Hacker News Reader

Comment by treis | Hacker News Reader

>I’ve been running my recording studio for the last 15+ years since graduating from college. I’ve produced numerous major label hip-hop artists from the Wu-Tang Clan, to Rick Ross, to Nas. I’ve finally reached a crossroad. The industry isn’t as stable as it once was, and I’m looking to transition my career. Throughout my professional music career, and since I was a kid learning piano, I always built my own PCs, set up Linux servers for fun, coded websites and tinkered away. Do you have some time to chat about any opportunities you may have?

^ Send that to every music related tech company you come across. They'll pretty much all be interested at some level.

Edit to add: Take a go at some leetcode problems. If you can do the easy ones & make a reasonable effort at medium then you're good enough to get hired. If not practice until you can.

View on HN

Agree with this. Tech is everywhere so finding an edge with domain knowledge will make you standout compared to all the other folks looking to get into it with no professional experience.

I'd suggest targeting a few companies a week and doing research. As a (former) hiring manager, it is so much more powerful for me to get a message like this:

"I was reading your company blog post about the resurgence of vinyl. It was really interesting. I sold all my vinyl in the 2000s, but have noticed it coming back at my local record store.

I also saw that <company> is using golang and typescript, based on your job descriptions. I've used golang and really enjoyed it; I found the abstraction of channels made it really easy to communicate between different components.

I was interested in applying to your engineering team. I have a lot of music experience and some tech experience. My resume is attached. I'd love to chat if you are interested in seeing if there's a mutual fit."

Than one like this:

"I was looking at your site and thought you might like to hire me. Resume attached."

Doing just the slightest bit of research (30 min) will, again, make you stand out in a sea of resumes. (Of course, a warm intro is even better; LinkedIn can help you find out if you know anyone who knows anyone.)

This is priceless. I value your input and examples. It’s really helping me shape the direction I’ll go in. Would you suggest I research the companies to determine what type of positions for coding they have?

I’m still determining if I’ll move forward with PM or picking a language to become proficient in.

Thank you!!

> Would you suggest I research the companies to determine what type of positions for coding they have?

Definitely visit their jobs page to get a flavor of what they are looking for, but realize that it is not up to date; there may be positions on there that are no longer available and positions that are available that are no longer there.

Also know that companies may not list junior/entry level positions because they get a flood of applicants when they do.

Thanks very much I’ll work on compiling a list.

Thanks for this, that’s a wonderful idea!

Can you possibly expand a bit on leetcode problems? I’ll definitely take a look if I just can get a direction where to look.

I wouldn't recommend leetcode unless you are set on tech-first companies, entertainment co's generally aren't concerned except for the fact poor hiring practice has partially permeated broader industry tech culture.

Better would be to study CS, IT, project-management, or job/industry-specific tasks you'd like to target. PBS crash-course computer science is a great way to soak some up in a jiffy.

https://leetcode.com/problemset/all/?difficulty=EASY&page=1

Small programming challenges that companies use to gauge your coding ability.

That's assuming you want to write code. If you want a different role then it's not needed.

I’ll take a look, thanks for sharing the link.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com