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Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

manuel.darcemont.fr

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Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#341

Post by rimliu »

dvt wrote: post #147
jsmith12673 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> recruiters are bottom-of-the-totem-pole, lowest-common-denominator, bottom-feeders Recruiters are just people just doing their jobs. It's a shame that you've labelled a diverse group of people so heavy-handedly.

Oh come on. Even as engineers , it's important not to have delusions of grandeur: we're replaceable cogs in an infinite machine. Unless you're engineer #2 or work as a VP or a part of the C-suite, you truly don't really matter to the company. Thinking otherwise will only lead to heartbreak.

Yes. But the supply of the cogs is limited, and to replace one you need to stop the machine. Even after the replacement you are not sure you put the right cog in. Cogs being replaceable does not mean that replacing them is costless.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#342

Post by gen_greyface »

goku99 wrote: post #337

I see most of comments in disagreement with the topic, either partially or totally. And yet, the post has so many upvotes. What does this mean exactly?

This means that whoever is upvoting the item, isn't doing so because they disagree/agree with it. but instead for item visibility, because of which it will attract more discussion. this is what i always use the upvote button for.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#343

Post by Cthulhu_ »

chris11 wrote: post #292
gonehome wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only this, but the premise that working on your job will impress recruiters is just wrong. There's a pretty simple flow chart for getting hired at a bay area company: 1. Go to MIT, Stanford, Cal, an Ivy, or CalTech and make sure you have linked in. 2. If 1 isn't possible then make a friend who works where you want to work and get a referral. 3. Cram leetcode That's basically it. Don't give up doing side projects…

Working at a good company can also help out. MS/Facebook/Amazon/Google all have reputations for a decent hiring bar and need to recruit a lot of engineers. There are other companies that have decent reputations and are less selective about interviewing.

Honestly, if you have a FAANG on your CV you're pretty much set, especially outside of SF (e.g. every other tech hub in Europe). Senior developer / CTO will be the kind of job offers you'll get, and recruiters will be all over you.

Disclaimer: I don't have a FAANG on my CV.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#344

Post by bryanrasmussen »

advice to your older self - your job is now relatively secure, try to do side projects.

or another advice - you need to diversify your skills, choose the skills you believe will be in demand in the future to learn, also try to choose ones that it will be ok you are older.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#345

Post by TeMPOraL »

rimliu wrote: post #339
orange8 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kudos on making something of yourself from humble beginnings. You are now privileged.

I feel that the world "privilege" (like many others) has lost its meaning.

It has. The well-meaning use of the word is trying to convey a sentiment that your views may not work for people who are less well-off or in various dire circumstances. Which is a good point to make, in context.

However, in the common use on the Internet, this word very often just stands for "you're better off than ${some group}, so your opinion is invalid and you should repent" dismissal/personal attack combo. Which makes knee-jerk reactions to its use, if not justified, then at least not unexpected.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#346

Post by jb775 »

gregkerzhner wrote: post #253
dvt wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My friend, this isn't personal, but a fact: you're privileged. Oh man, only if you truly knew how off-base this is :) My parents moved to the US with $2000, two kids (I was 11), and two carry-ons. But I'm not here to compete in the Victim Olympics. > Most people don't know any CEOs, PMs, or hiring managers. Good thing attending a hackathon is free. Good thing you can interact with literal SV royalty here on HN for…

Same story here (parents came to the US with 3 kids (I was 9)) and struggled to support us (initially by being dishwashers at the local buffet). I got a good college education and have a cushy software gig. Now I sit on my butt all day drinking LaCroix watching the checks come in. I sure as hell consider myself privileged. Just because you started out lacking privilege, doesn't mean that you don't have it now.

But at what point does hard work and perseverance get any credit? You're not doing anyone any favors by lumping them into "privileged" vs "disadvantaged" binary groups, you're promoting victimhood mindset while virtue signaling your politics.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#347

Post by testmen »

"If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery—isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is." charles bukowski expressed it better.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#348

Post by nicoburns »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #153
dvt wrote: post #28

> First, most recruiters don’t care about your personal projects or how many meetups you went during the... Why are you trying to impress recruiters? I mean, the entire point of the post is wrong, but impressing recruiters is downright stupid. Let's be frank: recruiters are bottom-of-the-totem-pole, lowest-common-denominator, bottom-feeders. If you aren't trying to do your own thing (which, let's face it, is the most…

impressing recruiters is downright stupid. Let's be frank: recruiters are bottom-of-the-totem-pole, lowest-common-denominator, bottom-feeders. My friend, this isn't personal, but a fact: you're privileged. I sense you've never been in a position where you have $3,000 in the bank, your wife is depending on you to get through college, and you have to get a job or you lose your apartment. Out here dropping stories about…

> Most people don't know any CEOs, PMs, or hiring managers.

You don't need to know them personally. Most companies (small companies at least) post job advertisements on their website and you can apply via email or a simple application form that goes directly to the hiring manager.

I managed to get my first dev job with zero professional experience (and I mean zero, I'd literally never worked any job before), zero "networking" activity, and only high school qualifications using this method, and it's only gotten easier since then.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#349

Post by esc_colon_q »

jb775 wrote: post #346
gregkerzhner wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same story here (parents came to the US with 3 kids (I was 9)) and struggled to support us (initially by being dishwashers at the local buffet). I got a good college education and have a cushy software gig. Now I sit on my butt all day drinking LaCroix watching the checks come in. I sure as hell consider myself privileged. Just because you started out lacking privilege, doesn't mean that you don't have it now.

But at what point does hard work and perseverance get any credit? You're not doing anyone any favors by lumping them into "privileged" vs "disadvantaged" binary groups, you're promoting victimhood mindset while virtue signaling your politics.

Part of the problem is, a lot of the best people in this field don't even realize how fuckin hard they had to work to get to the point they're at, because they didn't think of it as work a lot of the time. It seems easy until you have to show someone who isn't literally obsessed with it how to do it, at which point you start to realize how much experience and reading and studying and experimentation you're drawing from that you can't really skip over without missing important stuff.

There is a huge element of luck or privilege in having the intellectual space to be obsessed with code/math/business/design/etc at all, which factors in heavily as a filter, but yes, you need to do hella work as well. Being naturally smart is super helpful, too, and can cut the amount of work by a large factor, but by itself it's not enough.

Re: Advice to my young self: forget side projects and focus on your job

#350

Post by stonedartist »

_alex_ wrote: post #279
sixdimensional wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only problem is I spend so much energy on work, I don't have it when I go home, no matter how excited or interested I am in the side projects. I realize that's also a personal problem - poor time/resource allocation - not allocating a proper amount of time/energy to work vs. personal projects. However, I can say, doing a full time, involved job and giving it all my attention tends to use up all the cycles. Is that…

I go through cycles. I'll have a long stretch where I come home and I'm just fried and can't do anything that takes critical thinking. And then I'll go through a period where either work is more boring or I've found something to do on the side that's so exciting to me that I have tons of energy and focus on side projects. One thing I've been doing for the last 2ish years is having side projects that are really far re…

After reading your comment I felt like I was reading mine! I've been working on infrastructure automation too, and recently purchased a microcontroller kit to hack it and mess around with it.

Just connecting the microcontroller and turning on a LED light is satisfying sometimes. Right now I'm in that cycle where I hesitate to look at screens after work.

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