
Ask HN: If you could start your career all over again, what would you change? - daolf
Regarding your professional career, what is the single decision you regret the most making?
======
karmakaze
Not making more decisions. The things one regrets are the things not done.
Should have changed companies/jobs more often. At the start it was great being
part of a company/team for a long time, after that you realize that in the end
it is a job (even it it's also a passion) and it's good to be exposed to
different things.

Also wished I'd taken a bigger interest in somewhat core things sooner, e.g.
static-typed functional languages and distributed systems. Basically seeking
out challenges rather than performing well in my comfort zone. Still exploring
less technical, soft areas with unknown outcome as yet.

------
codingdave
I started a job and within the first 2 days saw a red flag with the CEO. I
should have listened to my gut and walked right back out of that job. I spent
years in a job I should never have started because the CEO had an odd mix of
compassion and abusiveness that kept me on the fence for years, and I'm just
recently realizing exactly how damaging that job was both personally and
professionally.

If you have a bad feeling about a job shortly after you start, trust your gut
and go.

~~~
deanmoriarty
I would love to hear some of those behaviors. I recently changed job and I am
having such a bad experience, which could be easily summarized with my boss
being “abusive and occasionally compassionate”.

It is so deeply confusing, to the point where I think this person might have a
personality disorder, and I am wondering if I should quit.

He is very influential and established in the organization, so leaving would
be my only recourse. I can see how staying in this situation a long time could
semi-permanently damage my view of leadership and trust...

~~~
codingdave
The red flags I saw were are the exact red flags you'll see written up if you
google "How to tell if someone is a sociopath". I'm not going to dissect the
specifics of the person I worked with beyond that vague guidance because HN
isn't the place where I'm comfortable having that discussion.

But I can tell you that yes, I would quit. I should have quit years before I
did, and although it has worked out OK for me the last couple years, in many
ways I deeply regret the years I spent living in that kind of scenario. The
short-term hit you take by leaving a job is worth the trouble when you find a
place to work that truly is a positive and healthy environment.

~~~
deanmoriarty
This sounds so obvious in hindsight but yeah, I really needed to google that,
thanks for the suggestion. My boss exactly matches those behaviors, almost
verbatim. Sucks to be me right now! I’ll have to repay signon bonus and
relocation, but might be worth it at this point...

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sagunsh
I would love to be a professional chess player. I have been playing chess
since I was 10. I have always been good at problem solving and maths. I didn't
took chess seriously as I didn't see anyone playing it to earn a living, I
didn't even know something like that exists.

Later in college, I won back to back chess tournament and with just a few days
of practice. That's when I realized I might had a chance have I taken chess
seriously since my early days in school.

------
akulbe
I'm sorry you only asked for a _single_ decision. I'd change multiple things.

1\. Bet on myself sooner. Start a business SOONER.

2\. Learn how to sell.

3\. Study more material that'd help with improving programming skills, rather
than business acumen.

4\. Skip college.

5\. Just START, rather than waiting for the perfect storm.

~~~
christiansakai
This is pretty outlier advice especially no.3, can you elaborate more on your
points?

~~~
akulbe
Sorry for the rambling... I'm happy to elaborate more, if you like.

#4. I was a Business Management major. I learned far more about business by
being in business for myself. College tuition for MANY majors is a complete
waste of your money.

Business is much like programming. There are many things you can learn from a
smaller body of knowledge. The biggest gains are going to be made by _DOING_.

#3. There are a handful of books you can read for much cheaper than what it
would cost you to pay for an undergraduage degree in Business Management. You
can learn from those books what you'd pay tens of thousands of dollars for in
tuition.

The BEST learning comes from practice, though.

For me, with programming... I'd ask all the typical questions. What's the best
first language? what tools should I use? what frameworks should I learn? they
are a distraction from what you really should be doing... practice. Don't wait
to start. Don't wait for the perfect language/tool/framework/editor.

JUST START.

Pick something vanilla (no frameworks until later). Read about it. Write code
badly. Write more code badly. Ask questions of other coders in $LANGUAGE. Put
stuff up on GitHub for review. Get feedback. If you don't stop, you WILL get
better.

DO. DO. DO. DO. DO. Reading is only the beginning.

