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Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

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Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#611

Post by OkGoDoIt »

I mostly left tech last April to help run a performance theater and a speakeasy. I do everything from lighting/wiring, ticketing, marketing, bar tending, helping as a stagehand, running spotlights, etc. I get to hang out with magicians, circus performers, burlesque dancers, and all sorts of interesting people with interesting stories. It's been a lot of fun and fulfilling in a way, especially since I've never had a public-facing job before. Definitely uncomfortable the first time you sell concessions or deal with upset parents due to someone else's failure to include mature content warning on event descriptions. Overall it's been an amazing experience.

But also I make peanuts compared to what I used to and I'm basically living on savings, so I'll probably end up going back to tech eventually. My best friend with less development skills than me just got a job for over $200k, so I can't help but feeling I've fallen off the track rather than made a positive life change.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#612

Post by tehwalrus »

cafard wrote: post #527
tehwalrus wrote: post #337

Politics. The only way to fix the broken stuff in the world. I have stood in a bunch of elections and lost them all. I'm not dissuaded yet.

Interesting. At what level? And are you involved at all in your local party, on the precinct or county level?

In the UK. I've stood in local council elections three times, and for Parliament once in 2015:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_East_Hertfordshire_(UK...

(I came 4th).

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#614

Post by iammiles »

CIPHERSTONE wrote: post #314

Would like to be a back country forest ranger. Someone who does work out in the remote woods. Not one of the rangers that has to deep with the public. The problem like most of us have is that our position and tenure in IT has lead to salaries that make such a change (and reduction in pay) almost impossible. Add kids, etc. and it gets set permanently in the dream category. I know the logical response to this statement…

I actually did seasonal work as a Park Ranger on the Oregon Coast for a while. I would wholeheartedly love to do that again. I'm always so proud to go back to the areas I worked and walk the trails I built during those summers in undergrad.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#615

Post by eel »

lightedman wrote: post #561
jdhn wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one go about re-registering abandoned claims?

Pretty easy. You just file a claim over that one. If you already know the quadrangle and township and sector, plus some other small details, taking over the old claim is pretty much as simple as filing paperwork and paying a fee.

Is the process state-dependent? Can you only reclaim mines in public lands (and does it matter if it's NF vs BLM?), or can you claim an abandoned mine on private property?

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#616

Post by smoyer »

fjdlwlv wrote: post #486
jeffsaracco wrote: post #437

I'd be a baker - I've recently (as of the past year or two) started baking my own bread and find it incredibly therapeutic, fun and interesting. Maybe open up a small bakery with a cafe and if it went well expand it to teach classes on how to make bread, pizza, etc... If anyone is also interested, I'd recommend the book Flour Water Salt Yeast ( https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/d... ) as a st…

Opening a bakery would destroy all the pleasure you get from baking

Read the E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About...

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#617

Post by criveros »

A professional pick up artist. If you get good at it, get a good following, get good media presence (Youtube, Facebook groups), you will be able to sell products and run bootcamps pretty consistently.

To make a lot of money you need to be really good at it, by that I mean having slept with 100+ girls, having an amazing social life, and have people in the community that can vouch for you. Building that can take years if you are not a hot, white dude.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#618

Post by pieperz »

tjic wrote: post #207

Woodworker. From running two small ecommerce companies I think I've learned enough about MVP, shipping, inventory management, etc. From 25 years as a software engineer I've learned about building tools to automate steps. I'd pick some "hard to find / expensive niche (e.g. Greene and Greene, Art Nouveau, etc.), but offer repeatable designs, not do custom work. That would allow for lots of jigs, fixtures, using cheap m…

+1 on the Woodworking....

I started StumpCrafters.com just a few months ago and its great. I love being out in the shop more and still getting to do a few things with code here and there.

Im not quite there with the customization yet but its in the works.

Check it out at:

https://stumpcrafters.com

https://facebook.com/stumpcrafters

https://instagram.com/stumpcrafters

https://twitter.com/stumpcrafters

edit: formating

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#619

Post by Sk1pp »

grok2 wrote: post #359

All the carpentry-as-an-alternate-career comments here reminded me of something Fred Brooks wrote in his "The Mythical Man-Month" -- how he described programming, reminds me of carpentry (note: it's a quote from the book all the way from here): Why is programming fun? What delights may its practitioner expect as his reward? First is the sheer joy of making things. As the child delights in his mud pie, so the adult en…

I love this quote. Probably going to read the book. When I look at a lot of the comments here I see people talking about they hate what they're creating. Maybe - relating to the mudpie example in a lot of corporate environments is that there isn't much room for creativity in programming: its all pretty defined from start to finish.
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