What are your biggest career regrets? - pskittle
======
mrcold
Not starting a side project earlier. And listening to everybody saying that
hard work will get you places.

Maybe I've just grown cynical. But your employer doesn't care about you or
what you do. All he cares about is how much money he can make with your
energy. Know what hard work gets you? A pat on the back and more hard work.

Gone are the days where you could build a career based on mutual respect and
trust. Nowadays it's just a list of previous employments. Nobody cares how
good you are or what problems you can solve. All they care about is
overqualified warm bodies. Hire skilled developers and throw them on
meaningless tasks controlled by business politics. At least this seems to be
the general experience among my peers.

If you want to be successful, become a good politician. It's the only thing
that will make your life better. Anything else is just a lie designed to
squeeze more value out of you.

~~~
madaxe_again
I'm sorry for your situation. I assume you're in the USA.

I care about our team and their wellbeing more than I do profit - although the
two can go hand in hand if you reinvest in your people.

We send folks to conferences, as they learn and network, which is good for
them and us. We generally give annual raises around the 15% mark. Above all we
don't allow or accept the master-slave relationship anywhere in the company,
and we're careful not to hire people who we feel will want to dominate other
people.

I'm sure, in fact I know, many employers are assholes who treat their team
like slaves - but it's not a universal law.

~~~
toong
I'm a little intrigued by a 15% raise year of year ? How long can you sustain
that rate ?

I'm supposed to be happy if I get 5% or really happy when I get 8% after
extraordinary accomplishments. And if you performed extraordinary this year,
that same level of performance doesn't get you 5% next year.

~~~
madaxe_again
We reward merit - if you muddle along and half-ass, we worry about how to
better motivate you, and typically grant a small (5%) raise inline with cpi
inflation.

If someone is working their socks off, then we're not shy rewarding it.

In terms of sustainability - if we hire a fresh grad at £24k, by year four
they're on 45 or so, assuming all is well. Most we pay anyone currently is
about 60k, which is a very respectable income in a small city 100 miles from
London.

Essentially, as long as someone produces more and more value for the business,
we reward them more and more.

It also helps to have a decent war-chest, as this gives you confidence to pay
people properly, knowing you've a year or more of salaries in the bank.

------
hellweaver666
Staying in a job for too long. I started fresh out of school at 18 and stayed
there for over 10 years. During that time I got very few pay rises and always
felt like I was being treated as a kid still despite my experience. When I
finally left my pay jumped by over £15k. In the 4 years since I left my pay
has nearly quadrupled and I'm in a much better position at a much more awesome
company.

~~~
vetler
The easiest way to earn more money is always to quit - either they'll throw
money at you to stay, or you take a new job with a higher salary.

------
yason
What's the point of regretting?

For example, I could regret I didn't leave my previous employer earlier
because they just didn't pay me more money eventhough my skills and impact had
gone way up since starting there. But not leaving that job taught me my own
value.

And knowing my value has now materialized in the form of lots of appreciation
shown by later employers as well as better money and more challenging jobs. In
the previous job it did suck to realize I won't be rewarded for my hard work
but, in comparison to what followed, that suckage was a bargain price _and I
'd never waste my time_ regretting it.

------
pan69
Being shit at building lasting relationships with former colleagues and people
I worked with. In the end that's what it all seems to come down to, a network
of people.

