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A career ending mistake

bitfieldconsulting.com

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Re: A career ending mistake

#201

Post by nefitty »

asdfman123 wrote: post #181
nefitty wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like some people fall into this trap if they manage to get into FAANG. I would be scared of that happening to me. It's like, your entire view of the industry was built around hitting the winner's podium, and once you've achieved that, where do you go? There's only so many gold medals to go around on the podium itself, anyways.

Depends on why you do it and what you do there. I'm at FAANG and still learning plenty. I'm not here to hit an arbitrary goal but because I have to have a job and it pays well, so might as well turbocharge my savings. But yes, you should always respect the journey. It never stops: keep participating in it, and keep your eyes open.

That's good to know! The challenges you find must be myriad. It does sound fun.

Re: A career ending mistake

#202

Post by hinkley »

Melatonic wrote: post #198
asdfman123 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're making a huge mistake when we see mastery as an end goal. I played band in grade school, pushed myself hard, burnt out, etc. Learning classical piano as an adult has been a MASSIVELY instructive experience. Here's why: I'm never going to be a professional classical pianist. Ever. It's far too competitive, I'm probably not talented enough, and it's not worth the effort. Therefore, the ONLY reason I'm doing it is…

You can view mastery as an end goal and still enjoy it - you just have to be willing to do it a bit slower.

I knew a guy who achieved I think a 3 dan status in Go having started somewhere north of 45 yo, which the common wisdom says can’t be done.

It’s always a matter of finding internal motivation. We get better at talking ourselves out of it as we get older.

Re: A career ending mistake

#203

Post by ghaff »

pcmoney wrote: post #168

A lot of people are dunking on this post but none are showing a terminal career path that stays in tech and is something other than: - Manager of some kind - Senior IC of some kind - Independent of some kind It seems a reasonable breakdown to me, finer grained distinctions do not have the same magnitude of skill and prerequisite knowledge differences.

It's a reasonable if very generalized taxonomy--and it captures someone who really wants to be their own boss, someone who wants to manage people, and someone who doesn't really want any of those things. But within those categories, the differences are vast. I've effectively had three rather different 10-ish year careers as an IC (plus one other shorter one that, as planned, I left to go to grad school).

Re: A career ending mistake

#205

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

duxup wrote: post #42

I changed careers at 40+ years old. I'm very happy that I did it. People have all sorts of constructs / ideas about how careers work (based on experience) or how they think it works, or how they want it to work. I talk to some college graduates who tell me what they're planning for and have ZERO clue what industry they're talking about, their description is unrecognizable to me ... even tho I know it is the one I wor…

There are many, many former tech careerists who become entrepreneurs in non-tech businesses. Wineries, coffee shops, bakeries...

Mechanical Engineer->Baker

https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/134975/at-the-midwife-and-...

No shortage of wineries:

Aerospace:

https://www.princeofpinot.com/article/680/

https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/san-fernando-valley-ventura/new...

Software: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-silicon-valley-prepared-...

Seems like starting a non-tech business for career techies should be a valid career destination.

Re: A career ending mistake

#206

Post by eulerian »

svnt wrote: post #71
eulerian wrote: post #40

Curious if there's anyone who's made a plan for this sort of a thing. I'm never able to plan even the rest of my week and follow through with it. What does a plan for your career look like and how do you get the discipline to stick to it?

For me it was more about identifying the archetype I was after so I knew who to emulate. It only lasted a year or two in most cases until I moved on to someone else. You can’t, and I don’t think it is smart to try to, line up a progression like this because in the process both you and the environment will change.

So you'd suggest something to the contrary of the article -- plan not for the end of your career but for the next few years?

Re: A career ending mistake

#207

Post by dookahku »

duxup wrote: post #42

I changed careers at 40+ years old. I'm very happy that I did it. People have all sorts of constructs / ideas about how careers work (based on experience) or how they think it works, or how they want it to work. I talk to some college graduates who tell me what they're planning for and have ZERO clue what industry they're talking about, their description is unrecognizable to me ... even tho I know it is the one I wor…

What are the other career destinations I should look out for?

