you have enough money, can I suggest taking a break? A sabbatical if you will. I'm considering doing the same. You might discover something else out there you'd be more interested in. You might come up with a brilliant idea that will be a viable business. Or you might just...take a break. That in and of itself is an incredibly important thing to do, especially for your mental health. When you've spent most of your adult waking hours focused on what is fundamentally bullsh*t to make other people money, it's easy to lose yourself and to lose perspective.

At the end of the day, we are humans and we need to remind ourselves of that.

Post reply on HN