
Ask HN: What insight was key to growth of your career or startup? - samblr
Insight can be from technical &#x2F; sales &#x2F; marketing &#x2F; interpersonal &#x2F; other aspects.
======
LouisSayers
Career: 1) You can increase your salary dramatically by changing your job 2)
Job interviews are like exams, study for them, find and practice example
questions 3) In tech, contracting is where you make bank. If you work it out,
with the same breaks you take with salaried employment you're still much
better off.

Startups: 1) The goal is to make money, not build something. Focus on that. 2)
It typically takes a long time (many months or years) to create a business. Be
patient, stick with it. Think of it as a marathon, and an experiment.

Courses, e-books: 1) There's much more involved in their creation as what you
initially think. It'll take much longer to build than you imagine (if you're
about doing a proper job) 2) They won't sell themselves, you need marketing
channels. 3) the trick with courses / books is to build audiences and funnel
the audience into them. You can do this by creating free books / courses and
upselling collected emails, or by collecting emails from other places /
affiliating and collaborating. So don't count on a single book / course from
making you so much money you can quit work. Build a series of books / courses
instead - you'll see the results of compounding.

~~~
nnd
By contracting you mean non-remote opportunities?

~~~
LouisSayers
Specifically I'm referring to my personal experience doing on-site
contracting, can't comment on 100% remote positions

------
trjordan
"There is no magic."

Before I started my career, I thought there was a point where products mostly
built themselves. Coding changed that.

When I was in engineering, I thought there was a point where products mostly
sold themselves. Sales changed that.

When I was in sales, I thought there was a point where the message mostly
spread itself. Marketing changed that.

When I started my own company, I thought there was a point where most of the
business ran itself. I certainly never reached that point.

~~~
mgregory22
Tell me how sales changed your view that there was a point where products
mostly sold themselves.

~~~
mdadgar
Once you’ve spent some time in sales, you realize that sales is a TON of work.

~~~
mgregory22
Oh I'm sure it is, but surely a well-engineered product is easier to sell than
a badly-engineered one?

------
stray
My key insight was "humans do not read".

I say it jokingly but early on -- I gained quite a reputation among people far
smarter than I am, for being able to solve the most difficult problems.

But I never really did anything other than read. And most of the time I never
had to go beyond the documentation.

The trick I guess, is to slow down and _really_ read. There is no shortcut to
understanding. And there is no solution without understanding.

    
    
      - RTFM 
     
      - Slow is smooth, smooth is fast

~~~
pavlov
Completely agreed on the "slow down and really read" part.

Googling for immediate answers on Stack Overflow is not reading and doesn't
lead to understanding. It's "fast food calories" for your mind, and if one
solves every problem that way, it's like eating at McDonalds for every meal.

~~~
Strom
Googling for immediate answers on Stack Overflow definitely leads to
understanding in my case. The trick is to not just immediately paste the code,
but to dig into it and understand why that specific set of instructions is the
solution. A bit of reverse engineering if you will. It tends to be faster than
reading through all the docs (which contain too much info about things you
won't need right now) and inventing the wheel yourself.

~~~
marktangotango
I don't know why you're being downvoted, this is a good insight. Particularly
in the Java Enterprise world, the documentation can be very wordy, and of the
form 'indoctrinate you into this way of thinking'. A barebones example from
someone who knows the framework can be much more illuminating than pages of
prose.

------
jsgoller1
My major insight in 2016 was realizing that literally everyone has impostor
syndrome. After talking to a few people about it, I've started asking pretty
much everyone I meet who works in tech and found this to be universally the
case (even John Carmack, according to Wikiquote -
[https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack),
the "Seriously? I'm good?" quote and the one at the bottom about not being
Richard Garriot).

