
Unicorn Jobs - luu
http://www.pgbovine.net/unicorn-jobs.htm
======
was_hellbanned
The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent
group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your
time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people
with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours
of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal
projects, side business, etc.

~~~
overgard
I don't know if it's that unethical -- I think there are a lot of jobs where
if you made a graph of the worload it would look rather spiky -- IE, sometimes
you're very busy, but with long idle times in between. Those downtimes are a
good opportunity to work on pet projects or learn a new skill for career
development. I think most good employers will recognize that if you're
otherwise good at what you were hired for.

~~~
rplnt
Sometimes they don't know what they hired you for. As in have no idea how the
task should be done and how much time it can possibly take. That can be
unethical.

If you have spiky workload and work on fun projects or just learn, I believe
that to be fine.

------
chops
Whenever I give a talk about Erlang-related stuff, I almost inevitably get
asked "do you do this for fun or for your job?" And I can genuinely answer
"both, really".

While I'm the project lead for one of the more popular Erlang web frameworks
([http://nitrogenproject.com](http://nitrogenproject.com)), my main focus is
on my sports league management system[1]
([http://bracketpal.com](http://bracketpal.com)), which runs on Nitrogen.

As a result, I can justify spending "free" time working on open source because
at the end of the day, it improves my main products.

It's an interesting way to piggyback the so-called "unicorn" project onto a
product (the design of which I get to control). Granted, it'd be nice to just
get paid to work on Nitrogen all the time, since that work is generally more
mentally _stimulating_ , but I can't complain.

[1] I know the landing page is a total dog. It's the current project to fix
that up to something not terrible.

~~~
jenius
I'm in a similar situation -- right now I have what I guess would be called a
unicorn job, I work on open source stuff that I have 90% or more of the
commits on full time and am paid for it. But it's not really a fluke or that
someone is 'vouching' for me -- the stuff I work on is essential to my
company's workflow, and pays off very directly as our work becomes faster and
better, so I don't see it as a job that will go away soon (although I could
certainly be wrong).

I work at an agency, and we crank through a lot of smaller sites very quickly.
My role at this point is to spend most of my time working on the tools that we
use to build on top of, researching and evaluating other tools, and generally
improving workflow and making it more efficient. I'll take a couple months to
put in work on tools and workflow, then come back and lead a client project
with the new/updated flow. When the project is wrapped up, I take what I
learned from working on the project and use it to make further improvements to
the tools/workflow I spend most of my time on, and that's generally the cycle.

Topics that I have sunk a significant amount of time into recently include
using git/github more efficiently, researching and working with a variety of
client-side MVCs, static site build tools, deployment tools, new project
templating tools, sysops monitoring and provisioning (docker), requirejs and
browserify comparsion and benchmarking in various situations, focusing on svgs
and perfecting illustrator svg workflow, etc. It seems to me like there is an
endless supply of cool things to work on at the moment, and I enjoy my work
and do the same stuff whether I'm on or off the clock, which is nice for my
company because I probably work a lot more hours than anyone else (although
voluntarily, because I enjoy it).

I tend to span across the stack pretty widely, from design to ops and
everything in between, which I like, and am also involved in a few new
business accounts that are more dev-heavy. I absolutely love my job and would
never give it up. Not sure if this is interesting to anyone or if anyone has
perspectives on it, but I definitely am in a unique position and am curious to
hear whatever it is that people think about all this!

------
smoyer
I think the question is completely wrong ... the question you should be asking
is "how do I turn my current job into a unicorn job?". I've done this for
almost 30 years and, with the exception of the times I was forced into
management roles, I've loved engineering.

The key is that you have to be doing something your employer feels provides
value, and ultimately you want to tailor the work towards something you're
enthusiastic about. For me, I try to determine which up-and-coming
technologies are worth including in future products. This means I get to play
with lots of cool (and sometimes not so cool) technologies - and when my
employer asks how something should be done, they "redeem" that knowledge with
a list of concrete pros and cons.

Even the author's examples were projects that he was passionate about before
he started the unicorn job. One point I definitely agree with is that you have
to be a good communicator to first convince your boss you can provide value,
and again to deliver that value.

I'll also agree that it might be easier to find a unicorn job in a university
setting where things aren't quite so structured. In July of 2012 I landed a
job at Penn State as an enterprise software architect/developer ... and it was
music to my ears when I found out that my bosses' bosses' boss felt the
university need to be more engaged with the open-source community and
contribute to more projects.

