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Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

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Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#41

Post by tfg4k »

ChainsawSurgery wrote: post #16

I'm gonna venture a guess here, and there's a decent chance you're going to respond poorly to it and think I'm just being an asshole, or do some rationalization and throw my opinion away. But I promise: I'm not just trying to put you down. At least consider it. > I can't seem to get my foot in the door anywhere to do anything from level one help desk work to anything else. Maybe it's how you come across personally; w…

I feel like I should say this. Saying things like: > I always bluffed my way in to jobs I was completely unqualified for and pulled it off quite well are usually red flags for me, personality-wise.

I have worked with people like the person you probably think I am because of how that came across. I was just trying to honestly express one of the few things that I do have going for me as opposed to just listing things that I don't.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#42

Post by tfg4k »

nmrm wrote: post #15

Would you consider a (perhaps accelerated) degree program? I understand this might not be possible in your situation, but if you can find an evening, on-site, accelerated program at a local non-flagship state school then you might be missing an opportunity. I've known some people in similar situations for whom this approach worked out well. I can provide some advice if this is at all plausible for you. (edit: the com…

This is something I will look in to. Thanks for the comment!

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#43

Post by tfg4k »

david_shaw wrote: post #31

I can't speak for the rest of the industry, but since I'm the CTO of an information security consultancy, I can at least provide an informed opinion. Many, many security companies don't care what your formal education is. The reason for this is simple: there aren't many (or, perhaps, any) undergraduate computer security programs that are cutting-edge and relevant enough to teach the skills needed to be a good hacker.…

Done and Done.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#44

Post by tfg4k »

forloop wrote: post #36

Do bug bounties. I remember when Facebook used to put, what I presume, were PK IDs from a user table in their URL query strings. Lower numbers being earlier users. Anyway, I couldn't find Mark Z, but messaged one of the early staff. I then got a friend request off him. Pretty sure if I'd been a dev at the time, I could have convinced him to get me an interview.

This is one avenue I have never tried.... and will begin doing this evening. Thanks guys!

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#45

Post by tfg4k »

ferrari8608 wrote: post #14

My answer isn't great, but it's relevant due to your experience being somewhat similar to my own. I'm currently working my first job in IT, for two years now, after having only fast food and retail jobs. How did I get here? It wasn't my college education (I'm a dropout, due to transportation and money issues at the time). College did play a big role, though. One of my instructors saw that talent you mentioned in me,…

Mind if I send you an email?

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#46

Post by npalli »

fsk wrote: post #38
nbardy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is too large to implode and fail quickly. Even if they do fail it will be a slow death or just a leveling off. Look at Microsoft. The last ~10 years they been getting beaten in many large markets they are entering, but they are still a massive player.

There's no way Blackberry could lose their market share. Even if they do fail it would be slowly or a leveling off. There's no way they could go from the leader to zero in 5 years.

Apple has $180Billion in cash. The total it spends on employees is $18Billion per year. So, in essence Apple could pay its employees just to sit around and not sell a single product for 10 years before running out of cash.

Ponder that. Apple is nothing like Blackberry. Your example is totally ridiculous.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#47

Post by e_modad »

beachstartup wrote: post #30

i'm going to give you some tough love right now, because you've sort of got the wrong concept of what a 'security job' is in your head. first of all - why the hell are you waiting for someone to give you permission to start doing this job? if you want to do this job, just start fucking doing it. contribute to security mailing lists and keep an eye out for opportunities. write articles. blog. go to events. write code,…

Such great advice. Don't wait for permission just get started.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#48

Post by tfg4k »

atmosx wrote: post #24

I know it's not what you're looking for, but learning JS and a hot framework like React or Meteor will help you land a job in the IT sector in sooner or later IMHO. Good luck with everything.

Hey, no, thank you very much. I was looking at Angular earlier this morning. I played around with Node when it was new, dropped it because anything within reach at the time in my job market were for things like pulling cable, fixing people's computers for a small MSP, and that was about it. At least I have something to work on in the meantime. I started playing with JS and Python when I considered being a programmer. I stopped because everyone said Python (which is awesome) and I just had a rougher time learning it than JS.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#49

Post by hackinthebochs »

ChainsawSurgery wrote: post #16

I'm gonna venture a guess here, and there's a decent chance you're going to respond poorly to it and think I'm just being an asshole, or do some rationalization and throw my opinion away. But I promise: I'm not just trying to put you down. At least consider it. > I can't seem to get my foot in the door anywhere to do anything from level one help desk work to anything else. Maybe it's how you come across personally; w…

Or perhaps he was just establishing context so we could better answer his question? There's no reason to assume a personality defect because he was communicating honestly about the situation he finds himself in.

Re: Ask HN: What to do when all you have is talent?

#50

Post by tfg4k »

beachstartup wrote: post #30

i'm going to give you some tough love right now, because you've sort of got the wrong concept of what a 'security job' is in your head. first of all - why the hell are you waiting for someone to give you permission to start doing this job? if you want to do this job, just start fucking doing it. contribute to security mailing lists and keep an eye out for opportunities. write articles. blog. go to events. write code,…

I have started a small DBA in my area to provide services to small businesses here. I have been working on developing it but I am having a hard time selling it without scaring the crap out of the prospective clients.

I guess what I am saying is that I have been doing the job for years. Just not getting paid for it and was trying to dig out two things in the OP:

1)What the disconnect between working on your own and getting paid for doing the work was.

2)there was a different area I could/should focus on given my disadvantages(financial, disabled, etc.)

Big data and analytics are fascinating to me for example, but only because of the implications and uses of those kinds of skills I can see in a Security related capacity.

I wanted to find out if someone would yell, "You need to learn 'X' because it's useful both in some Security roles and you can work doing that as your day job at the same time." Hope that makes sense.

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