Ask HN: What was your best career decision?
I saw this thread on r/cscareerquestions and I thought it would be interesting to hear the HN experiences.
Thank you.
Thank you.
1) Getting out of my comfort zone:
Changed job position 6 times in the last 6 years, including 2 company changes and one country change. Moved place 5 times, too.
It keeps me motivated to learn, but it also bears some frustration the first weeks after starting on a new position, so be careful with this strategy. Also, make sure the changes are promotions and/or general improvements, otherwise you might fail at job interviews due to the short time you stay at a given position. Sell it as "you'll hire me for this position and you'll be so happy with me, that you'll want to me to take on bigger challenges, creating more revenue and/or profit for your company".
2) Understand the business:
No one owes you anything, not even the company that you've worked for the last years and gave all those extra hours of work. You have to change mentality and think about how can you increase profit and/or revenue for your company. Can you improve processes? can you work smarter? Why don't you tell your boss or some other decision maker?
If you analyse your situation and you can't see how you're making money for the company, you better get ready for the worst case scenario. Some departments are seen as a cost, so the company will always be willing to reduce that cost. Can you change that perception? If you can't, again get ready for the worst case scenario.
If, by changing a process you reduce a vendor's cost for 3 years consecutively, while at the same time improving throughput and make sure they realize it - that does more for you than just working and hoping they realize it.
1. Putting aside friends, family, and religion to focus on the task(s) at hand.
2. Saving enough "fuck you" money to be able to do whatever I want.
Both are related and the former is pointless unless it's going to lead to the latter.
The foundation of this community rests on lore of "f-u" money and we simply ask that you contribute to the lore that keeps this place alive....and that keeps this place....human.
Save diligently. I have enough cash liquid to survive for two years without any income at my current burn rate. You think you need cable TV? You don't. You think you need fancy cafe coffee? You don't. Do you carry balances on your credit cards? You don't anymore. That's a debt emergency, and you're getting out of it ASAP. The list goes on.
Save diligently, and you too can have enough money saved to be confident in your future.
I'm currently in the process of saving for my second property.
My advice to anyone who's considering getting into the landlord business:
1. Buy properties in (up and coming) college towns. Many people advise against this, but it's very hard to beat the returns. This is especially true in towns where the housing values haven't caught up to the situation yet. I am getting more than double the rent that I would be able to get if my house was in a "normal" town. A typical dorm room costs $800/month for each student at my local state university, so students would much rather live off campus in an actual house for the same price (or less). You can get 5 students to share the house and charge $2600/month (for a house that costs under $160k). It's a win-win honestly. You may have to deal with typical college issues, but it's really not as bad as it sounds. I would rather deal with some holes in the wall than a family of 4 who just doesn't have the money to pay the rent, forcing you to go through the eviction process. College students typically have access to "unlimited" money in the form of student loans or their parents, so you're less likely to have to chase your money down. I've yet to receive a payment more than one month late. Just keep in mind that students typically receive their refund checks two times per year, so you may have to be patient. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have their parents sign the lease in case the student decides to blow the refund check or something.
2. Learn how to do home maintenance tasks on your own. Plumbing, painting, etc. You will save large amounts of money this way. Just be sure to reduce liabilities by not doing something that could endanger the tenants. In other words, don't do your own electrical work unless you know what you're doing.
3. Don't underestimate the work required. There will be issues. It's not a truly passive investment in that sense, but this is why the returns are better than many other investments. For example, I've had to unclog the shower drain three times, and it always seems to be at inconvenient times. But when they call about something like that, you're obligated to provide a fix ASAP. Other minor issues can wait a little longer of course.
4. Reward good tenants. If your tenants have not given you any problems, it's worth giving them a little incentive to stick around.
5. Take everything I just said with a grain of salt. I've only been in the game for two years.
I wanted to be a trombone player in a major US symphony but realized that while I could be accepted by many good schools, I wasn't good enough to get accepted into the "greats" (e.g. Julliard, Curtis, etc). I decided instead to join the Marines and became a Marine musician (the military is one of the largest employers of musicians in the US). I am very lucky to have made that choice for a number of reasons, but ultimately it made me realize that I didn't love music as much as I thought.
The military isn't for everyone, but I recommend everyone give it some serious consideration. In addition to the altruistic reasons to join there many great benefits for when you get out. Mine include
1) Learning my original life-plan for after high school wasn't a good fit for me (while getting paid to make that realization).
2) Getting college paid for (with some scholarships I was able to stretch the GI bill into nearly 5 years and got a Math/CS double major.
3) This is the big one: I live in San Diego (a "military friendly town") and having military experience won't guarantee you a job, but many employers here will at least talk to you and give you a chance to make an impression beyond your resume.
Related: Reinvesting a lot of the money I made as a intern into books and training so I could keep up with the discussions at work.
Was hired for general front end work (mostly HTML / CSS) now a few years later do advanced JS work on Personalization, Web Analytics and AB testing.
I successfully interviewed at a startup in London who made me an offer. I miscalculated how expensive London was going to be, which led us into strange negotiations were a recruiter thought I'd expect a certain salary but I turned it down after running the numbers. They started 'nickel and diming' over 5k which at first they said was no problem at all and the next day it apparently was.
I had to turn it down as it would have left me worse off than staying on 2/3s the salary in a smaller city.
The stock options were also really bad. Stay for 4 years and get max 120k GBP. This was at < 20 employees.
Anyway I turned it down and took a much safer job and at a much bigger company in Canada. The tech stack isn't quite what I'd like but there are a lot of passionate and motivated people here making strides in the right direction.
Then running out of money and started freelancing for a local small business for < 1k a month.
Three years later the business has grown and I'm the Director of Technology (fancy title ooo) managing a team of seven.
We are hiring three more this month.
Worked out.
The other decision is to not work any job that requires on-call support or pager duty. I'm finally at a place where I can leave work at work and focus on things that actually matter to me.
I work fewer hours for more money, and have a very flexible schedule which lets me work on my own company and side projects.
I feel like a human being with control over my life again.
Do they search for companies who are hiring and offer to do the work as a consultant instead?
Or do the companies find you?
Could you provide just a very general outline of the process?
People love to hate on recruiters, and for good reason. If you can find a handful that are not terrible though, they can send along 3-6 month contracts. I've also been connected with businesses through recruiters that were very much in need of developers, with which it was easy to negotiate part-time remote work, at a good hourly rate.
Through friends, I've been pulled into their own contract work where they need an extra hand. I've also been introduced to business owners who need part-time developers as well, who in turn send multiple jobs over time.
Best advice though is just to talk to recruiters, be explicit about what you are looking for (not contract-to-hire, preferably short term remote jobs), and see what comes your way.
Applying for jobs just outside of my comfort zone. It has taught me that I can learn quickly and stretch my capabilities to get the job done and has helped me progress in my career, as well as ending up in jobs that are never boring as there is always more to learn.
2. Invested a lot of my time in learning more(Data structures/algorithms, advanced JavaScript) which gave me the courage to quit my soul sucking job and helped me land a much b€tt€r one.
I'm still very young so I'm actively saving up my "F-u" money.
Shifting gears and constantly learning new things. It's been rewarding in so many ways.
Moving from my country to other countries.