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Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

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Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#1
I'm 30 years old and have been working for myself for about 6 years now, developing my own ideas into successful mobile applications (over 3 million paid downloads). I'm now looking to move on from this as I'm a little burnt out and I would like to work with more people again. The issue I currently have is wondering what positions I should apply for.

Although I studied in computer science and assumed I would be a programmer, I find that for me, programming is a means to an end, the end being getting an idea into something real. For my current apps I take them through the full lifecycle myself, from idea, to feature requirements, UI design, programming, marketing, release and then the direction of where they should go in future updates. So I have quite a broad set of skills and experiences, yet besides under my own business my only other work has been in web development.

While looking at job positions I'm questioning if employers will see that I have anything besides programming to offer and if I would be capable of working in a more product development/management oriented role.

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#2
I'm curious why you're burnt out of doing your own thing that seems fairly successful.

I think being involved in the whole process of making something sounds amazing but obviously my vantage point as a regular employee at a company is much different.

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#3

I'm curious why you're burnt out of doing your own thing that seems fairly successful. I think being involved in the whole process of making something sounds amazing but obviously my vantage point as a regular employee at a company is much different.

I'm not too sure, I think I have contributed what I want to to the type of apps I create at least in terms of what is possible for a one man team, and I know from experience that it's getting harder to release new apps successfully as an indie developer, at least apps that aren't full of in app currency purchases, adverts or backed by a big brand.

I would still like to be part of the whole process, but I'd like to work on larger products and perhaps step away from the day to day programming.

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#5
We actually have something called 'Senior Consultant' as a position:

https://careers-redhat.icims.com/jobs/50182/senior-mobile-co...

The story of how this came to be a.f.a.i.k. went like this:

1. we have awesome* enterprise grade solution for managing mobile development. It has centralized build farm for mobile apps, automatic back-end integration with data-browsing for managers, e.t.c

2. some of our customers don't really want to build up their own mobile teams to work with this, so they outsource our consultants as well.

Last project I know our consulting guys were working on was a sort of a checklist application for the repair crews of British Railways a.f.a.i.k ?

* when it actually works ;)

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#6
post #4

Another option would be to become the boss yourself and hire people to carry out ideas for new apps

I had considered that a few years ago but at that point I wanted to use the freedom to travel. Right now I'm not sure how sustainable a small app workshop type company would be.

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#7
post #5

We actually have something called 'Senior Consultant' as a position: https://careers-redhat.icims.com/jobs/50182/senior-mobile-co... The story of how this came to be a.f.a.i.k. went like this: 1. we have awesome* enterprise grade solution for managing mobile development. It has centralized build farm for mobile apps, automatic back-end integration with data-browsing for managers, e.t.c 2. some of our customers don't…

That does look quite interesting, I will keep an eye out for something similar in my area, as it appears although it is a remote job the applicant would need to be based in North America. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#8
post #5

We actually have something called 'Senior Consultant' as a position: https://careers-redhat.icims.com/jobs/50182/senior-mobile-co... The story of how this came to be a.f.a.i.k. went like this: 1. we have awesome* enterprise grade solution for managing mobile development. It has centralized build farm for mobile apps, automatic back-end integration with data-browsing for managers, e.t.c 2. some of our customers don't…

That does look quite interesting, I will keep an eye out for something similar in my area, as it appears although it is a remote job the applicant would need to be based in North America. Thanks.

Weird, most of our devs are in fact in Ireland.

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does look quite interesting, I will keep an eye out for something similar in my area, as it appears although it is a remote job the applicant would need to be based in North America. Thanks.

Weird, most of our devs are in fact in Ireland.

As part of the listing it mentions weekly travel to clients across the US.

Re: Ask HN: After working for myself what job positions am I suitable for?

#10
> I'm questioning if employers will see that I have anything besides programming to offer...

Don't count on hiring managers (worse still, HR & recruiter bozos) to recognize some untapped potential in your background. That's not what they're trained to do.

> The issue I currently have is wondering what positions I should apply for.

Don't apply for positions. Instead, look for people who you can help. People who have problems that you can solve.

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