~~~
derefr
> ultimately you want to tailor the work towards something you're enthusiastic
> about

This depends on being passionate about a _how_ (e.g. a technology, a language,
a development methodology) instead of a _what_. An employer will not
frequently let you turn the project of building their food-reviews website
into an automatic musical-accompaniment AI.

------
benjaminwootton
Getting someone to pay you to work on what you want and how you want is likely
to be rarer than a unicorn.

Starting your own business is a much easier path to that and even then you
will be pulled in all kinds of directions.

The only case of a unicorn job that did actually spring to mind was the
CouchDB founder. This is a very motivational talk by him -
[http://www.infoq.com/presentations/katz-couchdb-and-
me](http://www.infoq.com/presentations/katz-couchdb-and-me)

~~~
marquis
Starting a business begins as a unicorn job, and if you're lucky you find out
that you also enjoy running a business. And get to keep your unicorn part-time
job. Also, having other people help build your unicorn. I LOVE what I do every
day - used to complain I wasn't coding enough, but it was because I was
controlling the output too much and not delegating. It wasn't that I wanted to
code more, it was just that I wasn't getting enough done. So I hired more
staff and found I really like the balance of entrepreneurial life, helping my
staff code their best (and towards our goals) and coding in the quiet hours.

~~~
graeme
Completely agree here. Anything specific that helped you delegate more? I'm
getting started on that, but still feel I'm not getting nearly as much done as
I could, and I'm a bottleneck for my outsourcers.

~~~
marquis
Delegation means knowing _exactly_ what results you want, and if your staff
aren't skilled enough being able to lay it out down to the line with direct
tasks with clear finish lines for each task. We do a lot of training, so when
working with junior developers you want to break it down, break it down, and
be able to think laterally in case they can't achieve exactly what you want -
there are always other ways to get things done. Then trust them, and make sure
you get daily reports. At first it feels like you are not getting anything
done and then they start flying and it feels great.

~~~
graeme
That's a great way of putting it, and I have been working on precise templates
for certain tasks, which are now bearing fruit.

Why daily reports, as opposed to any other interval?

~~~
marquis
I think all knowledge workers should note what they did at the end of the day
- it helps with accountability and gives a sense of achievement. For example a
tool like idonethis.com helps you and everyone stay up-to-date and see quickly
where problems are. Or ask everyone to just email you at the end of the day or
a fixed period. Always read them and respond if needed.

You note that you feel you are slowing your team down - if it's because you
are relied on to be building core tasks, try building mock-ups first so they
can work. Another good tool is apiary.io if you work with APIs for example: it
combines fleshing out your API with actually providing a functional framework
so the front-end guys can get to work.

If it's documentation slowing you down, give everyone some days off or get
them on another task and catch up. Use paper and pen or whiteboarding or a
design tool like Flairbuilder if you need to really understand your ideas
before trying to explain them to someone else.

------
abhiv
This article might not be applicable to that many people. My guess is that
many people are actually happiest working on things that are given to them.
Working on your own projects requires that you think of an idea, and have the
self-discipline to work on it in the absence of externally enforced
constraints.

I think a better question for most people might be: how do I get a job where
work on the job is itself interesting, rather than a job that allows me to do
my own interesting stuff in my spare time.

~~~
FLUX-YOU
I'd just be happy having a job where someone paid me to learn after showing
some basic competency. In return, I would stick my neck out for the company
and stay 10 hour days trying to solve problems and not ditch at the first
whiff of a higher paycheck.