~~~
christiansakai
Thanks for the elaboration. I think I came from the perspective of a
programmer myself, and I consider myself quite a capable programmer. However
business-wise, all from idea to execution (i.e., marketing, finance, law,
customer support) etc is very lacking. I know I'm not alone in this, and there
are a few of friends in my circle that go to get a Business degree (MBA) to
learn more about business and make connections.

How do you yourself find what to sell, and educate yourself in that domain
specific knowledge on that particular business?

~~~
akulbe
I took this one offline and sent an email to the one listed in your profile.
it contains more personal data than I want to put out here in public.

------
ThrowawayR2
Stayed in a toxic team long enough to injure my health. There are some things
doctors can't fix. Definitely not worth it.

~~~
muzani
My experience with toxic teams is that they're always a career step backwards.
They don't attract talent, builds enemies, burns you out, sometimes even costs
you money. Burnout is probably the worst part. Lots of people quit tech not
for the tech itself but because of the people.

------
Southland
I didn't take any more CS classes in college because during the first course I
took my freshman year, there was a lecture and lab component. During the lab,
you would code on a computer in an IDE and submit the projects/assignments.
During the lecture you'd learn and then take written exams, which involved
coding Java by hand. I had no issues with the labs and really enjoyed them,
but I greatly struggled with syntax, etc, when writing the code by hand. I was
18, too stubborn, and butted heads with the Professor about it - I kept trying
to argue why my lab performance should have demonstrated more of a competency
in the subject than writing by hand, but the rubric was final and the exams
were a large portion of the grade, and my grade suffered because of it.

After that experience, I declared my major to something non STEM and never
took another CS course again, and ended up working for the first 4-5 years of
my career in non engineering roles.

However I still ended up being pulled into coding as a passion all those years
later, in which I self taught the CS coursework I needed online by taking
Computer Science MOOCs and reading textbooks, etc, and now work as a software
engineer.

