
Ask HN: What do you wish you knew when you started your career? - flaque
The CS crowd at Gonzaga University have been putting together a guide for students searching for internships and full-time positions: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;gu-app-club&#x2F;lets-learn-jobs (or github pages version: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gu-app-club.github.io&#x2F;lets-learn-jobs&#x2F;)<p>Unfortunately, we haven&#x27;t really had advice from real engineers or hiring managers, so it&#x27;s basically the blind leading the blind.<p>When you first got into field, what do you wish you knew?
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existencebox
1\. Who you know is dominatingly more important than what you know.

2\. Similarly, the PERCEPTION of the work you do is far more important than
the work you actually do.

3\. From #2, trying to force this perception is risky business. It's much much
safer to find what the perception of success would be to your leadership, and
dovetail with that.

4\. Idealism/"doing what's right" is often at odds with career progress. (not
to necessarily dissuade someone, but to set expectations for what comes after
they make a stand, and prepare "younger me" for the fallout/handling that
maturely)

I realize this all comes off with a very pessimistic tone, but that's what I'd
honestly tell myself. I was far too optimistic, far too convinced of the
"it'll be different when you grow up" koolaid I'd been handed at every step
from middle-high-college-grad-industry, far to unprepared to just buckle down
and ship for the next 20 odd years; regardless of my own feelings of what I'm
shipping. I don't mean this in the sense of "do morally reprehensible things",
but in the sense of "You will be doing the computing equivalent of digging and
refilling potholes for the next decade. Be OK with this. This is life. Find
meaning elsewhere."

I'd leave this on the positive note that all this negativity WRT work comes
with the natural complement, the "mental effort" you WERE spending (you being
"younger me") on caring about the day jobbing can now be spent on life outside
work. I have one hell of a garden nowadays that makes me way happier than any
of my passion projects did when I was 24/7 programming.