------
code_duck
I was lucky to start a small startup which functioned like a 'unicorn' job. It
allowed me to work exactly on what I was interested in for 4 years, while
making more money than I had been. The only drawback was the amount of time
managing advertising.

So, don't leave out 'start a business!'. Surprised to not see that possibility
mentioned in the article... This is HN, after all. You don't need an employer
to have a job.

~~~
azakai
It is mentioned in the article, near the end:

> One trite suggestion is, Why don't you just start your own company? From
> talking with friends who have done so, I can confidently say that
> entrepreneurship is not a unicorn job. You spend the majority of your work
> days on logistics, errands, coordination, and other overhead that's not at
> all related to furthering your core dream – but those steps are ultimately
> necessary for launching your product and succeeding in the marketplace. It's
> a great gig for some people, but definitely not a unicorn job.

~~~
code_duck
I see. I'd suggest that one would need to be as selective and fortunate in
finding Unicorn self employment as outside employment that fits the bill.

Also, whether one feels a position/endeavor meets unicorn status depends on
personal tastes. For me, working for myself is just as important as what I'm
doing and compensation. I also value being in charge of and learning the full
stack, from sysadmin work to database and server side work to client side
programming. It would be very rare to find such diverse work and
responsibilities working for the sort of employer author considers his ideal.

------
ossdev1
I have an unicorn job. 100% to my own projects. My secret? I don't use any
standard technologies: Python, Ruby, PHP, etc. Too much competition there.

~~~
sauravt
I bet its haskell , isn't it ?

~~~
ossdev1
No, it isn't Haskell. But I respect a lot functional programmers.

------
corbett3000
This setup is certainly rare. At my company
([http://istrategylabs.com](http://istrategylabs.com)) we've done our best to
at least feed this desire and tie it back to revenue.

1\. Everyone in the company can work on R&D projects. 2\. There's budget set
aside for this work. 3\. Everyone can pitch new ideas for new
projects/products. 4\. If something get green-lit you can join that project if
you desire and have value to bring to it.

It's really challenging to assign dedicated "20% time" or some other formal
allocation. We've tried serval times and failed. Instead, now, we just setup
hackdays/internal innovation days where the entire company can work on
whatever they want. It's great for morale and produces new things we can pitch
to our customers.

~~~
trustfundbaby
> We've tried serval times and failed.

How did you fail if you don't mind me asking?

------
tway9999
I think this is why some people go into Finance. Spend 10 years in some
miserable high stress job, but hopefully gather enough wealth to retire in
your early 30s and work on whatever you want.

Also why people work part time and spend their off time painting or playing
music. Be poor but have time to work on what you care about.

Edit: Grammar

~~~
pgbovine
_I think this is why some people go into Finance. Spend 10 years in some
miserable high stress job, but hopefully gather enough wealth to retire in
your early 30s and work on whatever you want._

Some of my college classmates went down this route, and while the numbers can
theoretically work out (these are uber-smart math/science/engineering folks),
I've never seen a single person exit successfully from this game and then
unicorn it. The main reason seems to be that they can't fight off the
inevitable lifestyle inflation that comes with being in such a social circle.
The last I heard from one guy, he was paying almost $10,000 a month to
maintain two apartments in Manhattan ...

~~~
tway9999
I definitely understand that. Personally, they are both tough choices. One is
essentially a race to the top and the other a race to the bottom. That might
be the trouble in looking for rare things(unicorns). You often need to go to
extremes to find them, and extremes are usually quite uncomfortable.

Speaking of what I've done myself, I've found a combination of the two seem
more likely to succeed. By limiting my resource requirements(cheap rent etc),
which I may have focused on too much on the past, and increasing my skills(and
pay rate), which I spend more energy on these days, I can spend a continually
reducing portion of my time on the things I don't want to do.

Thanks for the interesting article btw.

------
brryant
Most founders/entrepreneurs have unicorn jobs, but it comes with a big caveat:
being your own boss. Not as easy as it sounds.

~~~
UK-AL
Is it really unicorn? Market forces push you instead of a boss.

