Ask HN: Why isn't having two or three careers the norm?
Wouldn't this allow you to maximize your happiness by taking into account what you learned as you try different careers?
What about new careers that suddenly pop into existence around nascent technologies like AI?
I've transferred into product management now that enough companies officially recognise it as a career. I had been doing it in various guises for years where it was called 'project designer', 'project manager' or 'programme manager'.
Regardless of title, the common theme has been aligning business needs and engineering needs to deliver customer value they're willing to pay for. That meant I didn't start at the bottom when 'moving career'.
Well for starters I was in grocery right out of college as a junior buyer for a major chain that I enjoyed enough but after a bit…
Was curious about digital marketing so I got a small company to take a chance on me where I rose through the ranks at companies big and small until I was in middle management and then…
I got an idea for a business so I started one that ran for 4-5 years before I ran out of steam and then…
I joined a semi-large corp in tech and product and did that for a while but…
My wife took on a super demanding new role and is now making enough to support our family so I’m a fresh stay at home dad.
I’ve got plans for what’s next but it’ll require some more school so once my kids are both in elementary school I’ll be going back to grad school to work in clinical mental health.
Has it all been worth it? Maybe, maybe not. But variety is the spice of life so here we are.
In my career transition I learned and grew a lot, and it helped give me a different perspective on some problems.
I do wonder if people changed their careers every 10-15 years if they would be happier. You would get to work on a whole different set of problems, you would get to learn new skills, and eventually demonstrate your mastery over those new skills.
Someone with 15 years in an industry doesn't make much more than someone with 10 years in an industry, but may hate it a lot more. This coincides with the time many people start to look around and say "hmm, maybe there are other things in life than this fucking job".
So, it's not at all obvious to me that the expected return is the only explanation, though I'm sure it does factor in, as does the cost and risk of starting your career over in your (let's say) 30s, possibly with a mortgage and a family.
Most people here are engineers, which is (for the time being) a reasonably simple way to have a plush job and make a nice income, and so you may be saying "why would I take a job that pays less and doesn't cater my lunch every day?" But, consider this fact: a lot of people aren't engineers. Maybe most of them! This question makes more sense outside that context. Or even if, in some dark, hypothetical future we shudder to contemplate, being an engineer stops being the career meta.
Using that salary (which I have been able to maintain across employers in the same career), I took on financial obligations: house, kids, car, etc.
When I consider changing career (which happens fairly often), it seems unlikely that I'd be able to get an equivalent salary immediately, or even within say 3 years: there's a level of remuneration available for someone with 20 years experience that's hard to get with 3 years experience in a field, and that's assuming I didn't need to take time off work to retrain.
So .. I'm kinda trapped. I could downsize my life, but that's disruptive especially for kids. And it's disruptive to my retirement savings as well. So far that tradeoff hasn't seemed worth it. And then every year you stay, the more solidly trapped you get.
Fine at the start of your career, but specialisation wins out ultimately