What this has allowed me to do is 1) recognize that I'm really not a failure
because I can't do X, just that I haven't yet gotten experience with X, so I
need to read and play/experiment with X more (and therefore there's pretty
much nothing that I or anyone else _can't_ do with enough experience), and 2)
learn how to better talk to my coworkers and technical friends so as not to
say things that might make them feel impostor-y (because there are definitely
things other say that will set off that anxiety in my brain, even
unintentionally). I feel like both of these things have allowed me to be more
effective and productive at work.

~~~
spc476
I worked through impostor syndrome by realizing two things:

1) almost no company will just up and fire a developer without warning, even
in "right to work" states. A company will always

2) have the manager or HR talk to the developer to try to resolve a
performance issue. It's cheaper than firing and rehiring a new developer. It
also saves time.

Now, because of these two factors, I realized that if my performance _were_ an
issue, my manager or HR would have a meeting with me to address the situation.
The fact that such a meeting has never come up means the company is satisfied
with my performance. So, if there's a down day at work, then I don't feel so
guilty about surfing the web reading up on new languages or techniques, even
if everyone else (usually in different departments) are on a tight deadline.

Another thing I've learned (not at work) are the three rules for dealing with
worrisome situations. Given you are worried about some situation:

1) Can you do anything about it now? If so, do something about it and stop
worrying.

2) Can you do anything about it later? If so, wait til later and stop worrying
about it.

3) Can you do nothing about it? Don't worry about it because there's nothing
you can do.

Plan accordingly.

~~~
throwawayjay
> 1) almost no company will just up and fire a developer without warning, even
> in "right to work" states. A company will always 2) have the manager or HR
> talk to the developer to try to resolve a performance issue. It's cheaper
> than firing and rehiring a new developer. It also saves time.

Hmm, I've been fired from my last two positions without any warning or prior
notice. In the first instance, I was a full-time employee and I got stuck on a
piece of functionality and I was simply let go. I made co-workers aware of the
fact that I needed some sort of help, but one day after a prolonged period of
being denigrated, I was let go. When asking how come no prior warning was
given, I was told "you could see it coming."

The most recent position was as a consultant and I was working with deadlines
that had slipped for a number of reasons mostly outside of my control and I
had to handle numerous support requests in addition to that -- which led to a
severe case of burnout. My contract was abruptly terminated one day, without
prior warning.

I took what I could from both experiences and improved my skills as much as I
could, but there is always the domain-specific hurdles that arise.

My point is that there are some companies out there that are ruthless, so far
in my experience it seems that this mostly applied to the smaller ones. I
never oversold myself or my skills and I did ask for a second opinion when I
felt things were taking too long. It could just be my luck thus far.

~~~
jsgoller1
> I've been fired from my last two positions without any warning or prior
> notice

This feels more like the exception than the rule - especially if they are
willing to spend a whole day denigrating you. Obviously, I don't have the same
context as you on this, but I have never seen someone get let go suddenly for
poor technical performance.

~~~
throwawayjay
True, it is more of an exception based on the majority of other cases that I
have heard as well. PIPs and/or warnings are usually issued first. The one
commonality between the two companies is that they were very small (3-5
developers).

------
yokisan
1\. Nobody cares how hard you work. Results — not effort — are the only things
that matter.

2\. It's infinitely easier to produce excellent results when you like the job
you're in. You may never find "The perfect job" but the closer the match to
your skills, the better.

3\. You'll be amazed at how few people give a sh*t about your new startup.

4\. Paychecks are addictive. Then often essential. If you want to start your
own business, try not to become dependent.

