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Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
131–140 of 491 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you recommend getting an MSCS for getting into AI?
I had a really good time and learned more than I thought I would during my postgrad studies. However if you would be paying full tuition there's probably cheaper ways to get into AI though.
Just do the coursera courses and get started.
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#133Saving and investing approximately 40% of my income at all times.
Did it work out well? How long did you compound?
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#134I was a mid-level developer at a large software company making a very competitive salary and quit to join the U.S. Marine Corps and train to become a Naval Aviator.
I'm now a 'mid-level' AH-1Z pilot.
I work longer hours and have generally a lower quality of life but there's something to be said for the immensely unique things I've gotten to do and how profoundly well-rounded the entire experience has made me.
I will be re-entering the software industry in a few years unless another passion pulls me in some new direction.
The military is obviously not for everyone but picking up the phone, ducking into a side conference room across from my cube, and giving a verbal commit to my 'recruiter' that day (after a years-long selection process) has been the best decision I've ever made.
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#135I did following things that helped me grow, 1. My engineering ended in 2013. I was shit broke. I started doing online courses in 2016. Till now I have done 51 online courses in different things and just a month ago I got moved into a DevOps role (from a WordPress developer role). $0 invested in it. 2. The other best thing is growing my LinkedIn network. I grew my network from 200 people to to 15000 people (most of wh…
I have a ton of questions for you but I'll boil it down to several for now:
1) Which courses would you recommend?
Which had the greatest impact?
How would you do things differently?
Would you forego engineering entirely?
2) Suppose one doesnt have friends from school or work, how does one build a linkedin following?
What did you write about?
How did you promote your articles?
3. Again, favorite books? Most impactful?
4. Maybe once you get back to me, we can talk about 4 this sounds super interesting! But maybe you can give me the jist of what you did? For example why did they bother replying to you when tons are reaching out to them everyday?
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#136Note: I just graduated and have about 2 years of working experience at most. So my view presents on how to start a good early game. Also my view is EU-centric. I think this strategy would fare less well in the US (in some places).
Working as a freelancer with only 6 months of programming experience before that. (1) Best entry job salary ever, (2) you act and move like a consultant and see different industries, (3) you realize that there are industries for which graduate programming level knowledge is enough, (4) tax benefits and (5) it gives you some time and experience to actually think about what you want to do as a career after freelancing.
The rub: I am terrible at getting clients. I just have 1 friend who knows that I'm capable of and he thinks I'm awesome and always recommends me whomever he talks to. So having a champion is vital. The thing is all kinds of companies see him as a good programmer (he graduated a bootcamp, top/1st of his class -- by a landslide) and he thinks I am as good as him but with a lot more in-depth knowledge due to my CS background. So for him it is very easy to recommend me.
The tip I got from some people was: don't be a freelancer for too long. You don't want to be one in a recession, so being a freelancer should always be either (a) a side gig or (b) a temporary full-time thing (for a couple of years). I wonder what people think about this statement.
Immediately investing the excess of whatever you earn is amazing too.
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#137By far, applying to work remote for a US based company 3 years ago. I am living in Romania. I still work for them. Theoretically I should be able to retire in about 5-10 years, in my mid 40s, depending on how frugal I am with my expenses. This wouldn't have been possible working for a local software company, even though I was paid about 3 times the average national income.
it's so sad that from where i live (SEA), 3 times average gdp per capita is no where enough for retirement. insurance and healthcare system is a joke. so whenever you got health issue, be prepare to spend butt-load of money. i have no idea how gdp per capita is so low yet people have so much of money (unreported income, corruption probably) I make about 25 times the national gdp per capita yet i'm just above average…
I had 3 times the average national net salary, not GDP, which I guess should be even more. But that income wouldn't have allowed me to retire either. It would allow us (me, my wife and a child) to live a comfortable life though.
As a back of the envelope calculation, if you can live with 30% from the income, one should be able to retire in about 7 years.
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#138I was a mid-level developer at a large software company making a very competitive salary and quit to join the U.S. Marine Corps and train to become a Naval Aviator. I'm now a 'mid-level' AH-1Z pilot. I work longer hours and have generally a lower quality of life but there's something to be said for the immensely unique things I've gotten to do and how profoundly well-rounded the entire experience has made me. I will…
Years long selection process? I'd love to hear what was involved and why it took so long. That's definitely a pretty drastic switch!
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#139I did following things that helped me grow, 1. My engineering ended in 2013. I was shit broke. I started doing online courses in 2016. Till now I have done 51 online courses in different things and just a month ago I got moved into a DevOps role (from a WordPress developer role). $0 invested in it. 2. The other best thing is growing my LinkedIn network. I grew my network from 200 people to to 15000 people (most of wh…
I have a ton of questions for you but I'll boil it down to several for now: 1) Which courses would you recommend? Which had the greatest impact? How would you do things differently? Would you forego engineering entirely? 2) Suppose one doesnt have friends from school or work, how does one build a linkedin following? What did you write about? How did you promote your articles? 3. Again, favorite books? Most impactful?…
1. The courses on AI/Machine learning and blockchain (or anything that has do with 4th Industrial revolution) are great. Coursera is great for this.
The greatest impact was the combined effort of being able to do multiple courses (in so many different things) and being able to better understand different programming languages, technologies and marketing (SEO, ads, content marketing, referral marketing, driving sales).
Can't leave engineering. Engineering is the passion. I have a strong belief that all parts of business should be driven by engineers from development to sales and marketing. Yesterday I went to a meetup and I met sales people on the booths who had no idea on the product they were selling worked and how it could help others.
2.) If you don't have friends in school, go out to events, network. Talk to people, add them on LinkedIn. Found someone interesting online? Feel free to email them and get to know each other. Thats how I have built my network. Don't forget the nurture professional relationships. Your network is your networth.
3.) I have a 15000 people following, the articles that are of interest get viral. A few times I tried to post my articles on some FB groups. It did work out well but I don't do it anymore. Best is to just keep writing (you may post on Reddit, FB etc but be aware that you might get banned for self promotion).
3. 'The Lean Startup' and 'The defining decade' are the most impactful books.
4. You can see my Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifahaduddin/
Re: Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
#140I did following things that helped me grow, 1. My engineering ended in 2013. I was shit broke. I started doing online courses in 2016. Till now I have done 51 online courses in different things and just a month ago I got moved into a DevOps role (from a WordPress developer role). $0 invested in it. 2. The other best thing is growing my LinkedIn network. I grew my network from 200 people to to 15000 people (most of wh…
Ye gods. I'm glad that is working for you, but that's a little beyond what most people can manage
Thanks!