
Ask HN: How to take the leap mid-career? - anno63774
I’m in my early thirties in a very-well paying non-tech career and contemplating a switch into the startup world. This is largely driven by hopes to tackle some of the more fundamental challenges of our world, the idea that small firms offer a better ground to contribute to&#x2F;enjoy a positive working culture, and some idea to have more time for my family (compared to a lot of traveling and 70+h&#x2F;w at the moment). While not working in tech, I do have an engineering background  and some limited dev skills and good industry insights. I’m also confident to be able to execute projects&#x2F;products in agile environments and with challenging customers. I’m lucky to have accrued enough savings to sustain my family’s down-to-earth lifestyle for ~4yrs, but still wary about long-term implications of disrupting my career.<p>I’m wondering how to best go about it:<p>1.) Find a CTO role at a startup of interest. However, early stage startups often require more hands-on dev skills than I’d be comfortable with. Later stage roles are exceedingly rare in Europe. Career risks would be a bit more limited<p>2.) Take a non-exec role at a startup and use it to test the waters and grow from there. Easy to get but a huge break for my career<p>3.) Found. The two ideas I have would be very heads-on against established players. I’d risk my capital. Alternatively, take time off and find other ideas (how to best go about it?)<p>4.) Stay and make the corporate world a better place<p>Anyone with experience in similar situations?
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itamarst
Working as part of senior management of VC-funded startup will not allow you
to work a reasonable work week. VCs loooooove long working hours, however
unproductive and stupid they may be:
[https://uncrunched.com/2011/11/27/startups-are-hard-so-
work-...](https://uncrunched.com/2011/11/27/startups-are-hard-so-work-more-
cry-less-and-quit-all-the-whining/)

As employee in startup it's perfectly possible to work reasonable hours at the
at right copmany, especially if you're clear up front about your boundaries.

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dotmanish
Somewhere in the middle, but have you considered a role that combines both
non-tech and tech? e.g. Tech Product Management. It requires a lot more though
(Design as well), but can provide you with a taste of end-to-end
responsibility of launching products or features - which can either lead to
more satisfying corporate roles or be a good training ground for startup
roles.