5\. Learn to recognize The Dips from the cul-de-sacs
([http://guykawasaki.com/the_big_dip_ten/](http://guykawasaki.com/the_big_dip_ten/)).

~~~
Chromozon
My seventh grade teacher strongly enforced #1. Parents would complain to her
all day long that their kid spent a lot of hours on so-and-so assignment only
to receive an average grade. Her response was always that she did not care how
much time was spent on an assignment- if the end result was crap, you were not
going to get a good grade.

------
F_J_H
Work to increase your luck surface area. Network, meet new people, get
involved in OSS, go to meetups, volunteer.

When you are just starting out, get good at a tangible skill that people will
pay you for, and which will let you play in the arena where you ultimately
want to be. For me, it was IT development, even though I had a business
background.

If you are in technology, or work as a developer, work in a non-tech firm that
leverages technology, rather than in a technology firm. It will be easier to
stand out, and your contributions will be held in much higher regard. This
point was actually made by Zed Shaw in one of his books, and although he took
some flack for it, it's actually very good advice. I've seen it play out a
number of times.

------
bsvalley
Corporate World - Micromanagement

1\. You work for your direct report not for the company's mission.

2\. You leave your manager, not your job.

3\. People got to management at some point based on the amount of words that
came out of their mouths. The more words the more "visibility"

Startups - Anarchy

1\. Warm referrals - we value your network because who cares about your
product???

2\. "We just got $30 million in series B, you should come work for us you'll
be engineer #4, with close to zero equity (sorry we took all the risks
already) but you'll get a competitive base-salary! We're backed up by sequoia,
etc. Oh... and we're building the next eCommerce t-shirt website!"

3\. "Do you want to become my cofounder I have the best idea that will change
the world! I'll be the CEO working on the idea and you'll build the rest.
You'll be the developer!"

These are my highlights over the past 10 years.

~~~
moxious
None of this is wrong, but it is a pretty exclusively negative picture on both
sides.

~~~
bsvalley
As people said... you learn from you failures :) These are all the valuable
lessons I've learned

------
shuzhang
I'll comment on career growth. First of all, make sure you can learn from the
team you're joining. If you get an offer, ask if you can grab a drink or lunch
with the team before you decide. If a manager says no to this, that's actually
a pretty big red flag. When you hang out with the team, probe their experience
and get an idea of their communication style. Understand what you can learn
from them and understand how different people might mentor you. You should
also make sure your manager is strong and will do regular one on ones with
you. Groups that do occasional skip-level 1on1s are even better.

When you're working, look to take the initiative when you can and always try
to over deliver. Work hard and find opportunities to take leardership roles on
something. Good managers will encourage this. But don't be annoying, look for
real needs you can fill.

Talk to your manager very explicitly and figure out your career path. You can
and should talk to your manager about exactly what it takes to get to take the
next step in your career; a good manager will define this very clearly. Then,
I'd say every 2-4 1on1s with your manager, check in on your progress. This is
also a good opportunity for for him/her to point you to additional learning
resources to get there. You should do something similar with other members of
your team, especially those you respect the most. It also doesn't hurt to ask
everyone what they're favorite books and blogs are.

Being on strong teams and working on complicated problems is key. Once you
feel like you're not learning a lot anymore, make a career change. Early on in
your career, I think your rate of learning should be the main factor in
changing jobs. Change a few times early on (1-2 years a job), I thinks is also
very healthy since you get exposed to some different
environments/perspectives.

~~~
rainhacker
> Talk to your manager very explicitly and figure out your career path. You
> can and should talk to your manager about exactly what it takes to get to
> take the next step in your career; a good manager will define this very
> clearly.

Asked this in 1-1 with my manager yesterday. Got mostly vague answers. I feel
it's easier to get both raise and next level by changing companies then trying
internally. Have seen good people leave the company, they'd Hire from outside
and give that person raise/promotion + the additional training and time to
ramp up.

------
seibelj
Don't rely on someone else to make your career (or your life) better. If you
want something, it's on you to do it. The loser blames something else (other
people, society, bad luck) for their problems. The winner takes control of
their life, accepts personal responsibility, and creates their own future.

~~~
jsgoller1
This is definitely true. However, as a sort of tangent, I think there are some
types of problems in our industry that are systemic (like sexism) that can
perpetually inhibit someone's success. I don't want to derail this
conversation into a political one, but I also don't want to unfairly tell
someone "the reason you aren't successful is because you blame others for your
problems" when it may in fact be the case that the person has the odds
unfairly stacked against them.