------
LogicalBorg
Question #4: are you a virgin? According to Wikipedia, "In the Middle Ages and
Renaissance, [the unicorn] was commonly described as an extremely wild
woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace, which could only be captured
by a virgin."

~~~
rantanplan
Now that explains why I can't get a unicorn job!

In a more serious note, while it's a well written article, it has a very
narrow scope, since you can really say the same stuff about almost every
aspect in life.

Not only there are no unicorn jobs, there no unicorn hobby projects either.
You can every easily feel "trapped" and tired from your own hobby project.

Oh wait! There are no unicorn relationships either! And there are no... well
you get the idea.

The reason is simple of course; everything "unicorn" assumes that a _certain
something_ (you, your projects goals, the market, etc) stays the same, while
the whole world around you is constantly changing and evolving.

------
lquist
The Meteor team has been working on Meteor for almost 3 years now and recently
raised enough money to do it for a few more years.

------
loomio
For those of us whose "core dream" is exactly the kind of logistical problem
solving and organizational coordination the author describes as "overhead",
starting your own company _is_ a unicorn job. Feeling lucky, I suppose :)

~~~
pgbovine
totally! if you love building businesses, managing organizations and
logistics, and figuring out monetization and growth, then starting a company
might be your unicorn job.

~~~
derefr
My unicorn job would be getting a steady salary to start business _es_
(multiple)--riding the highs and the lows, without risking my own money.

Maybe I should join a VC firm?

~~~
loomio
Or become a mentor at an incubator/accelerator?

------
arasmussen
When your side project turns into a full time job via starting a company
around it, your founding position at your startup is your unicorn job. I find
that this is one of the biggest pulls towards entrepreneurship for me.

~~~
pgbovine
you mean if you end up cashing out and then unicorning afterward? i can't
imagine _running_ a startup being a unicorn job, unless you love doing all
sorts of things that aren't remotely related to your side project.

------
derekp7
I personally think that there are more unicorn jobs than people think. It's
just that everyone has a different idea of a unicorn. The work I'm currently
doing (the level of influence I have over the final product, the technical
challenge, and meaningfulness of the work) all combine to make this probably
the best job I've had. However others I talk to doing similar work in the past
couldn't wait to find a different job.

------
adwordsjedi
Side note: I went to high school with Phil (article author) - he is a smart
guy.

------
AnonJ
I have to say that looks a weird and potentially very harmful way of thinking.
Why by default pit yourself against your job? Why you have to work on some
"personal project" which seems to be completely isolated from, even contrary
to your job? I guess it has to do with some "unsuccessful intern experiences"
by the author, but I don't believe it's the correct perceptions of things. The
ideal scenario, obviously, is to blend personal interest/fun together with the
job you are doing. And I believe a lot of, even the majority, of top people in
their field do things by such principle, and are living a happy + productive
life, not only satisfying their own intellectual appetite, but also benefiting
the company, and more broadly the world as a whole.

------
gonzo
I have a unicorn job. I sleep with the boss. It helps that we've been married
for over 23 years.

------
bikamonki
A rather narrow view, of the thousands of occupations and careers you are just
looking in the mirror. How about my friend who owns a bike shop? Or my other
friend who runs an art/design webzine? Or my other friend with the micro-
brewery? None of them are particularly skilled at what they do nor have the
right networking. I think their secret lies between living within their means
and choosing to do what they love. Anyone can do that and if that is what you
are looking for, a sabbatical with enough money to go by and full time to
inmerse in a great idea: go ahead and do it, do not over think it, do not be
afraid to fail.

------
analog31
I've got a job where I get to spend a fair amount of time hacking on things
that I'm personally interested in. I wonder if the 50% level, a la Guido Van
Rossum, is some sort of optimum. Besides paying the bills, the non-unicorn
work keeps me in touch with a lot of interesting people and ideas, and
prevents me from getting tunnel vision.

Two things have helped me. First, the stuff that the company makes is close
enough to my personal interests, that I don't have to fight too hard to
justify my unicorn work. Second, I make damn sure that my hacks end up in
products and patents once in a while.

------
chrisbennet
I haven't seen a job ad since I started my current job (~3yrs ago) that looks
more interesting than the job I have. I do desktop applications (WPF/C#) one
day, C++ computer vision/algorithms another day with an occasional scoping of
signals with an oscilloscope and logic analyzer thrown in. All this and no
politics or deadlines.

Most of the jobs I see advertised are one dimensional - they want a GUI person
OR a computer vision person OR an embedded person, rarely more than one thing.

I've had a lot of great jobs and the thing they shared in common is they were
small or tiny companies.

------
cykho
I think most people don't spent enough time looking for the best fit. Most
engineers I know select from the jobs offered to them by friends/recruiters. I
did this for my first job (which sucked bigtime). The best jobs will never be
offered (too many qualified people competing already). However, if you get out
there and prove yourself to awesome people you'll get offered unicorn
opportunities. My second job (helping schools write CS curriculum) came this
way. My new years resolution: spend more time with less people.

------
EGreg
A better way is to make a technology and keep reusing it for clients. Have
clients find you more clients, make commissions and eventually earn their
money back. Give old clients features developed for new clients. Eventually
build out a productized service, get a bank loan, market it and sell the
company. Or open source the tech and get a community around it (like symfony,
etc)

This is the outline of working on your own stuff and just charging clients for
high-margin projects, all the while building your technology.

------
Aloha
I have one of these Unicorn Jobs.

I'm paid 40 hours a week, most weeks to warm the couch. I get time to work on
my own projects.

But, alas, I'm a contractor and some point in the not too far future this ride
will end. _knocks on wood_ Hopefully its not soon however.

------
serverascode
I don't know if I believe that Guido Van Rossum has to spend 50% of his time
on not making python better, but perhaps it's true. Isn't he at dropbox now as
well?

