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Additionally, exploring professional development opportunities or certifications in relevant areas could enhance your skill set and open up new avenues.
* This might sound trite, but you will make the most money when your company has lots of money. If your company is struggling or its industry is going through a cyclical slowdown, you will typically make less than at a flush firm or in a booming industry, even if you are a top performer. Tactically switching industries midway through my career led me to significantly higher comp longer term (several multiples). * Bec…
Out of curiosity, which industry did you switch from (and to)?
Since high school, I have had precisely one job where I did not know someone going in and/or who did not come to me: and that was cleaning cars at Hertz at the turn of the century
Every single other position I have had came from: a referral, personal inquiry, or a recruiter finding me
Maintain a good reputation, and get to know as many people as you can
I'll be brief and say the key to many successful careers has been to focus on data . Software, infrastructure, and everything digital is just scaffolding and piping to move and transform data in one way or another. So if you find some kind of data you enjoy working with or interpreting, then you can become an expert in that kind of data (the domain) and the problems and solutions that are related. Best of luck!
Do you have other examples of this or a more elaborate form of explanation to this?
* This might sound trite, but you will make the most money when your company has lots of money. If your company is struggling or its industry is going through a cyclical slowdown, you will typically make less than at a flush firm or in a booming industry, even if you are a top performer. Tactically switching industries midway through my career led me to significantly higher comp longer term (several multiples). * Bec…
> Tactically switching industries midway through my career led me to significantly higher comp longer term (several multiples). Out of curiosity, which industry did you switch from (and to)?
* This might sound trite, but you will make the most money when your company has lots of money. If your company is struggling or its industry is going through a cyclical slowdown, you will typically make less than at a flush firm or in a booming industry, even if you are a top performer. Tactically switching industries midway through my career led me to significantly higher comp longer term (several multiples). * Bec…
These are great pieces of advice, and something I wish I had followed earlier in life. I probably should be following one of them now even.
But you also mention wanting to find meaning. The two aren't necessarily related, so you need to decide what you actually want.
I'll be brief and say the key to many successful careers has been to focus on data . Software, infrastructure, and everything digital is just scaffolding and piping to move and transform data in one way or another. So if you find some kind of data you enjoy working with or interpreting, then you can become an expert in that kind of data (the domain) and the problems and solutions that are related. Best of luck!
Never thought that specific data is what defines a domain. Do you have other examples of this or a more elaborate form of explanation to this?
I work in fintech, the data points of my domain are transactions, prices, properties of different instruments, etc.
This data is moved + manipulated in different ways using different formats by different systems, but each day I accumulate useful context and expertise on the data of my domain.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Tactically switching industries midway through my career led me to significantly higher comp longer term (several multiples). Out of curiosity, which industry did you switch from (and to)?
I worked in telecom for a number of years. After years of outsourcing and cost cutting, I left and took a job at a company that might be considered fintech now. This coincided with the early days of electronic trading. This led to a software career in finance, which was an unanticipated but lucrative career turn.
* This might sound trite, but you will make the most money when your company has lots of money. If your company is struggling or its industry is going through a cyclical slowdown, you will typically make less than at a flush firm or in a booming industry, even if you are a top performer. Tactically switching industries midway through my career led me to significantly higher comp longer term (several multiples). * Bec…