~~~
seibelj
I don't disagree. But I recommend you assess the reality of your situation and
fight for what you want and deserve. One person can't end sexism, but plenty
of people overcome sexism and other -ism's. Be the person who overcomes it and
inspires others. Don't be the person that uses sexism as an excuse.

------
swombat
Embrace the desire to make money.

Don't let it dominate your life, of course, but you are unlikely to make money
unless you actually want to, and you are unlikely to build a successful
business without actually making money somewhere along the way.

There's nothing wrong or distasteful about money. It's a neutral substance
with a lot of good uses.

~~~
bsvalley
That's a good one. In life %99 of the people are looking for

1.security 2.comfort 3.rich

I will go to school and get a degree, get a nice and stable job. Buy a house
(mortgage) a car (loan) then in my spare time, i'll try to launch my business!
I want to get rich so bad! Life is tough...

Rich people simply think the other way

1.rich 2.comfort 3.security

Why would I spend most of my time working on things that are not inline with
my goal? I'll buy a house and pay cash when I'll get rich. Let's go get that
money!

------
wheaties
You will never just be given something based on merit even if you feel you've
earned it. You need to ask for it, then if you've earned it you will be given
it. People can't read your mind and it's surprising how what you want is not
what they think you want. A simple 5min convo on what you actually want and
tracking the steps outlined to get you there will push you faster along than
anything else.

~~~
jorblumesea
I would almost say the opposite at my place. Excelled in my position, everyone
felt I was competent and able for the next step. But after asking for more
work and more responsibility I was basically told that I was out of line and
this was something given to me, not asked for.

I would say it's very dependent on culture.

~~~
bsvalley
+1. I've seen a mix of both... though, if you fill very confident about your
skills, just ask for it. It will put the pressure on them even if the culture
is about waiting for someone to name you king. They know you can get it
somewhere else so it'll move the needle.

------
pcsanwald
Key insights for me:

\- For me, doing what I am good at makes me happy.

\- "what I am good at" is often very different from what I think I will be
good at, or what I think I should be good at, or what I would like to be good
at.

\- I find working on big, daunting, time-bound things where I need to educate
myself to deliver on, very rewarding (not necessarily easy and not necessarily
fun).

\- The right job for me is a mix of doing things that make me happy, and doing
things that I find rewarding.

These are all broad generalizations but they are derived from my career. I
worked in the music industry as a technologist for many years, and because I'm
also a musician, I thought I should be happy doing this. I wasn't. I moved to
working at an investment bank, the work was a mix of very challenging things
that were a huge stretch for me, and also specific technical things that I was
very good at delivering. I loved it, my career took off, and has been great
since (I've done a number of different things after said investment bank).

Superficially, you wouldn't think that a person like me would be happy working
in a large bank, but it turned out I really liked it, and was great at it. and
if you met me, you would have thought I'd have loved the music industry, but I
didn't, and didn't do very good work as a result.

------
ian0
Business:

\- The core value of a company is its assets (market & placement, employees,
financial situation) and its ability to execute iterating upon a product. If a
company is in a changing market or is a startup the value is nearly wholly
driven by the later. There are hacks around this, but they are rarely pretty
or pleasant. This is "the" hard problem in making money.

\- Big corporates are almost entirely dysfunctional. It beggars belief but its
true. The simple fact is the markets are so mature that they don't need to do
much beyond a few basic, core, routine actions. All they can do is fail from
here, so everyone inside are afraid of doing something wrong instead of
failing to do something.

\- Always, always go the extra mile for people, loose gracefully, be nice -
even when the situation is completely unfair. Your time will come, and when it
does you will have gained an undervalued but lucrative chip. The moral high-
ground :)

\- In addition to being the right thing to do, playing nice and paying it
forward are great strategies in business

Personal:

\- Given a task find out its context/goals. You may have been asked to do the
wrong thing.

\- For most, your mentor's will have the largest impact on your career. Find
good ones.

\- Don't be responsible for surprises. If you see something strange - shout.

\- Be methodical in whatever you do: Analyse. Record. Measure.

\- If you need a raise ask, but have your line in the sand.

\- Read, research. Know your stuff.

\- Ask questions. Speak up.

------
lordnacho
The fact that the learning curve is mostly climbed at the beginning.

You will come across many very competent people with only a few years of
experience, who are still at the bottom of the ladder due to how organisations
are structured rather than a lack of ability.

Understanding this is key to overcoming impostor syndrome.

------
peterhartree
Sam Altman's advice to "always ask" has been very helpful. I can't find the
link but the sense is: do not skip asking for something you want because you
assume you'll get a "no".

