
Ask HN: I have a lot of time, how should I invest it? - z_vas
I&#x27;ve been reading NH for many years, but this is my first time posting, I hope this goes well.<p>Here is my little story. I&#x27;m in my late 20s, have no Bachelor’s degree and no job. I&#x27;ve been applying for various positions in software engineering for quite some time, to no avail.<p>The thing is, I have a lot of programming experience. I started coding at the age of 12: first in C++ Builder, then I moved to Pascal and C. At the age of 14 I&#x27;ve become obsessed with low-level programming and reverse engineering. I&#x27;ve spent my high school in IDA and SoftIce, writing programs in wasm. Subsequently I&#x27;ve also become interested in web development, and my first real job was a Front-End Developer. At different points of life, I&#x27;ve written programs in C, C++, Pascal, ASP.NET, x86 assembly, php, python, Octave, Haskell, OCaml, coq, Isabelle.<p>I guess I pretty much stopped coding at the age of 21. I&#x27;ve become interested in mathematics. I&#x27;ve spent a lot of time studying university-level mathematics, and at some point I&#x27;ve actually enrolled in a program in pure mathematics, but eventually dropped out. I&#x27;ve also discovered the world of formal verification and type theories. I actually managed to find a job in formal verification and worked at this position for one year.<p>And now I&#x27;m stuck. I&#x27;m not a mathematician, and I obviously can&#x27;t find a job as a mathematician without a Bachelor&#x27;s degree. I also can&#x27;t find a job in formal verification. In my country this market is narrow, and you need to have a PhD to squeeze in. And I&#x27;m not a software developer either: all my skills are rusty or obsolete, I haven&#x27;t really been doing this thing for a while.<p>So, I have a lot of time, I have a strong background in mathematics. I want to find a job. What do you think are my best options?
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armagon
Okay, here are a few thoughts in no partcular order:

\- finding a job is awful. Networking is key -- but read that as 'spending
time with other people doing interesting things leads to opportunities'.
Consider attending or hosting meetups, or going to/presenting at conferences.

\- Programming is a lot more than knowing a particular library or language,
and good companies realize this. At its core, it is the problem solving skills
and getting things done, and you haven't programmed in that many languages
without learning to do that.

\- Consider contributing to an open-source project. It may be a great way to
'unrust' your skills.

\- Consider taking further education; there are distance universities or
online universities (ex. [http://www.cvu-uvc.ca/](http://www.cvu-uvc.ca/) \--
should be something similar where you are from). edX has great courses; there
is OpenCourseware, Udemy, etc.

\- Two books I'd like to recommend: "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal
Newport, and "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David
Epstein.

Good luck.

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badrabbit
Infosec. your skills are in great demand and it pays well. I've seen people
with no compsci/IT background jump from mathematics to infosec and become
rockstars.

At your age,hopefully you know if this or other fields are for you or not.

Outside of professional pursuit, I would recommend investing your time
developing a healthy social and personal life as well as taking care of your
body. Else, burn-outs and regrets lie ahead.