Re: A career ending mistake

#208

Post by dinvlad »

nefitty wrote: post #174
asdfman123 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying a productive IC your whole career is fairly straightforward: I really think it comes down to never "coasting" and always being open to learning new things. The problem is a lot of older people seem to believe that once they get to a certain point, they're entitled a position and respect. Is it a wonder why younger people, who might be more up-to-date than them, don't want to work with them? The trick is to ne…

It seems like some people fall into this trap if they manage to get into FAANG. I would be scared of that happening to me. It's like, your entire view of the industry was built around hitting the winner's podium, and once you've achieved that, where do you go? There's only so many gold medals to go around on the podium itself, anyways.

Or you get "old" and experienced enough to realize it's all the same things every day, everywhere :-) And I can almost guarantee startups are much more learning-conducive than FAANG in that regard.

Re: A career ending mistake

#209

Post by gnarcoregrizz »

nostrademons wrote: post #127
kosievdmerwe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something people seem hesitant to realize: that after a certain point you can only grow your career by "managing" other people. This is true in a lot of (most?) fields. At some point you cannot become more productive as an individual and you need to start coordinating the work of many people if you want to increase your productivity. This can of course take many forms, but the essence is inescapable.

It's interesting to me how many people miss the other big shift that can increase their earning potential: from labor to capitalist. The ceiling is effectively unlimited for this. A good manager might make double what a good IC under them does, but the shareholder makes orders of magnitude more. The essence of capitalism is shifting resources from unproductive uses to productive ones , and they operate on global mark…

Great point. One issue with your last paragraph though, is when trying to select a company to work for from an equity/ownership standpoint, there isn't the option of diversifying a career. You can only work at once place, so you put all your eggs in one basket. In hindsight, sure, you would make better money at coinbase rather than facebook, but it's essentially going long on one stock with your time rather than capital.

The owners and capitalists have been the winners, at least in my lifetime. Investing has been de-risked enough through monetary and political policy that it's a good bet. A good example of monetary policy is low interest rates. The ability to borrow capital and take "risks" hasn't been cheaper. A political policy to encourage investment is for example the 401k - most wage earner's retirement funds go straight to the capital markets. Even public employees retirement funds ride the capital markets with optimistic outlooks. I suppose that makes most Americans capitalists whether they want to be or not, so my argument has come full circle, but that money bubbles up to the people up top, since they make the compounding gains and have access to inside markets. Personally, A few times I've made more money from ownership and investment than from my labor. It certainly is a valid approach to a career.

Re: A career ending mistake

#210

Post by musicale »

asdfman123 wrote: post #144
ebiester wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it seems to lump tech lead, staff-level individual contributor not leading a team, and architect-level positions that have no direct reports. When I speak about career options to people I lead, I say there is a senior level plateau. At that point, you have to be more intentional about growth. If you want to stay in the field, and you want to progress past senior developer (staying a core contributor is an option!…

Staying a productive IC your whole career is fairly straightforward: I really think it comes down to never "coasting" and always being open to learning new things. The problem is a lot of older people seem to believe that once they get to a certain point, they're entitled a position and respect. Is it a wonder why younger people, who might be more up-to-date than them, don't want to work with them? The trick is to ne…

This doesn't pass the smell test for me, for several reasons:

Most of the "new" ideas in computing (neural networks, quantum computing, etc.) aren't new at all. Not to mention that Linux and macOS are basically 1960s-style operating systems.

Knowledge of short-term technical details and skills at dealing with brand new systems are much easier to acquire than deep understanding of core principles as well as engineering experience.

Dismissing senior colleagues as "entitled" and their knowledge and experience as worthless and refusing to work with them as a consequence would be a grave mistake.

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