~~~
anotherturn
Totally agreed. I got my degree from a mediocre university. Then went on to
get PhD from a top 5 university.

I audited a few classes and the difference in student behavior was immediately
evident. They freely questioned assertions or topics that didn't make sense!
At my first university students would just muddle on and hope to figure things
out as exams approached.

That little experience changed the way I approached learning and life in a
massive way.

------
bobosha
Focus, focus, focus.

Seriously, I was one who used to sneer at the advice, thinking I can handle
multiple things and by trying several things in parallel I increase my
chances. Boy, was I wrong!

Pick one and only one battle (market), and fight it with all you have. Iterate
quickly.

------
clay_to_n
Have confidence in what you do. When you're starting something new - a new
company, a new role, a new technology - you'll often find yourself wondering
if you're doing it normally, or correctly, or the best way.

It's good and normal to ask people who might know, or research the answer. But
sometimes the quickest way to learn is doing the thing naively, and then
asking yourself what worked and what didn't.

Don't let your own second-guessing remove your confidence in what you're
doing, or slow you down to the point of inaction.

------
tenpoundhammer
Career insight: If your boss isn't invested in your success you won't succeed.

------
sytse
Most money in the git hosting space is made on-premises instead of in SaaS.
Realized that in 2013, a year after starting GitLab.com.

~~~
samblr
Love gitlab.

------
pklausler
Your employer gives you their best current job offer every paycheck.

------
shawndumas
don't leave until you are reasonably certain it's not you that's the problem;
otherwise you are taking your problem with you.

------
ImTalking
The fact that no one really knows what to do; that no one has the magic
formula. That you just have to try different things and see what sticks. Keep
moving forward.

Shakespeare was right: we are poor players that strut our hour upon the stage
and are heard no more.

------
oldmancoyote
Memory usage and run-time don't matter any more.

When I started programming, 1968, minimizing these was the core value used in
judging how good a programmer you were. This has not changed in many people's
minds. Once I stopped caring, my imagination became free to consider doing
things others wouldn't even consider. One program ran for three days. People
thought I must be brilliant because of the unheard of things I was doing.
Nope. I was just uninhibited by these hobgoblins of the past. I wasn't even a
very good programmer.

I do admit there are situations where this principle doesn't really apply.

------
s_kilk
Not insight exactly, but the advice that changed my career for the better:

"No, stop fucking around, do it right."

------
franze
Understanding Limiting Factors: Growth is not controlled by the total amount
of resources available, but by the scarcest resource.

------
kayla210
Nobody expects you to know everything when you're starting out, even if you
have that fancy degree that you spent years on. That degree just shows them
you have the aptitude to learn how their business works and they're willing to
take the time to train you if you're willing and able to learn.

------
MK999
Part 1: If you are so smart that the manager / boss can't/won't/doesn't
understand what you bring to the table -- don't expect to get a big raise.

Part 2: if you want a big raise, get a new job (then get another new job for
yet another big raise, etc.)

------
FLGMwt
There isn't a designated person assigned to the thing you want or want to
change.

"We don't have a tech blog"

"This process is annoying"

"No one has fixed X yet"

You earn a lot of recognition if you make yourself that person.

------
SandersAK
Privilege is king.

