
Geek Career Paths - rcarmo
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2017/02/18/Geek-Career-Paths
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humanrebar
> Re­mem­ber when the Oba­ma ad­min­is­tra­tion wrest­ed con­trol of
> health­care.­gov out of the hands of the con­sul­tants, aimed a bunch of
> com­pe­tent geeks at it, and res­cued it?

Yeah, but the government screwed up healthcare.gov in the first place. Some
engineers were surely death-marched and then besmirched afterwards for a
variety of reasons that boil down to having a bad manager and a bad customer
who ended up being the same clueless organization.

Maybe it's getting better, but I have experience contracting for the
government. It's underpaid and higher stress than it's worth. And it's not
like you can get a new boss or a new customer. Not without changing countries
anyway.

~~~
larrywright
Also, to be completely accurate, they wrestled control of healthcare.gove from
one set of consultants and handed it to another set (though I believe with a
greater degree of oversight and involvement from the government).

~~~
coolgeek
The consultants from whom it was wrested are consulting companies. These are
described in the article as

"loath­some blue-suit op­er­a­tions whose core com­pe­ten­cies are win­ning
public-sector bids then cash­ing in by charg­ing for ev­ery rip­ple com­ing
out of those clas­sic wa­ter­fall pro­ject­s"

"Th­ese com­pa­nies work their peo­ple in­sane­ly hard, and in my opin­ion,
based on thir­ty years of ob­ser­va­tion, charge too much and de­liv­er too
lit­tle. They are def­i­nite­ly Part Of The Prob­lem, and you should stay
away"

The consultants to whom it was handed to would be better described as an ad
hoc, temporary startup

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whorleater
Slightly off topic, but I'm curious if there's anyone on HN who "pivoted" into
being a doctor. I'm started to be tempted by the idea and I'm flirting with
going to med school part time while I work as an software dev.

~~~
Pyxl101
The doctors I know are not enjoying it as a career path. It's crushing - tons
of debt for medical school (like >$100k), two week stints working nights in
the ER or other major hospital, little choice over your true career path due
to matchmaking, etc. I'd only go into medicine if it's your passion, because
it has so many downsides that it may crush you otherwise.

~~~
mfn
Maybe I'm missing something but it seems like medicine close to ideal once
you're in your late 30s and have paid off med school debt. You've got insane
job security (due to the extremely high barriers to entry), high pay, location
independence (in the sense that you can find employment in whichever city
you'd like to move to without taking a significant pay cut), and you don't
need to worry about ageism unless you're in surgery. I'd also think there's
probably less pressure to stay up to date with new developments or risk
irrelevance than there is in tech.

Honestly, seems pretty ideal. Anything I'm missing, other than the debt? And
that might not be that much of an issue for someone transitioning from having
spent some time in tech, as they'd probably have built up enough savings to
not have to incur significant med school debt?

~~~
tunap
Just had a convo last week w/ 70+yo ER doc on this very topic. Outside of a
private practice, the beauracracy is stifling(perhaps _in_ private, too, IDK).
Your actions are dictated by a/the committee. Your hands are tied if the
insurance provider does not cover certain procedures or patient is un/under-
insured. You will be held accountable if someone elses' dictate proves
erroneous or damaging. Your earnings will erode with each new policy adjusment
and never-ending growth of regulatory costs and re-ed requirements. You will
be over-worked as budget cuts pile more load onto your already burdened
workload. And the cherry on top, the mountains of paperwork you can complete
on your off-time b/c you never have time to do it when on duty. Also, read
"The House of God" for some of the other down-sides.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_God)

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navs
I'd love to hear from some fellow web developers who have made the jump into a
completely different career.

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gaius
_In my view, most of the patholo­gies that in­fect the tech sec­tor, start­ing
with self-absorbedness, ar­ro­gance, and lousy di­ver­si­ty, are joined at the
hip with VC cul­ture.

Q: Should you work for star­tup­s? · Ab­so­lute­ly, yes_

I'm getting mixed messages here.

~~~
Cyphase
He's talking about being a VC and/or working for a VC, not working for a
startup that has gotten VC funding.

~~~
gaius
How is that not "VC culture" tho'?

~~~
nostrademons
Good startup founders manage their VCs so that their VC is just another
resource they call upon when necessary. (Ironically, VCs seem to like this
situation a lot better than when they have to manage their founders.) Weak
startup founders do whatever their VCs tell them to. The former leads to
startups with the culture of the individual startup, which is usually closely
patterned after the founding team's core values. The latter leads to startups
with VC culture.

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20years
"Should you work for a non-tech com­pa­ny?"

Yes!

You get to solve all types of interesting problems developing for non-tech
companies. You are able to help with real business problems. Think shipping
and warehouse companies or companies that deal with a lot of
products/inventory. So many things to automate in a business like that. You
can have the opportunity to work on inventory management software, bar coding
software, order entry software, call center software, etc. I worked at a
company like this early in my career and it was really rewarding. Company
consisted of a few hundred employees with less than 10 in IT.

~~~
sargun
I looked at this briefly, but it was odd. I found that non-tech companies paid
tech FTEs very little -- even companies which heavily relied on tech
(Airlines, Insurance, etc..). On the other hand, they paid oodles to
contractors, and vendors.

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maxdemarzi
I found myself a "pre-sales engineer" and it's a great combo of engineering
and being a "people person" with other engineers who aren't "people persons".
Pays like middle management with only half the bs.

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stvswn
I'm confused by his warning that there are few opportunities for advancement
as a product manager, and that PMs end up becoming marketers. Is this true in
smaller companies maybe? Definitely not the case at big tech cos.

~~~
deanCommie
A software engineer can rise to Principal, to a Distinguished Engineer or a
CTO and stay technical.

A manager can of course become everything from a director to a CEO.

But what's a director-level-or-above equivalent for a Product Manager?

~~~
nigelk
VP of Product

Director of Product

These titles both exist...

~~~
deanCommie
Directors of Product and VPs of products are no different than Directors of
Software Development and VP of Software Development.

Directors and VPs are on the management hierarchy.

