Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#61

Post by etamponi » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 9:58 PM UTC

Thought that I could replace lower-than-average communication skills with higher-than-average technical skills.

The story goes that software engineering is about knowing how to design a system a build it.

The truth is: you also have to know how to _sell_ your design, how to document your decisions, how to push forward with your agenda. You won't go anywhere without a team that values you. This means that interpersonal and communication skills should be valued much more than what I thought they'd had to be.

The most important part of a person is their relationships (you're not convinced? Try this exercise: describe yourself without mentioning any single relationship or its effect on you. What remains?). This is true both outside and inside your job. Value building strong and good relationships.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#62

Post by void_mint » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 9:58 PM UTC

lucb1e wrote: post #55

somtum wrote: post #11

Staying in the first company of my professional career for too long. I would have learnt more and earned more if I moved companies regularly early on.

What if you're happy where you are, you're perfectly satisfied with your salary (above median income right after leaving school and increased ~35% since then), and there is basically 1 alternative company nearby (where you'd have a lot more travel) and the rest is either a leap (hoping that you'll like a different kind of work) or more than doubles your commute time (to >1h one-way)? I heard this advice before and at…

An argument I would make would be for future proofing your employability. You clearly care about thinking long-term. What if the current gig goes under, are you properly trained in technologies other companies in 5-10 years would use, that maybe your current gig doesn't?

Just spitballing. If you really are 10/10 happy, and aren't concerned with the possibility of that company blinking out of existence and being screwed, I would probably just say ride with it until you feel like quitting.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#63

Post by poletopole » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:00 PM UTC

tyleo wrote: post #22

poletopole wrote: post #15

Becoming too emotionally invested and involved in the welfare of the company where I worked for seven years. This had the opposite affect with my boss and management because I was making delusional organizational and engineering decisions with no authority to do so. Even though I thought my intentions were aligned with the future of the company, nothing could have been further from the truth. My advice is keep things…

I agree with this right up until the last sentence. If you feel the need to be an “impeccable toy model” I’d say leave. Sounds like a recipe for a life of misery.

We were codependent, the misery was mutual.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#64

Post by void_mint » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:00 PM UTC

Zelphyr wrote: post #60

void_mint wrote: post #26

Twice I have built entire full-featured applications and then not shipped them out of embarrassment(fear of failing I guess?). Both times, a few years later similar applications became very popular. Very recently one of them showed upon the front page of HN to high praise. It's a mistake I'm still making, I guess, which is to assume that it could never "be me". It can be anyone. Just ship the damn thing.

Don’t feel too bad. My grandfather had the opportunity to buy some land in Atlanta in the late 60’s/early 70’s and turned it down because it was shanty town and the guy offering him the opportunity was a known crook. Shortly after that it became CNN Center.

The only part I feel bad about is not really "learning" from these mistakes. I don't worry too hard about things I cannot change, so those two opportunities came and went. The part that bothers me is the fact that I haven't been swinging harder at ideas that I've thought about pursuing. There's _some amount of evidence_ that the ideas I'm having in this particularly industry are valuable and others would want.

After a long day at (usually at least mildly frustrating) work, it's just hard to work up the energy to just keep coding.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#65

Post by Zelphyr » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

rdtwo wrote: post #33

Report a defect in a product that production management did not want to fix. I got kicked off the project and it took years to clear my name.

Sounds like you were doing the right thing for a company with terrible management.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#66

Post by kalonis » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

I pretended to often that I had figured everything out and didn't need any help. Although this worked out ok, I would have surely learnt more if I had more often admitted that I was stuck and asked for some input.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#67

Post by thanhhaimai » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:08 PM UTC

zmmmmm wrote: post #40

poletopole wrote: post #15

Becoming too emotionally invested and involved in the welfare of the company where I worked for seven years. This had the opposite affect with my boss and management because I was making delusional organizational and engineering decisions with no authority to do so. Even though I thought my intentions were aligned with the future of the company, nothing could have been further from the truth. My advice is keep things…

> This had the opposite affect with my boss and management because I was making delusional organizational and engineering decisions with no authority to do so I have experienced this from the management perspective and it resonates strongly with experiences I have had. Some of the hardest employees to manage are those that are both talented and heavily invested, but unable to accept what their role actually is. When…

I also had experience leading both talented and heavily invested teams. Differently from your experience, we were able to get the team hyper productive and accomplished a lot of good things together. A couple lessons I learned:

- Micromanaging and "make them accept their role" is how you make them unproductive. Smart/talented people can tell if the manager doesn't care. They know if they are being forced to be a cog in the machine. They either become frustrated and quit, or resigned into doing just enough work 9-5.

- Having talented and invested folks voicing ideas that aren't in alignment with the current technical vision is a critical signal you should take note. That may mean you don't have a good Tech Lead that can convince those folks why the current approach is good. It's not the job of those folks to "align" with the Tech Lead. It's the Tech Lead job to convince those folks that the approach is correct.

- Everyone requires a different way to lead/manage. But in general, the more talented a person is, the more autonomy they would expect. To get the best out of them, assume good faith, and trust their autonomy.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#68

Post by davnicwil » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:08 PM UTC

void_mint wrote: post #26

Twice I have built entire full-featured applications and then not shipped them out of embarrassment(fear of failing I guess?). Both times, a few years later similar applications became very popular. Very recently one of them showed upon the front page of HN to high praise. It's a mistake I'm still making, I guess, which is to assume that it could never "be me". It can be anyone. Just ship the damn thing.

You might enjoy a blog post I wrote on this topic [0] :-)

TLDR - ship it and welcome all negative feedback which is actually a great outcome! The usual outcome is no feedback at all as nobody cares.

[0] https://davnicwil.com/negative-feedback-is-positive/

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#69

Post by underseacables » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:14 PM UTC

I made a dumb mistake and got fired three years in. Instead of dusting myself off and jumping back in, I tried to pivot to a new career, went back to school, and just failed at all of it. Took five years but I made it back to my original career track and I’m finally back to where I should be.

Re: Ask HN: What huge mistake did you make early in your career?

#70

Post by lucb1e » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 10:15 PM UTC

void_mint wrote: post #62

lucb1e wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you're happy where you are, you're perfectly satisfied with your salary (above median income right after leaving school and increased ~35% since then), and there is basically 1 alternative company nearby (where you'd have a lot more travel) and the rest is either a leap (hoping that you'll like a different kind of work) or more than doubles your commute time (to >1h one-way)? I heard this advice before and at…

An argument I would make would be for future proofing your employability. You clearly care about thinking long-term. What if the current gig goes under, are you properly trained in technologies other companies in 5-10 years would use, that maybe your current gig doesn't? Just spitballing. If you really are 10/10 happy, and aren't concerned with the possibility of that company blinking out of existence and being screw…

Thanks for the input!