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Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

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Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#121

Post by ghaff »

ransom1538 wrote: post #108

SALES. What fascinates me about sales is the ability to bring immediate value to a company. True value. If you walk in the door and bring in a new sale order for $100k: the company just made money. It may sound impossible todo. But it isn't. EG. Selling a twilio account to uber isn't like landing a mars rover. It is totally possible. Uber needs to send text messages and there are only a handful of players in that spa…

I don't disagree. It's an option to consider. There are also customer-facing roles that are more technical (systems engineers, solution architects, etc.) and various gradations between those and sales generalists.

With that said, a couple caveats.

1. There are definite personality and skill sets that fit well with sales--or at least the sort of outside sales job one would aspire to. Some of this can probably be learned but it comes more naturally to some people than others.

2. Sales tends to be very performance-oriented. On the one hand, it means it may be easier to land a sales role. On the other hand, you have to make your numbers or you won't be around long.

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#122

Post by ensiferum »

Have you considered taking some time off, like a sabbatical and going to travel and working some odd jobs?

I did that 3 times total and had plenty of odd jobs.

  - fruit picking
  - removals
  - gardener
  - handy man
  - dive master
Out of those only dive mastering was something that considered taking further and becoming an instructor. I was half serious about it but in the end just didn't go for it.

If I was you I'd take some time off and think about the next direction. Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#123

Post by Ultimatt »

brailsafe wrote: post #53
peckrob wrote: post #24

I stated my career early - while I was still in high school. I went from bagging groceries and doing checkouts at a grocery store to programming for a local company my senior year of high school. I continued doing this for my first couple years of college. But then dot-bomb happened and it looked like the party was over. I looked down at the job opportunities after graduation. I didn't really want to spend the rest o…

This is an astoundingly relevant answer to my question and thank you for taking the time to tell your story. I don't have an answer yet but this gives me something to think about. I share the same interests outside of the office and the same feeling you had once the bubble burst. I was hoping to find some advice on how I could turn the experience I did have into something beneficial to a potential employer—such as th…

I'd consider also how you can pivot slightly rather than completely. Coming out of my undergrad degree I had absolutely zero interest in writing boiler plate style software suited-up in a large company. Instead I took on jnr research positions in other fields like earth sciences as a research assistant, working with satellite data and high throughput laser scanning. Essentially the computer/robotics guy for people not capable of that but with grand ideas. You can find these sorts of jobs on NewScientist or Nature jobs listings, academics are incredibly accepting of computer literate field swappers. Eventually I realised a PhD was essentially the only way to have freedom in the space of research. So I found the most general explorative course I could, which at the time was a new PhD centre training a large cohort (60+ students over 8 years) in complexity sciences. The experience of being around a load of smart people from various backgrounds all working on interesting problems cannot be under estimated as a morale boost. I now also have a wide network of friends doing cool stuff I can always rely on in a pinch for perhaps finding fun work. The course was super rapid switching between subjects with maths covered the whole time. It gave me exposure to most university departments and the sorts of big problems everyone had. Eventually I came across protein structures and molecular biology which was only something I only had a rough understanding of coming from computer science, self studying the biology behind genetic algorithms. The realities of that field have completely sucked me in forever, like nothing I've really found before. I had a misguided try at doing some robotics before settling on molecular biology. But now post PhD I get to work in companies that are doing really interesting stuff, and on software that's relatively creative and cutting edge to develop compared to what I could have been working on post undergrad. Not all software has to give you that trapped dead end feeling. I've recently switched jobs simply because what I was working on wasnt quite engaging enough and I felt trapped by the higher rents that tend to be common where techy jobs are aplenty. But you really dont have to accept this at all once you have some experience and a network of contacts developed.

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#124

Post by amyjess »

ransom1538 wrote: post #108

SALES. What fascinates me about sales is the ability to bring immediate value to a company. True value. If you walk in the door and bring in a new sale order for $100k: the company just made money. It may sound impossible todo. But it isn't. EG. Selling a twilio account to uber isn't like landing a mars rover. It is totally possible. Uber needs to send text messages and there are only a handful of players in that spa…

> If you passed his desk around 2pm on friday? It would be empty.

And the flipside of this is that his desk is probably empty because he's on a plane, flying either to or from a potential customer's office.

Sales people travel a lot. Now, you might think "oh sweet, I'll get to see all kinds of exotic locales". Unfortunately, that's not what business travel is. You will get to see three things: the airport, your hotel room, and your potential customer's conference room. If you're lucky, you may also get to eat at a nice restaurant. You won't have time to sightsee and be a tourist.

