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Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

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Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#71

Post by cpitkin »

As someone who is trying to move into the development space from a more sys admin role this is great to hear. I have a similar idea about learning new things. I just dive in with both feet and start building, watching tutorials, and reading the docs. I have been working on Nodejs/Meteorjs apps in my spare time. I am just going to keep building little side projects to get better and learning all I can along the way.

Glad to see I am on the right track and that others have had success managing their career path. Thanks for all the great advice!

Moral of the thread: Never stop learning!

Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#72

Post by ofcapl_ »

It is a good question! Personally, I've got my first full-time job thanks mostly to own side projects in my portfolio - I was hired even without code challenge during recruit process - so listen to 75% of comments here - do some side projects, built a solid portfolio and apply.

You can also try some contract work/start own business and do some simply projects that one-man-band can handle - I was trying that too and after every project I've felt that my skills got a boost.

Best,

ł.

Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#74

Post by BadassFractal »

vijayr wrote: post #70
BadassFractal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! I've had the opportunity to hire for our company for the past year or so. We use a somewhat uncommon paradigm in our tech stack that is very attractive to a lot of developers. Many of our applicants have exactly what you said: plenty of side projects in that paradigm / stack and participation to meetups / communities etc. Occasionally however I run into people who have absolutely no side projects and have been…

I agree that someone who doesn't have side projects isn't as attractive as someone who does, in general. But there are lots of people who don't do any programming once they leave the office (8-9 hours of computer time is more than enough for them). That doesn't mean that they aren't dedicated or that they are a risk. I think it should be a case by case basis.

Fundamentally, risk isn't binary. There's more risk and there's less risk. For my kind of team, the absence of side projects, demonstrated lack of interest in furthering one's craft outside of paid hours increases the risk of this person not being able to pull his weight, if somehow he slips through the regular filtering mechanisms. As you pointed out, every candidate presents a unique risk profile, and every company weighs different factors differently.

Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#75

Post by swalsh »

I just switched from C# to Ruby. Honestly the switch has not been that big of deal. The company is giving me some time to learn, and the switch has been pretty painless.

I think if you want to switch, I think its more important to demonstrate skills in the base skill set (in my case software architecture), and then there are plenty of people willing to give you some room to grow.

Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#76

Post by mistermann »

BadassFractal wrote: post #57
hkarthik wrote: post #13

I did this back in 2009. Here's how to do it. Pick a technology stack that you want to get a job in and build a side project in your spare time. Attend meetups with experts in your local community and learn how to make it awesome. Build relationships with them along the way. Use those relationships to get some part-time contract work in said technology stack with someone local. Document this experience and build up a…

This! I've had the opportunity to hire for our company for the past year or so. We use a somewhat uncommon paradigm in our tech stack that is very attractive to a lot of developers. Many of our applicants have exactly what you said: plenty of side projects in that paradigm / stack and participation to meetups / communities etc. Occasionally however I run into people who have absolutely no side projects and have been…

> "I'd never work on something I'm not being paid for, I'm a serious professional that's irresponsible".

I can understand a false "expert" delusion, but have you literally heard someone say they'd never work on something unpaid because it's unprofessional?

Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#77

Post by BadassFractal »

mistermann wrote: post #76
BadassFractal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! I've had the opportunity to hire for our company for the past year or so. We use a somewhat uncommon paradigm in our tech stack that is very attractive to a lot of developers. Many of our applicants have exactly what you said: plenty of side projects in that paradigm / stack and participation to meetups / communities etc. Occasionally however I run into people who have absolutely no side projects and have been…

> "I'd never work on something I'm not being paid for, I'm a serious professional that's irresponsible". I can understand a false "expert" delusion, but have you literally heard someone say they'd never work on something unpaid because it's unprofessional?

That's a fair concern. Not "literally", that's why I specifically said "along the lines of".

Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#79

Post by bbcbasic »

nilkn wrote: post #21

Do companies really try to pigeonhole developers into "tech stacks" so much that you'll be forced to revert to junior status to change? Unless we're talking about COBOL -> Haskell here, I think any decent company would be wary of overvaluing skills with a particular language or framework and undervaluing fundamentals.

They want you to be productive immediately, so they can assess you in the probation period, and get more bang for the buck from the outset.

For example.

If you are a C# programmer who has never done Java programming. It takes you 6-12 months to get reasonably up to speed with the JVM, standard libraries and idiomatic coding. Let alone any dependency injection, web framework etc. libraries.

Why would the Java shop pay you the same as a developer who has spent the last 5 years doing Java full time who can be productive in Java right away?

That said, I think reverting someone to junior status is too extreme. A slightly lower salary or requiring an 'ace up your sleeve' to compensate is probably fair.

Re: Ask HN: How to reskill without losing income?

#80

Post by phaus »

vijayr wrote: post #70
BadassFractal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! I've had the opportunity to hire for our company for the past year or so. We use a somewhat uncommon paradigm in our tech stack that is very attractive to a lot of developers. Many of our applicants have exactly what you said: plenty of side projects in that paradigm / stack and participation to meetups / communities etc. Occasionally however I run into people who have absolutely no side projects and have been…

I agree that someone who doesn't have side projects isn't as attractive as someone who does, in general. But there are lots of people who don't do any programming once they leave the office (8-9 hours of computer time is more than enough for them). That doesn't mean that they aren't dedicated or that they are a risk. I think it should be a case by case basis.

As someone who struggles to find enough time for side projects, I agree that it isn't necessarily a sign that someone isn't passionate about the job. However, if someone says stuff like "I'd never work on something I'm not being paid for, I'm a serious professional that's irresponsible", its pretty obvious that they don't actually like what they are doing.
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