Ask HN: How would you attempt a career revival? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How would you attempt a career revival?

5 pointsklogged4 comments

Suppose you have fallen into the trap of gaining 1 year of experience repeated 10 times. Much of your value to your current company derives from knowing internal systems well but not much else. Your core cs skills are extremely rusty and you've programmed in 1 language your entire career. But you've now become bored and miserable and want to explore new opportunities. So you enlist the help of a recruiter who is able to get you some interviews. The feedback is bleak: 1) Not good enough with algorithm problems 2) Doesn't have the deep knowledge commensurate with 10 years of experience. 3) Salary too high

How would you go about refreshing your skills and ultimately convincing someone to hire you?

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Speaking very honestly, you strike as a person that doesn't care about work. Or as someone would put it:

"I work for a living, I don't live for working"

With this said, an employer will want to see achievements, real pro-activeness and things that stand out as energetic, talented or at least a capable leader.

Right now you're displaying none of these treats and the things you mention as 1), 2) and 3) are symptoms of what I've mentioned earlier.

Understanding the problem is your first step. Second step is start moving. You need to be more active. Hang around startups, build something with them. Better have a low pay than no pay (assuming you have no job) but choose something you see with chances of growing.

If you have too many bills and can't leave day time job, still hang around with startups. This means working on your free time. Yes, seems crazy but you need to work harder to move up higher in your career.

That is the best way for you to learn and meet people that will be in a position of offering you a good job. Ditch that recruiter, just go out there and meet the job you want to really do.

There are two possibilities here: either you have an intrinsic desire to refresh your skillet or you don't. The external motivation (get a better job) is clear. But the drive to make it happen has to come from inside.

Programmers have many opportunitues to go way outside our comfort zone while still being a programmer. Cloud deployment. Mobile apps. Data science. Responsive CSS. You're used to being the top dog, so be an absolute beginner at something for once.

Or not. You might discover that you just don't like programming anymore. That's fine too.

There's more than one recruiter in the world. Keep updating your resume and eventually more will notice you. But try not to mention all the legacy system stuff.

It seems to me that your problem comes from your current role, not necessarily your current company. So: How's your relationship with your current boss? Could you go to him/her and say, "I'm bored. Can you give me something more advanced to do? Something that's not just the same old stuff? If you can't because my skills aren't good enough, what do I need to learn, and how could I go about learning it (on the company's dime, if possible)?"

Some bosses might label you as "dis-satisfied" and plan to get rid of you. Some might classify you as "motivated" and try to help you become more than you are.

By remaining anonymous and leaving out important details, it's hard to give you pointed advice. Here's are some general options:

- get a MSCS at the best school you can get into, choose the thesis option for something you're excited about, and become a good networker

- take remedial CS courses (they're free, online, everywhere), start running through Cracking the Coding Interview, find a tech interview study group, practice daily

- contribute to a popular open source project; if you have to, start with improving the docs, answering questions on S.O, etc.

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