Ask HN: Did you ever have to start from zero again, career wise? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Did you ever have to start from zero again, career wise?

15 pointskiraken17 comments

Depends on what you mean. I have not started over as in changed fields & career totally, although that is something I am contemplating for the future.

I have started over as in I climbed the mountain of tech roles to CIO, then I was a founder for a few different companies, a couple that I successfully exited and then I started over as a senior engineer at a company and now am the CTO. I actually love being just an engineer but also love being CTO or a product person, mainly because I really enjoy the team building aspect and solving hard problems.

What I can say is be careful on your expectations & motivations, starting over and being a novice in a new field will feel different than starting over and having been already successful in a field/industry. Check the career growth, salary growth of the positions/field before you jump because something I discounted was the lack of monetary growth can significantly demotivate you. At least to me, and I think most people in tech, money isn't the only motivating factor, but the lack of progress monetarily sure can demotivate you quick.

Sort of, for some value of zero. After a couple of decades of steady work in tech, I had a personal, overwhelming circumstance arise that I knew would kill my productivity (or worse). I resigned my job and did what I needed to do to get through it.

Then started hunting for a new job. As I came to realize, having quit a job without first lining up a new one does kind of put you at zero.

Did eventually find a nice (albeit low-paying) job. No regrets, though. I did a great thing for myself. And I suppose I do feel a certain righteous schadenfreude every time I hear hirers complaining that they can't find anyone good anymore.

I was an expert at Visual BASIC 6.0, ADO, ASP 3.0, SQL Server 2000, Access 2000, then Dotnet came out and people started to switch to Python as well.

I have to learn all over again. I know the basics of a language as they use the same logic as others. So I can write small programs in Python, but I have to reinvent myself.

I am 51 years old, and it seems I am too old to hire. Especially when I have a disability. So I get overqualified for most job postings and no response for others.

Yes. Best quality of life choice I ever made. I was in my mid-forties, too. My experience has been overwhelmingly positive.

I studied theoretical physics then switched over to software development.

im trying to do the exact opposite

I would like out of tech. no idea what to do to start over.

Been there several times. But with a current salary over $140k and a large family I have no idea where to start over without cutting back so far that it would massive disruptive repercussions. Management? Recruiting? Something illegal? I have been so awesome with computers for so long I've gotten so highly paid at it -- and yet I HATE technology and computers. Where is the off-ramp?

See I dont even hate tech, I just hate most of these tech jobs. I cant think of last time I felt intellectually challenged by a job and my job feels like copy / pasting (not literally, but writing the same boilerplate-esque webapps with a different database constantly). Sitting constantly for so many hours is also killing me

I'm in a similar situation. Tech has run its course with me. I can only relearn the same stuff so many times. I'm saving some money and are going to night school to study to be a financial advisor. I know it's going to be a while before I can get a job and may never earn what I'm earning now but I feel it will be a more satisfying career.

In the past, I've known people that have switched to sales in tech. They are more account managers than sales. I've thought about it but I can't handle the travel.

Start growing something, it really doesn't matter what, flowers, bees, mushrooms, veggies, fish..... The farmers of the world are retiring and or dying off, huge opportunity for anyone willing to put in the time and effort. If your worried about taking the leap, read some books or watch some youtube videos on it.

Interesting you say mushrooms. I just saw a show where there was a guy growing shitake mushrooms. They are relatively easy to grow and return on investment is good. You just have to find the right environment to grow them. This guy was growing them in an old iron mine where the temperature is very stable all year around -- 50-60 deg f.

Mushrooms are highly profitable and require very little space, especially Shitake. Just a few wet logs inoculated with Shitake spores and your off to the races! A quick google seach says the bottom wholesale price is $4 per pound, thats double the price of chicken with maybe 5% the work. Unfortunately after thinking about it a bit there really is no escaping tech, even mushroom growing involves a great deal of technology in work, from packaging and transportation systems to marketing schemes. Technology has seeped into every aspect of modern life! But farming sure beats the commuting and cubicles of office work!!

I was a graphic designer, then I did cabinet making, auto sales, manual labor and construction. I was also in the military. I finally got into tech and I don't always love it, but I remember those years when I froze my ass off working on a jobsite somewhere making peanuts, and I'm thankful. TLDR I've started from nothing several times. If I had to do it again right now, I think I would open a coffee shop.

I was in law enforcement at the state level. I can relate to this. I drive by a highway patrol unit on the side of the road and recall the years I spent out there getting hit by cars, sweating my butt off, wiping blood off me, and generally dealing with the mental illnesses of society. I learned to live within my means doing it, but now? Goodness the money is amazing. I do Cybersecurity now, so the mindset is quite similar. I have a lot of federal LE contacts that keep me in the modern-day loop of technical crimes. I’m having a blast and getting paid real money. This is my second career. If I could start over I would not go into LE at all. Having kids at an early age required me to start something with benefits. I settled for public service.

I quit tech once to open a coffee shop. It was horrible - you deal with a lot of uneducated people under you, really cheap suppliers. Went back to tech. I like how in tech, you can eventually pay people higher than you pay yourself, but in the cafe business, the model only works out by paying people as little as possible.

Thanks for the insight.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com