If you want to work 12 hours a day, I guess? I am happiest as a developer because it allows me to enjoy my life outside of work too.
Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
11–20 of 24 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#12At any given point people are more likely to offer you more $$ for accumulated skills rather than pay you while you learn those new skills.
At the same time many people stop improving after the first few years on the job, and some even get worse with time as they get lazy, or bitter, or they simply don’t adapt.
That's not true at all
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#13It's because doing two or three careers spreads your focus...you'll learn at fraction of the speed and progress slowly.
Fine at the start of your career, but specialisation wins out ultimately
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#14Most things people want to do are not skills which are financially rewarded. It's possible to build a career doing their passion, but it would also involve activities they don't enjoy to get there. They decide it's not worth it and use their existing career to fund their passions.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#15I don't think it's as simple as that you make more money the longer you're in a career. Your first few years, as you rise through the org chart, you make much more money every couple of years. Unfortunately, that tends to plateau after a few cycles.
Someone with 15 years in an industry doesn't make much more than someone with 10 years in an industry, but may hate it a lot more. This coincides with the time many people start to look around and say "hmm, maybe there are other things in life than this fucking job".
So, it's not at all obvious to me that the expected return is the only explanation, though I'm sure it does factor in, as does the cost and risk of starting your career over in your (let's say) 30s, possibly with a mortgage and a family.
Most people here are engineers, which is (for the time being) a reasonably simple way to have a plush job and make a nice income, and so you may be saying "why would I take a job that pays less and doesn't cater my lunch every day?" But, consider this fact: a lot of people aren't engineers. Maybe most of them! This question makes more sense outside that context. Or even if, in some dark, hypothetical future we shudder to contemplate, being an engineer stops being the career meta.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the same time many people stop improving after the first few years on the job, and some even get worse with time as they get lazy, or bitter, or they simply don’t adapt.
That's not true at all
do you have an argument or just want to pointlessly "disagree"
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#17If you want to work 12 hours a day, I guess? I am happiest as a developer because it allows me to enjoy my life outside of work too.
Serial, not parallel.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#18In my experience, which I suspect is not unique, the issue is that I gained experience in one career which led to me being paid a decent salary.
Using that salary (which I have been able to maintain across employers in the same career), I took on financial obligations: house, kids, car, etc.
When I consider changing career (which happens fairly often), it seems unlikely that I'd be able to get an equivalent salary immediately, or even within say 3 years: there's a level of remuneration available for someone with 20 years experience that's hard to get with 3 years experience in a field, and that's assuming I didn't need to take time off work to retrain.
So .. I'm kinda trapped. I could downsize my life, but that's disruptive especially for kids. And it's disruptive to my retirement savings as well. So far that tradeoff hasn't seemed worth it. And then every year you stay, the more solidly trapped you get.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#19this happens all the time. one of my good friends started his career off as a data center tech and now is an electrician. he really liked the cabling aspect of the job and now is self employed, making 2-3x what he'd make as a data center person.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the same time many people stop improving after the first few years on the job, and some even get worse with time as they get lazy, or bitter, or they simply don’t adapt.
That's not true at all
I've seen all those things happen. Are you contradicting my lived experience?