------
analogmind
Regretting things in your life is awful. I learned a LOT from not finishing
deadlines, messing up complete branches of code and working on projects I
don't like at all! In the moment I could have a regretted it, but looking back
on things, it was always a valuable life-lesson.

~~~
jhildings
It's very true, you often learn most when things break or you have to work
with old and bad code which makes you realize why certain design patterns
exist

------
speeder
Going to college.

Made me waste 5 years of my productive life, to leave me in debt that made me
waste 4 years working just to pay that debt, this year will be my first real
year working to actually earn money.

------
brd
My biggest "regret" was deciding to stay in the ERP space. When I originally
jumped in via an internship, I did so because I wanted to get a better
understanding of the monolithic systems that ran most the world. I got pulled
into an interesting project, became an expert of sorts, and before I knew it I
found myself with what felt like golden handcuffs.

I'm hard pressed to say I actually regret it because I've gotten myself to a
very comfortable point in life with plenty of options and I've met a bunch of
great people along the way. I really only dislike my ERP choice because I've
become an expert in technologies that aren't easily leveraged outside of the
enterprise space and my interest there is waning.

------
friendsnomore
Mistake #1 - leaving a secure job at a pre-IPO company before I vested in
order to join a company where I had greater authority.

Mistake #2 - using my authority to hire several friends from school who hadn't
previously held responsible full-time positions.

Mistake #3 - trusting them to manage themselves.

My friends were all smart but none of them really cared about the business or
each other. They just preferred getting paid to not getting paid and slowly
left after the novelty wore off. One of them even wrote a draft of a crappy
novel when we thought he was coding, which we found when cleaning out his
desk.

We've all since moved on. Some of them are now quite successful. But I was
burned pretty badly by that experience and am no longer friends with any of
them.

------
mgraczyk
Not meeting more interesting people outside my discipline in college. My
network is mostly limited to people in my field because I spent too much time
with people similar to me because that was easy and comfortable.

~~~
1user1
This. Have you found a way to fix it?

~~~
atroyn
If you are a software guy, especially a web guy? Making it known that you are
willing to help all kinds of people with whatever they might want to do leads
to all kinds of connections. I'm friends with music video directors,
musicians, designers, artists, doctors, scientists, many of whom I met through
doing a project for a friend of a friend.

------
Pym
My first regret: having not the balls to do what I really wanted when I was a
teenager.

I went to the university mostly to please my parents and to reassure them. I
think that was my biggest mistake and I never really learned anything there.

My second regret: quitting. I'm getting bored very easily.

I'm thinking about 2 projects I started with friends where I left the ship
eventually because I felt less motivated than them. Now they are both making
tons of money and expansing there companies (while I'm still trying to figure
out what to do with my life).

I also started a lot of projects which I will probably never release, but
that's a pretty common thing.

The last one: working for someone else.

Studying led me on the logical path of getting a job. I first said to myself
that it will be temporary and I listened to people who were telling me that I
had to have a little experience before launching my own thing (and my advice
is: don't listen to their bullshits and do what the fuck you really want to
do). The truth is that when you get a job it consumes you and you can forget
what your dreams are pretty quickly.

The counterbalancing point of this last regret is that I met extraordinary
people while I was an employee, who are still very good friends nowadays.
Actually the guy with whom I'm trying to build a startup right now is a former
coworker of mine ;)

------
Jean-Philipe
Big mistake: Joining a start-up with non-technical[1] "idea people" founders
as a young father during the last year of my studies. Put a lot of effort into
it, got little recognition, burned out all resources (money, friends, family).
Have been doing the work of an entire dev team, 12h days, weekend work, and
still got like "Oh, you go home already? What about all the work? I've been
sleeping in the office and doing super important stuff!" There were days I
didn't see my kid for days. Before, my colleagues promised me a super relaxed
time, "you can go home early and play with your kid!"

Now I'm freelancing with friends, making good money, flexible hours, feeling
much better already! Finally paying off the debts I made during the startup
time. Also working at a real company can be quite nice!

Startups are like cults, you only realise what it was after you left. Got
myself dragged into this sick mindset of overworking. And as it turned out,
we've been working 90% of the time for nothing! Not exaggerating here. Hope it
will pay out at least, but not sure about that even... I had better worked
half as much time as a freelancer and just bought the shares for money.

Fresh fathers and mothers out there, beware! Startups have to be really family
friendly, then it could work. Considering we've only been doing 10% valuable
work that eventually contributed to a good product, I believe it's possible to
work, say, half as much, have a good work life balance and still get a better
product shipped in the end.

[1] With "non-technical" I mean economics people, the "We have a super great
idea and are looking for somebody to just do the little boring work of just
executing it" bunch. I enjoyed working with non-technical people in general
very much, but I've had bad experience with business people, those that only
care about money, not about the product or employees.

------
smcl
I took an easy job (UK financial software) when I was downsized from a job
that I loved (Embedded systems). I told myself I'd quit within one year and
either move to somewhere else in the commonwealth (NZ, SA, Canada) or do a
year of university in Sweden on a course I found really interesting, with a
view to getting back to Embedded work. I did neither, and I'm still there.

I'm moderately well paid, I have a plan to save money + quit, I moved to a new
country and now have a lovely girlfriend, so I'm still in a happy situation -
but I wish I could have had these things _and_ pursued my career a little
better.

------
aerialcombat
Taking too long to perfect something when I could've iterated with
imperfection

------
atroyn
Sticking with my first start-up for too long after it became obvious to me
that it wasn't going to work out with the team I had. We were almost dead,
then received a flurry of interest from accelerators, accepted an offer and
spent another year going solidly nowhere.

I learned a lot from the experience, but there was a point at which I should
have called it quits. Then again, I guess I learned that as well.

I don't regret having done it, and I accept the time lost as a necessary
price, but looking back I think I could have saved myself a lot of time by
calling it quits a year sooner.

------
fallinghawks
Assuming that the place I worked at would always have work for me. I'm older,
so I didn't have the newer philosophy of job hopping for experience, and
believed I could make a career at this one place. I was there over 20 years
and had 2 positions. It was union so I was making good money just from the
seniority. I was on my 3rd supervisor (previous ones retired) and we didn't
get along so well. I got laid off and trying to find a new job I was like a
baby getting born -- didn't know a thing about the outside world. It's been
tough.

------
CalRobert
Staying in college at a school that didn't let you change majors (Cal Poly). I
picked up what I can in night school in the years following and have cobbled
together the job a 25 year old should have now that I'm 32. Worst mistake of
my life, not just career.

If you're in a major you don't like and can't switch, drop out. University is
largely a scam that exists to impoverish students and adjuncts for the benefit
of a bloated administration.

Junior college, however, is an amazing thing and I encourage it for anyone.

