
Ask HN: How can reset my career while still providing for my family? - michaelperrin
I am a 49   years old software developer,  working for an online gambling operator.  The job pays well and it is not far from my home.  Other than that it is simply the worse job I’ve ever had.  I had to take this position due to financial pressure after moving to a new country.  Given an alternative, I would have preferred an industry other than gambling. To make matters even worse,  the work is boring and repetitive.  Most of the “development” I do now days is filling up C++ structures and sending them off as messages to other components via an antiquated communication layer developed in-house 15 years ago.  The primary reason the company needs experienced developers is to keep at bay the multi-headed spaghetti monster which is their code-base.<p>The common perception among my colleagues is that this is a good as it can get at our age: yes it’s a life-sucking, mind-numbing job but it pays the bills and leaves you some time to watch television at the evenings.  I simply can’t accept that this is not the kind of career I’ve signed up for.<p>I have been spending a significant portion of my free time keeping in pace with the latest developments machine learning and image processing which I find fascinating. It something would have loved doing as my day job.  Which brings me to my question:<p>what should be my escape plan?  If I didn’t have my family depending on me to put food on the table I could have just find another job,  compromise on my salary and rework my way up. However, It&#x27;s not something I can easily do with mortgage payments and getting a child through college.<p>What are my options?
======
auslegung
Are you saying you want to switch into Machine Learning, but you're assuming
you'll have to take a significant pay cut? I'm not sure that assumption pans
out. If I were you I would start testing that assumption and find out what
kind of a salary you can demand as a ML programmer.

------
was_boring
You only have two options: 1) find a niche with your current employer that you
can exploit to fulfill your interests; or 2) find a job that will do the same.

The first involves less risk and if your employer is enlightened will most
likely welcome it because they will be able to leverage your experience and
enthusiasm in ways that an outside hire will not.

I've never had an official "machine learning" or "ai" title but I have done 5
machine learning projects for current and past employers by simply
demonstrating skills.

------
JSeymourATL
> machine learning and image processing which I find fascinating.

Start attending meet-ups and conferences in this space.

Connect with other attendees (network).

Find out what other people are working on.

Above all, look for the guy in this space who you can best help.

------
tiredwired
Maybe you can find an application for ML at your current employer. Gain some
experience without starting from the bottom.

