
Ask HN: What do you do when you are simply tired of having a boss? - throwaway_422
As I approach the 20-year mark of my career, I find that I&#x27;m increasingly dissatisfied with the idea of having another person in control of what I do and how my career progresses. In fact, I find the idea of reviews and performance evaluations ridiculous.  I&#x27;m completely burned out on the idea of &quot;pleasing&quot; someone by doing things their way with the hopes that this will <i>maybe</i> mean good things for me sometime in the future, should they see fit.  But I don&#x27;t know what to do about it.<p>I&#x27;m starting to feel the pressures of ageism though my skills are just fine.  I have extensive experience in $hot_technologies in $hot_startup_market with all the buzzword trimmings.  I&#x27;ve managed teams of up to 10 in the past, but I don&#x27;t particularly like (or dislike) management - I just want more authority, more responsibility, more money, and less people telling me what to do.<p>Recently I&#x27;ve been working for smaller startups where the founding&#x2F;management team is kind of set; never grew to a size where they needed more management.  I realize I was more of a &quot;hired gun&quot; in those situations.  Now it seems like I&#x27;m getting branded with the dreaded &quot;IC&quot; scarlet letter.  I&#x27;m too senior for a LOB&#x2F;middle-management role, but I haven&#x27;t made that jump into 2-level (Director&#x2F;VP) management yet.<p>I&#x27;ve never consulted before.  I wouldn&#x27;t even know where to start.  Which discipline to choose, how to get clients, etc.  Also re ageism: it feels like an employment gap could be much more devastating at this point in my career should it not work out.<p>I have a family to support.  I have some savings, but I was hoping that if I ever had to burn through it, it would be a much more promising situation. Like if I ever mange to get around to building one of the many great ideas I have and I need to get through &quot;ramen profitable&quot; :)<p>So HN: do you have any uplifting, motivational stories about how you took your career into your own hands (especially at a stage where the risks were high)?
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PaulHoule
It's a deep issue with software careers.

Why are people upset with a music major being "chief of security?" I think it
is because people working in software don't get many chances for advancement
and they ultimately get bossed around by business people who often don't seem
that good at business.

I quit my membership in the ACM because I got tired of the endless
handwringing articles about the roller-coaster enrollments in CS programs (and
the related lack of female students.)

Something they never talk about is what happens when their students enter the
workforce and stay in it. Prospective students hear stories from veterans and
they stay away. (Females stay away because they are "smarter" when it comes to
maximizing their utility functions)

Any answer for somebody in your shoes is going to come down to taking more
risk.

