Comment by JFred | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JFred | Hacker News Reader

1. Forget coding, study management. Managers get more money.

2. NEVER put the word 'test' on a resume. Do not mention it in any interview. If they ask if you tested anything, say no. Lie, if you have to. Say the other guys on the project tested. The kind of people who want to be coders usually do not want to be testers. But if you're a tester once, they'll make you do it for years.

3. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. The title on your first job will stereotype you for your next, limit some opportunities and opening others. The first two combined will stereotype you even more strongly. And so on.

So be as demanding as you can get away with. Don't just accept what they tell you, unless you really have to.

4. Go to grad school instead. You'll end up making more.

5. A young programmer has to build a rep. One way is by making something famous and open-source. Another is to put "Google" or "Microsoft" on your resume as your first job. Or something like it.

6. Figure out where you want to live. If your career is in finance, the headquarters is often in New York. Embedded systems work is on the West Coast, but all over, too.

7. Defense contractors do a lot of software, mostly embedded. They've been known to write a compiler for an airplane. So drop your al-Queda membership and apply to Lockheed. But it's more bureaucratic and "Methodical" in that world.

8. There are three places to be employed in software: a) A software company. b) A hardware company. c) Everyplace else. Software people are first-class citizens in a software company, second only to the hardware engineers in a hardware company, and somewhere below that in stock brokers, banks, and shoe factories.

By hardware company I would include Intel, Cisco, and Sun, for example.

Web companies might be a 4th category, but I don't know those companies as well. Instead of MBA's or electrical engineers (finance and hardware) you have graphic designers.

What I'm getting at is that if you will be working with other professionals in their kind of company, you will need to learn their needs and their business. In a software company it's a bit of the other way around. At least in terms of status: who is in charge.

8. The right answers have to depend on you, otherwise the advice would be the same for everybody. And we'd all be trying for the same job.

9. I'm not rich, so why believe me?

As for #1, I don't really like power (specifically the responsibility over others that it brings) and money is secondary to enjoying what I do. This also relates to #6, which is the beach - so I am thinking I have messed up altogether, and should have studied beach-bumology instead of CS :)

I have considered, and am still considering #4. I like school and I like learning and so it seems like a fit... only problem is, school is freaking expensive, so we will see.

I am also considering #7, as I have some contacts in that world having supervised a small military contract refuel facility servicing Ft. Rucker Army Aviation Training Facility for the previous 4 years of my life (I guess it is suitable at this juncture to mention that I am 27 and that I have worked full time since I was 18 - I have done school off and on along the ways). I also had to deal directly with Sikorski Support and Lockheed Martin, as their operations were in the same town and were related, and so I met people along the way.

As far as #9 is concerned, I solicited advice; I didn't promise to believe it ;) Seriously though, this is kind of a spitball session for me where I am hoping to get a considerable amount of BS, hopefully encrusted with slivers of gold (perhaps from goldscholger?).

Thank you for the tips and the entertaining read - #2 & #3 are things I never thought about and are things that I will be considering from now on!

-Matt

Goto a cheaper grad. school - a state run one. I'm going to san diego state and its waaaay cheaper than most schools and great for what i'm doing (applied math). Professors are almost the same everywhere (some good, some bad) and grad students are into what they study independent of location. If i was in-state, i'd pay only $4k/year in tuition, which is an order of magnitude cheaper than private schools. You might incur a bit of debt while working towards a masters, but you'll learn a ton along the way and be very practical, which is what a masters is for anyway - apply all that theoretical knowledge to a real situation under the guidance of those who've do that all the time.

1. Yes, provided his primary motivator is money. Of course, if he were really motivated by money before anything else, he's probably smart enough, by merit of getting a BA, to figure out where to board the gravy train.

2. If you're doing development work, you've probably been doing testing for years anyway. Saying that you've never tested anything extends to your own code, meaning you expect someone else to clean up your mistakes. Who has time for that sort of attitude?

3. If you let it. If you're a tester and want to be a developer, you'll get a lot farther toward that goal by not developing a false consciousness about your path limitations. A claim I would have no problem believing is that your past experience as a tester will make you a better developer. I was a tester at a small company for a little while before getting back into development. It taught me a lot.

4. Go to grad school because you love the topic, want to understand it deeper. If it's really just about the money, there are quicker, cheaper ways to get it.

5. Agree with this, except it's more about what you did than where you were.

7. What the hell is this about Al-Qaeda membership? Are you for real?

8. Yeah, knowing/learning the business is a good call. Knowing/learning the needs of the company is a good call, too. But really, assuming an pre-established pecking order for employees based on the "type" of company, in a very general sense, seems a bit premature. Also, just because your at the top of the totem pole doesn't absolve you of learning about the business or their needs, because being a "software person" doesn't mean you know their software.

8. This is correct, to a point. There is high-level advice that provides some useful guidance to everyone. I get the impression this is the sort of advice he was reaching for first.

Btw, best of luck to you, eznet.

"There is high-level advice that provides some useful guidance to everyone. I get the impression this is the sort of advice he was reaching for first."

Bingo! ;)

Thanks, azanar

Sorry JFred, I respectfully disagree with almost everything you have said here.

1. No! No! No! The only thing I remember from getting my MBA was, "A degree in business is a degree in nothing." Truer words were never spoken. Get into programming now. Do you really want to be Dilbert's PHB?

2. Never ever ever ever lie. About anything. To anyone. Ever. Enough said.

3. Titles are titular. In other words, meaningless. What you do matters. That's what other smart people will want to know about.

4. No! No! No! You have too much "education" already. Also see #1 above.

5. Your demonstrated performance (what you accomplish) establishes your reputation. Everything else is a smokescreen.

6. Gross generalization. For good hackers, everything is everywhere, with some things more concentrated in some places than others. Either pick where you want to live and find the best job there or find the best job anywhere and move there.

7. Being part of a large institution is the last thing I would want today. Too much small, smart, and nimble is happening now. Do you really want to take a chance at getting pigeon-holed for the next 10 years?

8. I have worked at 4 software companies, 0 hardware companies, and 83 everyplace elses. The worst 4 gigs were the software companies, by far. Imagine sitting in a cubicle for the next 18 months working on your 1.2% of Release 2.3.0.4. Hand me a razor blade please. "Everyplace else" is where "everything else" is happening.

8. Agreed. The best answer for you could be very different from everyone else.

9. There are many kinds of "rich" beyond money. One of the most important is doing what you love every day. You don't have to "believe" anyone, but listen and go with your gut.

Good luck!

"There are many kinds of "rich" beyond money. One of the most important is doing what you love every day. You don't have to "believe" anyone, but listen and go with your gut."

Thanks edw519, I think this is going to be one of my primary concerns when I set out. If I have to work part time doing tech work to make ends, so be it - but under no circumstance do I want to be stuck doing something I loathe... I only have this one life (best I can tell anyways) and I will be danged if I am going to spend it unhappy :)

-Matt

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