~~~
ianbicking
It's not clear to me that Guido actually wants to spend more than 50% of his
time on Python. Stuff like the async stuff he's bringing into Python come from
his time spent developing things with Python during the other 50%.

Also, is Python necessarily his unicorn now? It's certainly not the same as a
project that he conceives and creates - it was a long time ago, but success
changes that.

------
ChristianMarks
Programming may be the wrong profession. Ed Witten says he has the greatest
job in the world.

Now there are sinecures, but I certainly would not admit to having one, now or
in the past...

------
dreamfactory
Isn't solutions/application architecture a kind of unicorn job by this
definition?

------
joshontheweb
best way to find a unicorn job is to build and release a library of some sort
and then contract yourself out to customize it for specific needs.

~~~
pgbovine
hmmm if you love library-building, then you probably won't like wrangling
clients, chasing them down for payments, finding your next clients, etc. ...
not to mention what happens when clients want you to customize your library in
some bizarre way that goes against your core sensibilities, but you need to do
it to get paid. doesn't sound very unicorn to me, since clients are ultimately
driving your business.

------
auggierose
There are unicorns. And you can catch them.

------
michaelochurch
OP is writing rubbish.

I've worked in enough companies and done enough consulting and advising to
have some thoughts about this.

First, stop obsessing over binary distinctions that don't exist like "unicorn
job". It's like "being rich". You won't get there by obsessing about it. There
are shades of gray on this one.

Second, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. If Guido only
spends 50% of his time on Python, that's probably because he doesn't _want_ to
spend more than 50% of his time on Python. (I doubt he explicitly asked for
permission to spend 50 vs. 75 or 25 percent of his time on it.) As with the
creative arts, you'll make better stuff if you're part of the world, rather
than completely isolated. Work for other people-- and, except when its
interests contradict your own, for the benefit of your firm-- but on your own
terms.

Third, "political forces" always exist but are not always irresistible. Yes,
sometimes you have to work on things that wouldn't be your first pick if you
were unconstrained, but that build your credibility or advance your career.
Accept that. Everyone has to do some selling and alliance-building. Do that
work, do it well, and make allies. It's important to stop hating that aspect
of work; it's part of the game, too. It's actually fun once you're halfway
good at it, and if someone like me can develop those skills then anyone can.

Fourth, make sure to find people, companies, and managers whose passions match
your own. Don't try to sell a Java shop on Python. Find a company that uses
Python, if that's what you want. It's much easier in the long run to keep
looking until you find a company that agrees with your ideology, than it is to
try to change everything.

Fifth, never work on stuff that isn't interesting to you _or_ good for your
career. If you get assigned work that hurts your career and bores you, work
quickly to find someone powerful who can use you for something else. (You
might get fired in this process; accept that risk. It's better than being
taken advantage of for 5+ years.)

Sixth, don't use the words "personal project". It may be something you
initiated, but it's probably useful to someone. Find some way (possibly an
abstract one) that your project is useful to someone else, and preferably your
company as a whole. Again, make allies. Ask others for advice (this is a big
one!) and let them have input into your work (but don't compromise on the
