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

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downerending
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.

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orionblastar
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.

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jc01480
Yes. Best quality of life choice I ever made. I was in my mid-forties, too. My
experience has been overwhelmingly positive.

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PaulHoule
I studied theoretical physics then switched over to software development.

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dlphn___xyz
im trying to do the exact opposite

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

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Amicius
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?

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non-entity
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

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potta_coffee
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.

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muzani
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.

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potta_coffee
Thanks for the insight.

