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Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#31

Post by hbar »

I have a hard and interesting job. I do navigation & autonomous control systems for large mining vehicles. A couple of notes...

1. You want to do R&D. Developing new things is fun; maintaining existing things is boring. However, "getting in" to R&D positions is difficult without #2:

2. Domain knowledge. We almost never hire based on programming skill alone. Programming is a prerequisite, but specific expertise (guidance, navigation & control systems in my case) is the real value you need to bring. Graduate degrees are one way (but not the only way) to move in this direction.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#32

Post by netcan »

noahc wrote: post #28

This sounds like a variant of the meme "I could build stackoverflow in a weekend". If you think you can build 99% of the apps out there, go out and try to build a moderately complex app. Make it better. You'll see there are all types of challenges from the technical, to the social to the political in small and large companies. Being a software developer is about solving all sorts of challenges, and not all of them ar…

I don't think thats its a variant of the meme "I could build stackoverflow in a weekend." It doesn't have the in a weekend part.

The OP seems to consider getting a PhD an acceptable route. He's asking for directions, not a shortcut.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#33

Post by Techasura »

burningion wrote: post #29
nielmalhotra wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had money and free time, then I'd love to do research on my own. Thing is, I need a job to pay the bills :( I'm thinking of getting into freelancing and using that to float me as I get to do more and more research.

This is the strategy I'm currently implementing. I've been doing freelance work while working on research with physiological sensors as computer input. You'll need two things to get started doing this sort of thing: standing out as a member of your community so people come to you, and an understanding of business needs. If you really want to make the switch, shoot me an email. I'll give you some tips on making the tr…

can i? i'm on the same lines as the OP.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#35

Post by allinzen »

Interdisciplinary projects have a lot of potential to be challenging and rewarding. Bioinformatics, Computational Neuroscience, etc. - these are your phd jobs. Another cross disciplinary project is entrepreneurship (you have to do everything - marketing, finance, product development, etc.) and this doesn't require a phd.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#36

Post by MojoJolo »

I'm with you. I really like solving problems or finding a good algorithm to solve the problem. What I can say for you is try to find a company with lots of R&D going. I think there are many companies out there, especially startups that are having some R&D to improve their product and beat their competition. I think startups like Prismatic (http://getprismatic.com) and Diffbot (http://www.diffbot.com) have a heavy NLP and machine learning research going in the background to improve their product. I'm interested in joining those companies I mentioned and contribute to their reaserch and development.

I think game companies also have an R&D to improve their AI, path finding, rendering algorithms, etc.

That's it. Just find an R&D job.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#37

Post by tsilva »

1: the "99%" you're looking at are jobs on a specific niche that uses technology to bounce information from one place to another and display them, mostly known as IT jobs.

2: Hard problems are everywhere. Literally. Even in those "99%" jobs you mentioned -- "doing" such software may not be full of mysteries, but make it evolve without break and respond to constraints are examples of real hard challenges. It's a matter of seeing them and putting it on perspective.

3: there are many ways of framing a problem, making it hard or easier. The harder you frame it, the more instruments you will be required to have to tackle it. Those may involve research skills and fluency in an array of fields that would help understand the phenomena. It mostly depend on where in the spectrum of the problem you want to work, and that's up to you to figure it out.

4: advice to avoid a career working on crud apps: interview the interviewer and find out if the problems of the hiring company are the ones that you value.

5: questions like "where to work on hard/fun stuff" are very hard to give satisfying answers. I suggest you take the time to survey problems you are interested, try talking to people working on them...many problems are tackled by teams, often with people with different background and specialties dealing with different aspects of the problem.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#38

Post by rayiner »

Defense sector is full of hard problems. A PhD helps, but even with a BS you can be working on very challenging things. When I worked at a defense startup we were designing protocols, writing VHDL and drivers for logic implemented in FPGA's, doing formal analysis of algorithms, doing data visualization, etc. Different people were doing different things, obviously, but even the junior folks were tackling problems that required reaching into their CS toolbox.

Its not an industry that has a great reputation, but what it does have is phenomenal engineers working on complex multidisciplinary problems.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the hard programming challenges/jobs?

#40

Post by nielmalhotra »

burningion wrote: post #29
nielmalhotra wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had money and free time, then I'd love to do research on my own. Thing is, I need a job to pay the bills :( I'm thinking of getting into freelancing and using that to float me as I get to do more and more research.

This is the strategy I'm currently implementing. I've been doing freelance work while working on research with physiological sensors as computer input. You'll need two things to get started doing this sort of thing: standing out as a member of your community so people come to you, and an understanding of business needs. If you really want to make the switch, shoot me an email. I'll give you some tips on making the tr…

So, I can't find your email. I checked your profile and your blog. I can follow you on twitter or whatever you like, but your advice would be extremely valuable.
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