Ask HN: Advice for someone who stagnated in their career. Help | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Advice for someone who stagnated in their career. Help

16 pointsjustonemore11 comments

Hi HN. 50 year old here. I had a mixed career in corporate roles (product dev, bus dev - first 10 years of working), then a startup (did ok, but more learning than earning), and now have been teaching in a university for 10 years. Along the way I built a niche out of running startup programs for other institutions.

I enjoy the work. It's fun and people definitely enjoy and tell me they benefit from what I do.

But it's not enough financially. The university doesn't pay much and I am just breaking even each year and dependent on consulting income to pay for growing family expenses. Every time I get brought in to a new consulting project I knock it out of the park. But those projects are one-offs and seem to be dwindling. Side projects I spin up come to low thousands a year and while I enjoy them, don't do anything to take the financial pressure off. When I was 25 I used to pride myself on being able to live on a shoestring out of a backpack, but it's a different story with a wife and kids.

I don't project confidence (something I probably am resistant to) but once I land somewhere I usually become a go-to person that gets things done and makes a team productive. But I haven't been able to get in the door anywhere new (corporate, consulting, or funded startup) and I can't figure out why. At this point I don't know who wants to hire someone like me.

Anyone dealt with something like this? What did you do? Or what worked and didn't work?

I appreciate any advice.

> But I haven't been able to get in the door anywhere new (corporate, consulting, or funded startup) and I can't figure out why. At this point I don't know who wants to hire someone like me.

ok, step one, do some free peer interviews then pay for mock interviews. I don't know how common they are for product roles, but you can check interviewing.io or look for people who sell mentoring services on linkedin, etc.

You need brutal, honest feedback on all your failings so you can address them. Again, do not use an old coworker or friend or acquaintance, you need someone who doesn't give a shit if they tear you down.

I paid for a mock interview from a FAANG engineer and I basically said "bring it" and he told me he would fail me and gave me every reason (didn't explain things clear enough, bad communication, missed a step in coding despite knowing what I was doing etc).

It was eye opening and hugely impactful for my career.

Did you only pay for it one time or a few times?

I actually did four paid mock interviews, but only one did I specify Google. The first three told me I was awesome. For the last one (google interviewer) I specifically asked them to be extra critical, and they wrote a huge amount of valuable feedback.

Where did you find mock interviewers like this and how much do they cost? I might be interested in doing one.

pramp.com had peer interviews which was helpful just to start practicing coding fast while talking.

Then I did interviewing.io. I think I paid ~$500 for four interviewers from verified Big Tech companies (faangmula) or something like that.

I was dating an HR lady (payroll) back in the day, and she got her colleague (recruiting) to do me the favor and we did some mock interviews and it was everything between wanted to cry and wanted to punch her! Then told me all the mistakes I was making she taught me how to rock on interviews and since 2003 I have succeeded in all-but-one interviews (mega-big bank, they told me I would be bored in 6 months with the monotony)(for someone like me that has moved across disciplines)(and they were probably right).

Now, the sticky/shitty thing is 'getting someone to talk to me', as for a PM role companies receive hundreds if not thousands of CVs.

Perhaps you can build a CV that shows a 'growth path' and not just jumping left and right. And then you (OP)need to hit the jackpot of finding a job that is seeking the diverse CV that you got.

Here are the stagnations I have experienced in my career:

* An area of development where most of the programmers cannot program

* Fear of automation from non developers

The first of these is tough because the only real solution is to change your line of work to something else. When you are surrounded by pretend developers confidence will be universally low.

The problem with being that guy that can actually program means you are the enemy 80% of the time because the low confidence people fear being exposed more than anything else. As someone that can program you must intentionally waste your time to prove your compatibility to your peers or alienate your peers with original solutions.

To solve for that I switched from web development to something different. In the different line of work I achieved early promotion by unintentionally demonstrating confidence, delivering rapidly, and trying to not do work.

The second of my stagnations occurs when you can program but are surrounded by people that are not programmers. For me the only purpose of software is automation, the elimination of human work, but manual labor is means of participation for non developers. There is also a fear of ownership and solution maintenance by the non programmers.

To solve for that you need some level of managerial title and use that title to impose direction. Yes, that means being a people manager and writing your own software. The solution isn’t your wonderful software creation but how you use it to solve business problems and achieve inclusion from the non programmers.

As a 40yo dev with 10+ years experience, I recently took over a year off to take care of my first child. I only recently landed a job after a 5+ month search.

I spent a good amount of time polishing my resume with the help of ChatGPT and preparing for interviews with leetcode and the book Cracking the Coding Interview.

There's also a ton of decent content on YouTube. A few channels I'd recommend are, - A Life After Layoff - Hello Interview (for system design)

The only way I got my foot in the door was through networking...every other job I applied to through company portals was rejected or no response. There are just too many people applying online.

I was super lucky to get a referral through past acquaintances. They even notified me of job openings in their companies! You can't go wrong with reaching out to your network.

I’m 50 also (as my user name implies). I’m trying to figure out what your expertise is. I also work in strategic cloud consulting. I work full time for a consulting company - my third one in 5 years.

What type of consulting do you do? The other person I was able to at least give some actual advice to with a similar issue put their LinkedIn profile on thier post.

Hi scarface74, is there a way to contact you directly? It looks like the Reddit handle in your profile has been deleted. Thanks!

I just created a Hide my Email forwarding account on iCloud dandies.tapir7y@icloud.com

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