I can't help feeling like if I was a little less brash when a freshman in
college, I probably would have loved the CS major and my career could have
been very different. I can't complain about where my life/career has ended up
though, so perhaps it was all for the best.

~~~
whiskey712
I can't believe I am reading this because I feel like you just described the
same exact situation I have experienced in college as well (except I still
have one more year left). I switched from CS to a BUSINESS major after
freshman year for similar reasons, absolutely despised the teaching
environment for some of these massive pre-reqs/weed-out classes. The Java
class in particular ruined it for me.

However, now once again I find myself really wanting to give it another go and
feel ready to take on the advanced coursework, but tuition is expensive. Do
you have any advice to a rising college senior who is about to wrap up a
seemingly textbook business major but feels impassioned by coding?

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InfiniteRand
I'm not sure I regret the job choices I've made, but if I knew how healthcare
laws would have changed over the last decade or so I would not had the same
priority for finding a job and probably would have spent more time trying to
make it as a writer. I have a pre-existing condition so in 2008 it was very
valuable for me to obtain employer-based health coverage before I aged out of
being covered under my parent's plan.

If I knew that the age until which you are covered by your parent's health
plan was going to be extended to 26, I would not have focused on getting a
stable, nice benefits job. I would probably have tried making it as a writer,
and unless I had some big break I would have probably considered grad school
(which I was planning on for my first couple years after college until I found
I preferred working on real world projects to research more or less).

Not 100% sure how that would have worked out. I probably would not have gotten
married until I had a stable position somewhere, so I'd be starting my family
much later (if at all, if my writing career took off I might be more focused
on that), almost certainly wouldn't have ended up with my wife, since the
circumstances that brought us together would be very different, odd to think
about...

Probably would be more ambitious but with less happiness than I am now, but
it's very hard to say. So I don't regret the path I went down, but it's
strange to think that so much of my life was based on an assumption (that I
needed to secure employer-based heathcare ASAP) that ended up being wrong.

------
pseudonymousgun
Working for a company and thinking of work in terms of "career". If i could
start all over again, i would be trying to do something on my own.

------
allie1
Ship more often, launch more often, learn to validate ideas sooner, have fun
along the way.

------
admin1010
I wish I knew how to recognize a bad manager, and what to do when you find
yourself working for one. I was eager to prove myself in my first job out of
college, typical overachiever. Naively believed that if someone was a manager
it meant they were good at what they did and wanted the best for you too.

Didn't realize until I burned out what a loss of time and energy it was
putting so much effort into trying to do a 'good job' for someone who lacked
empathy and was just not suited for management. It took me years to unravel
the damage from that experience. I went into new jobs with what I would
describe as PTSD learned from that first job. It was a professional trauma,
and I didn't realize how disordered that startup and management team was until
I worked at other places. I learned a lot from it. But it set me back a few
years.

That brings me to my next point. The exciting, glamorous startups with high
profile executives and investors are often just a huge mess under all the
flashy PR and social media personalities. I don't regret learning that the
hard way, just wish I wasn't so naive and allured by brand names at the start
of my career.

------
runawaybottle
Getting into the habit of ‘always be interviewing’, stayed 4 years at my first
job where there were limited pathways.

------
tsuyoshi
The decision I most regret was moving to a city without many tech jobs
(Philadelphia). The difference in number of available jobs, salaries, working
conditions, and even the intelligence of coworkers is kind of mind-blowing,
now that I've moved back to a city with a lot of tech jobs (Seattle). The cost
of living is higher here, but it's worth it.

------
bradlys
Moving away from Seattle after college before I had another job lined up. I
quit the job I had in college (it was software dev but in the university) and
went on a long road trip across the country. It was the single worst decision
I’ve made in my entire life. (Probably)

That said, I couldn’t have known that entry level jobs were going to be so
incredibly difficult to get after college. Almost everyone and their mother
thought I’d have no trouble cause he’s so smart, has job experience, went to
good school, etc. But most of them were extremely privileged and never had
issues finding jobs /or/ had completely irrelevant experience.

I’d highly suggest talking to peers who are just a year or two ahead of you.
They might shine light. Sadly, I had none to go by. I was entirely alone and
had no relatable peers.

------
lazyjones
I would swap the 4 fruitless years in postgraduate academia for 4 years of
team experience in a large IT corporation. My startup was very successful, but
could have grown faster/easier (than 60-odd people in 14 years) with more such
experience (as solo founder).

~~~
djaque
Did you jump out of a PhD?

I'm going into my fourth year now and just feel like I'm stagnating and not
being challenged in my lab anymore. I've been thinking about the quote "If
you're the smartest guy in the room then you're in the wrong room" lately. At
this point both of my PIs and my lab manager have openly told me that I'm the
strongest member of the lab. I know it's not just me anymore and I feel like I
want to get out and move on to someplace where I can grow, but also don't want
to waste the four years that I have invested towards a PhD.

What was your experience?

~~~
lazyjones
> _Did you jump out of a PhD?_

Yes, sort of ... I was planning an academic career and had a 4 year contract
teaching and researching at uni while doing my PhD, but failed to get the PhD
in that time (because of lack of motivation / other interests and projects).
Never really got the hang of focusing on churning out papers, enjoyed teaching
and short-lived research more. Didn't get along too well with the (much older)
colleagues at the dept. either.

After that, I freelanced for a year, during that time I got a great job offer
at an EA company for game development but decided not to move to the US for
it. A few months later I got talked into accepting VC for one of my hobby
projects, so the company was founded. The 4 years I "wasted" were at least
somewhat formative and I would have regretted not getting a taste of academia.
In the end, entrepreneurship was a good fit for my personality, the joy of
doing exactly what I wanted and getting very positive feedback, validation and
compensation just from making my work available to the public was the best
reward.

At hindsight, trying more things and getting more industry experience as an
employee would have been useful, but I can't complain.

------
vsskanth
choosing ME over CS simply because the college was way more prestigious.
College rankings don't matter beyond your first job.

