Ask HN: What's the most valuable skill to pair with programming? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's the most valuable skill to pair with programming?

12 pointsjamestimmins14 comments

I'm a full stack dev (mostly Python/React)/software consultant. When I think about skills growth, usually that means new technical skills.

I was reading a blog post by patio11 in which he talks about his work assisting with A/B testing and email campaigns. It made me wonder, purely as a intellectual exercise, if my goal was to maximize my weekly pay as a consultant, what skills would I be wise to pair with fullstack programming (other than sales)? Design? Copywriting? Marketing? More programming?

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As a consultant (as opposed to a pair-of-hands freelancer) you want to be providing solutions to businesses that solve their problems, at a higher level than "work on this software solution the client designed and just needs me to implement".

From that perspective, I'd argue that adding more technical skills on top of your existing ones will have diminishing returns past a reasonable level of competency.

Instead, focus on being able to provide business value. Learn how to take general problems a business has and find solutions for them. Not just code solutions, but new processes and procedures.

If you can solve an expensive problem for a business, you can command a far higher price than if you're just a pair of hands writing code. Those are a dime a dozen on Upwork, and clients have trouble seeing any difference in skillset.

From a technical skills perspective, machine learning and "big data" processing are in-demand skills with large enterprises, where you can make the most money solving problems.

I'd be glad to continue this discussion if you have questions about my answers. My email is in my profile.

growth is all the rage these days among startups. essentially how you can use tech to make products that market themselves in more predictable/ sustainable ways than just one-off product launches or paid ad campaigns. i've seen full-stack devs go into growth/marketing and essentially operate as a one-person team since they can launch and scale tests from idea to iteration. What's going on at reforge.com may interest you in this regard. It's applicable for both B2C acquisition and B2B lead generation.

another compelling angle to take is to get a deep understanding of applied statistics/ data science so you can build analysis tools or predictive/ML-driven features on top of the core products you're building. this might overlap with your existing skills quite well already, plus, it's growing faster in demand across industries/geographies.

Will second the recommendation to attend reforge. I know Brian personally and the program is legit. Highly recommend.

More focused programming. Become an expert at a more narrow niche than "full stack programming".

Trying to do two completely different jobs is going to lead to poor performance in both.

I would disagree with the second part of your statement where trying to do completely different jobs will lead to poor performance. It is indeed a double edged sword, however the real world (languages, frameworks, libraries, technologies, trends) change extremely quickly. Having the ability to react and adapt by understanding programming abstractions and fundamentals will help you rather than lead to poor performance. On the other hand, being focused would make you a niche specialist, which in these days is a thing hard to find. One must be careful not to learn something that might be gone tomorrow. I doubt there is a big need for lua or erlang developers these days. You can be the best, but if you are not needed, this could be simply depressing rather than useful.

Op said "pair with full stack programming". They didn't say "move into, benefiting from my previous experience programming".

I doubt there is a big need for lua or erlang developers these days.

Have you ever heard of painter who specializes in Behr (a brand of paint)? That is not a specialization, that's a tool choice.

I'd assume most of the people on HN are already in the top 10% of programming. But what are the benefits of being top 1% or even top 0.01%? Does it beat being top 10% in multiple fields?

> "other than sales" ...You can maximize your weekly pay most by improving your Sales.

Otherwise you would want to carve out a niche, become incredibly good at that one thing and after you have mastered something that few people can do really well... learn how to sell that better too.

Solve problems and create value.

Look at the entire flow of the product you are a part of. Get to know as much about it as possible and get a deep understanding of the full picture. You will probably be surprised at how many people, permanent as contractors, who only look narrowly at their little pond and solves issues without a general understanding of the entire business.

Don't try to be cocky know-it-all, but humbly suggest when you see a better solution for a problem or spots a potential problem coming up in the horizon.

When you have a good understanding of the entire business and the part your product plays in it, then you will also be better at seeing the parts where it hurts the most. Suggest to help there. Take on as much responsibility as you can handle. Be the one that solves the problems and creates value for the business, then you in turn also raise your own value.

Technical proposal and grant writing. If you team up with people from disciplines other than programming+architecture, who can each deal with different aspects of the one proposal, you can pull in very large contracts together.

- woodworking - sculpting - knitting - etc. to stay mentally healthy :-)

Some common high paying skills that could pair with programming:

- IT Security

- Database engineer (specailized)

- AI or Machine Learning

- Block chain consulting (ughh)

- Financial analyst

Any one of these specialisations would make you a highly paid consultant... I assume

"Pair Programming" lol

Among the obvious things like the ability to be humble about the code and know bad code is bad code but you’re not a bad person is decent smelling breath. No joke.

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