vision in a major way). Treat people you work with as first customers, not as
obstacles. Don't make it obvious that you're trying to take control of the
show. People will ask you to join them long before they'll be ready to be led
by you.

There's a lot more that I can say, but I hope I've made my points clear. You
don't get this "unicorn" job or environment by becoming a brand-name engineer
(it works in reverse; the great engineers get the autonomy and use it to
become really good at something). Rather, you get creative at selling the work
you want to do, make allies, and find companies and managers who are going in
the same direction. I don't want to make it sound easy, but you don't have to
be a celebrity to pull it off. You need to know what you want and work hard to
get it. You also need to learn the difference between asking for permission
(never do it) and consulting others (often do it). Don't ask "Can I do this?"
(Counterintuitive fact: most bosses dislike being explicitly asked for
permission. You're not doing him a favor, but _asking him to take on risk_ \--
for mostly your benefit.) Say, "This is what I want to do; how would you
recommend that I go about it and make it maximally useful to those around me?"

~~~
AnonJ
>binary distinctions that don't exist

>you'll make better stuff if you're part of the world

>companies whose passions match your own

>that your project is useful to someone else

Exactly. OP shouldn't treat his own dull internship experiences as the whole
picture about companies. His way of thinking is not productive/conducive at
all IMO.

Though I don't totally agree with the "political" part.

------
seivan
I thought this post would be about jobs for 'unicorns' designer + developers
positions conjoined.

That's what I want. A job where I won't be dictated by designers who can't
implement their bullshit photoshop mockups.

I'm not an entrepreneur, but I like to create things. I am OK with a paycheck
(where eating out on McDonalds is a luxury) with no equity, hell that's my
current situation - sans creative freedom. Right now I'm a code monkey, and I
kinda hate it, so I'm hoping that would change in the future. Just need a
project without the photoshop-guy.

That being said, creating my own tech demos on my own free time helps keep my
sanity in check

~~~
derefr
> 'unicorns' designer + developers positions conjoined

I've always found the resistance to this so strange.

My CV has Erlang, Haskell, IA32 assembler, and HTML5/CSS3 on it in various
places. The first question any company inevitably asks me, when I send it in,
is "what position are you applying for?" (Even though I answer this in the
cover letter. Good evidence that they don't bother to read it.)

I should probably just start answering "development factotum."

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
The problem is that a less than A player in either design or backend
programming will more likely shit things up instead of contributing in a minor
way. It's just hard to believe that you are an A player in both.

~~~
derefr
Your statement hinges on the implicit premise that most of the skills required
in programming share no common knowledge, and each must be learned entirely
anew (so that time spent learning X is time not spent learning Y.)

I would pose the opposite: that learning more "parts" of programming at the
same time, makes learning each individual part easier and faster. Epiphanies
from learning functional programming will explain bits of compiler design;
patterns you learn in macro assembler will clarify instruction-optimization
vs. space-optimization choices; working with message-passing systems will
revise your views on networking protocols; etc.

You'd expect, for a similar reason, someone with training in book publishing
and communications design to not need much help getting into web design.