~~~
pmiller2
Bingo. I majored in math because I was interested in it. Had I known the
difficulties I’d have getting a job because of it, I would have doubled in CS.

I had people literally just tell me at career fairs, “you’re not qualified,”
because my degree didn’t have the word “computer” in it. It took most of my
self control not to educate them on who _built_ the first electronic
computers.

------
scared2
Taking a job knowing that the boss was incompetent, but he thinks he is t a
top notch.

------
rc-1140
Not taking out a loan for a CS degree. It's gotten in my way so much,
especially recently. The paper saying that you took some courses is way more
important than a github profile with projects.

~~~
catacombs
For what it's worth, you're better off not being saddled by student loan debt.

EDIT: To the downvoters: please explain how graduating with tens of thousands
of dollars in debt is beneficial in the long run.

~~~
amy_reddit96
it is beneficial in the long run because you dont face the issue that OP is
facing....

Also the UK doesn't completely cripple you with student debt. CS degrees are
also valuable, can pretty much get into any other field with this piece of
paper.

~~~
catacombs
It seems like OP is from the U.S., where, unlike the U.K., the education
system knee-caps students financially. Hence, if one goes to school in the
U.S. taking out loans isn't worth it.

~~~
rc-1140
I went to a respectable state school (to the point where people comment that
they like the SDEs that my state school has produced when I speak to other
devs) for my undergraduate degree, and I've recently become debt free. If I
had gone for CS, I probably could have expected to be $35-40k in the red on
graduation. While it seems abnormally high across the Atlantic, it wouldn't
have been some catastrophic ivy league 6-figure loan pricetag that's become
the debt figure people like to highlight so much.

Many people that I've kept in contact with who followed the CS track were more
than able to pay off their student loans because most people I know went to
state schools like I did. It would be unreasonable to say that there are no
failure stories as there are plenty of those, but with the salaries in the
industry even for juniors who find themselves working for slightly above
average companies (envision $55-65k fresh out of college in the US and they
still get to live at home), the loan would have absolutely been worth it.

------
codpiece
I started a business early and ran a few service businesses with some success.
Cash flow was always a problem and working your ass off waiting for the big
payout put a huge strain on my wife and kids.

It wasn't until both my wife and I were working full time that we started to
accumulate wealth.

No commitments? Start a business early. Some commitments? A regular paycheck
and saving as much as humanly possible makes it easier to take risks later.

------
afarrell
Listening to people who say “sleep is for the weak” and “stop trying to
understand things, just learn by doing.”, “stop trying to understand the
universe”, and “just do the obvious thing.”

Different people are different. Personally, I find I am 5% as productive if I
am working while utterly confused and running on 4 hours of sleep. It sucks to
look back on my effort and see I made as much progress as Luigi Cadorna did on
this 10th time trying to cross the Isonzo river.

------
austincheney
Pursuing advancement of technical proficiency over leadership. I would
completely change that to focus more on administrative and managerial
performance much earlier in my career. In my defense, though, leadership is
really weak in software so that would require more initiative from less
examples/guidance.

------
epc
Not staying an extra semester to finish CS as a second major (my college
required a senior thesis, like a mini–dissertation, for every degree). Having
a minor in CS was about as useful in the technology field, career wise, as
having a binary coded birthmark.

------
alexmingoia
My biggest regret was ever taking a job in the first place. I should have
worked for myself, my own business, from day one. Working for someone else
robbed me of so much potential. Easily one of the biggest opportunity costs
I’ve ever paid.

------
gshdg
I wish I'd looked for more opportunities to work with and learn from more
experienced developers instead of being so overwhelmed by imposter syndrome
that I was terrified to take a job where anyone who knew more than me could
judge me.

------
danthewireman
Choosing the wrong career. Finally moved from programming to writing fiction.

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tscopp
I should have learned awk and sed when they told me to.