~~~
ThatPlayer
Cal Poly Pomona? Or Cal Poly SLO?

~~~
CalRobert
SLO. My degree in physics came after constant failures as I spent most of my
time outside class struggling (and failing, horribly) to complete classes I
couldn't manage, and trying to learn to program in what little extra time
there was. I tried to switch to CS and ME to no avail. However, by the time I
realized it wasn't for me (after all the first couple years were general ed
requirements) I had sunk so much time in to it I thought it was better to
stick it out.

It wasn't. It took me an entire extra year just to get one class I needed to
graduate (mind you they have plenty of money for a fancy gym and new
buildings, but not for professors to teach classes). I only got out when I was
25 and a sad, bitter, angry shell of a person.

There's a happy ending, though. I left San Luis Obispo, started going to night
classes at Ohlone College in the bay and later Santa Monica College, and
finally built up enough of a skill set to work in ad operations, then support,
then support engineering. I had thought I was too stupid to do anything, but I
did well in my classes after Poly and professionally.

Since then I've tried to adopt a motto to enact change before life has the
opportunity to do it for me. You are never secure, so don't pretend you are. I
thought I was in a decent position in SM when I left for Ireland on a working
holiday (it had always been a dream of mine to live abroad). I was terrified
to leave a good job for a country with a crappy economy. Lo and behold my
whole department was shut down a month after I left, and after a bit of
networking in Ireland I ended up with a position better than I had at home.
How long this will last I don't know, but I know that it won't be forever
(nothing is) and I am always looking out for what's next, and trying to
improve my skills (lately I've been in to brewing automation and getting
better with Arduino).

That was long-winded, but I guess I also felt like I should point out the
positive learning that came from it.

I still should have dropped out, though.

------
rikkus
Taking a job for the money. It was my first job after university and I was
poor, so it seemed like the extra £2k was worth it, but it wasn't.

~~~
smcl
This may turn out to be a theme of this thread - you, me[0] and another person
[1] so far have roughly similar "I took a job for money" regrets.

[0] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9061451](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9061451)
[1] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9061437](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9061437)

------
vetler
I don't regret anything, but perhaps I should have been more patient and
level-headed regarding my career choices. My choices have been quick and
swift, perhaps too quick and swift. It would have been interesting to have
seen what would have happened if I had chosen otherwise - but I'll never know.