It's very tiring. You go from the airport to your hotel room, drop off your suitcase, maybe change your clothes, then head over to the potential customer's site, spend all day schmoozing them, maybe go out to eat after, and then go to your hotel room, pass out, and wake up first thing in the morning and go back to the airport. Then you repeat the whole process the next day.

It's a lifestyle very few people can tolerate.

Are there sales positions that don't involve travelling all the time? Yeah, it's called inside sales. Inside sales is basically working at an outbound call center. It's a fancy name for telemarketing. It doesn't pay nearly as much as outside sales, because most companies that use inside sales only use them for their smallest accounts, and the work environment is its own kind of shitty. You're going to have a manager walking the floor all the time to make sure everyone's on task at all times. You know how in IT/software you might spend half your time goofing off on HN or wherever else and only doing a few hours of work a day? Yeah, that's not going to fly in inside sales. I used to work next to my company's inside sales department... I remember hearing the head of inside sales tell one of the ISRs "Any time not spent on the phone, writing an email, or in a meeting is time wasted". Later on, I heard him tell the same ISR that he needs to write and develop his sales pitches at home on his own time. Inside sales is the entry level; it's what young sales people who don't have any experience or their own list of contacts do. Once someone has built up a rolodex and gains enough practical experience how to sell things, they leave inside sales and move up into outside sales.

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#125

Post by stefek99 »

Seems like you are time rich - travel?

If money is an issue - set a goal (say $2000) and work until you reach it.

Building simple website / setting up WordPress / educating people on value of online presence - not very scalable but good enough to get you going...

(I believe you have a techie label among your friends and family)

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#126

Post by monster_group »

Be very careful about such a career transition. Grass always seems greener on the other side. You don't realize what you have until you lose it. Sure there are job related problems in IT but they are nothing compared to other other industry jobs especially the ones that pay minimum wage. Most minimum wage jobs are physically demanding and will drain the hell out of you. Any job that requires dealing with general public is very taxing and offers virtually no flexibility in work hours. You will be more burnt out than in IT. I suggest you take up hobbies in free time (sports, musical instrument etc). Do things that you like and then you will not feel burnt out but you would enjoy the hobbies as well as work. You will also realize that work is not everything. If you view work as something that enables you to do other things in free time you wouldn't mind it so much. And IT is particularly good at that - good salaries, good working conditions, reasonable work hours. Do not underestimate what you have.

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#127

Post by bovermyer »

custos wrote: post #107
sunir wrote: post #100

You write as if you are trapped in IT. You say you are burnt out. Perhaps the feeling you are trapped is coming from inside you rather than the world? Burn out comes from using willpower to force yourself to do work that you have no hope will succeed. The feeling of being trapped comes with that. The Fight Flight Freeze response. The feeling is inside you. You can fly to another industry but the feeling will go with…

"You can fly to another industry but the feeling will go with you and you will remain unsettled." I took a break from software development due to burn out, got my CDL and drove an 18 wheeler for a few months. The experience was practically a relaxing (after training) paid vacation where I could see the country, and made feel so much better. I was even able to go back to software development afterwards with renewed dr…

This feels like a fascinating story waiting to be told. I don't suppose you blogged about this anywhere?

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#128

Post by joshvm »

shahbaby wrote: post #89

As someone who has worked those type of jobs for years, the grass is indeed NOT greener on the other side. Those jobs have a much lower barrier to entry, so in addition to being paid less, employers can hire and fire much more easily. Also don't fall for the "sales is such a great skill to have!" When was the last time a salesperson convinced you to buy something? What will you have to show for the years you're going…

B2B sales is probably a lot more compelling than B2C sales. Big difference in mentality. Consumers don't typically value their time monetarily, whereas businesses are (mostly) only concerned with how much money they'll save if they buy your product.

And then you realise why people will pay $10k for software that saves them even an hour a day. It pays for itself in under a year.

Having done it, I would never get a job in retail again. It's absolutely soul destroying.

Re: Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?

#129

Post by jondubois »

colechristensen wrote: post #42
sidlls wrote: post #34

When my family moved to the Bay Area we owned a home. Rather than sell, we engaged a property manager to rent it out. We had a few years of excellent income from that which essentially paid the PITI (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) on our FHA-financed home (including holding a "reserve" for repairs, vacancy, etc.) plus a (very small) profit. It definitely lit a fire in my belly to switch out. I find softwa…

Personally, I find going into real estate borderline immoral. Competing with people who want to own homes raises prices and makes people spend less on more interesting and intrinsically valuable pieces of the economy. There is some place for it, but right now there is far far too much money and too many people vying to get maximum profit out of a basic human need.

It's not more immoral than any other sales job or being a lawyer, trader, politician, tax accountant, banker, financier... 90% of white-collar jobs are immoral. If you want to be moral, become a garbage collector, builder, janitor, etc...
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