Life is all about finding your own way, and enjoying the experience.

------
jepper
Underestimating own skill and especially judgement of a situation as a young
employee. Fear of larger organisations, complex processes that leads to
avoidance of these type of projects. I've gained confidence over the years,
now its easy. But it has led to regrets about missed opportunities. Also, not
starting earlier with a side-business.

------
apexkid
My biggest career regret is to look for a better career rather than "building"
one on my own.

------
Dusko
Entering a wrong branch of work only because it paid good, now I am stuck with
knowledge that is not really interesting and am doing double effort to learn
new skills and start a new job career. Hopefully I will be able to use some of
the experience I have acquired up to now.

------
BSousa
Becoming a software developer

~~~
k1lly
Can you elaborate?

~~~
BSousa
Don't want to be a downer, but after many years (15+) a software developer,
I'm pretty sure I should have gone to business/economic school.

A few things that spring to mind:

a) badly paid compared to the value produced (still better paid than teachers)

b) ageism in the industry

c) the developer ego's (in general) for some reason are over the top, making
it impossible for people to have normal discussing about various topics (you
can see it here in HN) almost as bad as discussing politics

d) the next best biggest greatest thing being discovered every 2 months by 20
year olds that just discovered something from the 70's and you still have to
pretend to be enthusiastic about it for networking/job interviews

e) sexism in the industry

f) in general, a sense of immaturity both on the development/architectural
side, but also on a personal level in most places/conferences

g) networking has more to do with success than actual skills, at least in
business school you learn that from the get go

Maybe I'm just getting old and want to scream at kids to get off my lawn.

~~~
endzone
and what career do you think "business/economics" would have led to, and what
do you think it would have paid?

~~~
BSousa
I can't edit my other reply so just going to do a new one.

One of the biggest eye openers I had as a developer and how I was being
'exploited' was when doing work for a consulting firm, the ceo of the company
asked me to pick a open source app, change the logo and a few other things (2
days work), and the next day he presented the app as one of his 'business
solutions' to some big shots (talking airports and big media companies) and
was able with that to sell around 1.2 million euros in consulting services by
demoing the open-source app and claiming a lot of the credit for that app.
This is something as a developer I still cringe and would probably feel like I
would need a bleach bath to clean myself but seems to be day-to-day from
people that have MBA's or business/finance education.

------
zaroth
Getting a CompSci degree. Single biggest waste of time and money in my life.

~~~
beagle90
I say the same as I never really turned up to University, however I knew I
wanted to be a programmer afterwards and people wouldn't speak to me without
that Degree...

------
pcglue
Staying in aerospace/defense industry as long as I did (11 years). It is a
dysfunctional soul-sucking environment that affected my health, both physical
and mental.

I escaped a year ago and am so much happier now.

~~~
zeroc8
Not sure about defense, but what's wrong with the aerospace industry?

------
archagon
Putting things off in perpetuity. I should have finished my first big project
at 19, 20, 21. I'm 26 now — still working on #1. The fear of not having enough
time haunts me every day.

------
hackerboos
Not starting a business when I was single. Now I'm not and soon there will be
kids.

I don't want to resent my unborn kids because they make starting a business
impossible/more difficult.

~~~
steedsofwar
Turn it around and use your situation as a motivator. It's hard, but it's
worth it. I'm sure you want the best for your family and unborn child, so what
better way than to start your own business. The longer you put it off the more
you'll regret it later in life.

~~~
lubonay
I agree. There will always be something limiting your "free" time, and you
will always be prone to looking back and finding an excuse for why you didn't
do X. Doing things as simple as rising an hour and a half earlier each day to
put in one hour of quality work will eventually stack up until you are well on
your way to starting a business. The only truly limiting factors are energy
and motivation, and those can be mitigated somewhat by caffeine and
stubbornness.

------
ff10
Not to learn from my mistakes, but regret them.

------
funkylexoo
Not trying to build a business while in University, when you have nothing to
lose.

------
theRhino
stumbling across hacker news, my career hasn't been the same since

------
monroepe
Getting a BA in history.

------
hmans
Nothing.

------
doronrotem
Not applying to YC

