
Ask HN: What was your best career decision? - servlate
I saw this thread on r&#x2F;cscareerquestions and I thought it would be interesting to hear the HN experiences.<p>Thank you.
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NetStrikeForce
Two things:

1) Getting out of my comfort zone:

Changed job position 6 times in the last 6 years, including 2 company changes
and one country change. Moved place 5 times, too.

It keeps me motivated to learn, but it also bears some frustration the first
weeks after starting on a new position, so be careful with this strategy.
Also, make sure the changes are promotions and/or general improvements,
otherwise you might fail at job interviews due to the short time you stay at a
given position. Sell it as "you'll hire me for this position and you'll be so
happy with me, that you'll want to me to take on bigger challenges, creating
more revenue and/or profit for your company".

2) Understand the business:

No one owes you anything, not even the company that you've worked for the last
years and gave all those extra hours of work. You have to change mentality and
think about how can you increase profit and/or revenue for your company. Can
you improve processes? can you work smarter? Why don't you tell your boss or
some other decision maker?

If you analyse your situation and you can't see how you're making money for
the company, you better get ready for the worst case scenario. Some
departments are seen as a cost, so the company will always be willing to
reduce that cost. Can you change that perception? If you can't, again get
ready for the worst case scenario.

~~~
fenier
I second knowing how what you do impacts the company.

If, by changing a process you reduce a vendor's cost for 3 years
consecutively, while at the same time improving throughput and make sure they
realize it - that does more for you than just working and hoping they realize
it.

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koolba
Two fold:

1\. Putting aside friends, family, and religion to focus on the task(s) at
hand.

2\. Saving enough "fuck you" money to be able to do whatever I want.

Both are related and the former is pointless unless it's going to lead to the
latter.

~~~
askafriend
Good sir, please riddle us with tales of how you have discovered the serenity
of "f-u" money.

The foundation of this community rests on lore of "f-u" money and we simply
ask that you contribute to the lore that keeps this place alive....and that
keeps this place....human.

~~~
gautamnarula
Check out Mr. Money Mustache, /r/financialindependence, etc. Essentially, you
save as aggressively as possible until you have at least 25x your living
expenses saved and invested (and with compounding returns, this can be done
relatively quickly with an aggressive savings rate). The rule of thumb is yoi
can safely withdraw 4% of your savings a year, so at this point you are now
financially independent. Of course, getting there requires some tough
decisions about how you spend your money and time, and what tradeoffs are
worth an earlier retirement date.

~~~
gt565k
you can also invest in 2-3 rental properties, and use the monthly payments of
your tenants as passive income

~~~
Unklejoe
I am doing this. I save up my money and keep it invested in some ETFs until I
have enough for the 25% DP on an investment property.

I'm currently in the process of saving for my second property.

My advice to anyone who's considering getting into the landlord business:

1\. Buy properties in (up and coming) college towns. Many people advise
against this, but it's very hard to beat the returns. This is especially true
in towns where the housing values haven't caught up to the situation yet. I am
getting more than double the rent that I would be able to get if my house was
in a "normal" town. A typical dorm room costs $800/month for each student at
my local state university, so students would much rather live off campus in an
actual house for the same price (or less). You can get 5 students to share the
house and charge $2600/month (for a house that costs under $160k). It's a win-
win honestly. You may have to deal with typical college issues, but it's
really not as bad as it sounds. I would rather deal with some holes in the
wall than a family of 4 who just doesn't have the money to pay the rent,
forcing you to go through the eviction process. College students typically
have access to "unlimited" money in the form of student loans or their
parents, so you're less likely to have to chase your money down. I've yet to
receive a payment more than one month late. Just keep in mind that students
typically receive their refund checks two times per year, so you may have to
be patient. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have their parents sign the lease in
case the student decides to blow the refund check or something.

2\. Learn how to do home maintenance tasks on your own. Plumbing, painting,
etc. You will save large amounts of money this way. Just be sure to reduce
liabilities by not doing something that could endanger the tenants. In other
words, don't do your own electrical work unless you know what you're doing.

3\. Don't underestimate the work required. There will be issues. It's not a
truly passive investment in that sense, but this is why the returns are better
than many other investments. For example, I've had to unclog the shower drain
three times, and it always seems to be at inconvenient times. But when they
call about something like that, you're obligated to provide a fix ASAP. Other
minor issues can wait a little longer of course.

4\. Reward good tenants. If your tenants have not given you any problems, it's
worth giving them a little incentive to stick around.

5\. Take everything I just said with a grain of salt. I've only been in the
game for two years.

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codeonfire
Quitting my job. On average I see a 51% pay bump each time. Plus there is the
catharsis of quitting the job, and that "yay, I'm a human being again!"
feeling.

------
ottocoder
Not going to college right away after high school.

I wanted to be a trombone player in a major US symphony but realized that
while I could be accepted by many good schools, I wasn't good enough to get
accepted into the "greats" (e.g. Julliard, Curtis, etc). I decided instead to
join the Marines and became a Marine musician (the military is one of the
largest employers of musicians in the US). I am very lucky to have made that
choice for a number of reasons, but ultimately it made me realize that I
didn't love music as much as I thought.

The military isn't for everyone, but I recommend everyone give it some serious
consideration. In addition to the altruistic reasons to join there many great
benefits for when you get out. Mine include

    
    
       1) Learning my original life-plan for after high school wasn't a good fit for me (while getting paid to make that realization).
    
       2) Getting college paid for (with some scholarships I was able to stretch the GI bill into nearly 5 years and got a Math/CS double major.
    
       3) This is the big one: I live in San Diego (a "military friendly town") and having military experience won't guarantee you a job, but many employers here will at least talk to you and give you a chance to make an impression beyond your resume.
    
    

A big negative (besides the possibility of risk to life/limb/mental health) is
that you give up the "traditional" college experience. It may take some extra
time to find where you fit in when/if you do decide to go back to school.
However, that's probably true for anybody who delays college for more than a
year or two.

------
humble_dev
Accepting a full time job into my heart and quitting the startup dream!

------
PerfectElement
With one year left to graduate as an telecom engineer, I decided to move to
computer engineering. That meant 2 more years in university, so it wasn't an
easy decision. Today all my friends from telecom work in soul-sucking
corporate jobs, while I moved to another country and run my own SaaS company.

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brg
Deciding to always work on projects I didn't know how to do but thought would
be interesting. This starting me down the path of statistical analysis and
machine learning, and I can't imagine what my career would be like without
taking that risk.

~~~
sogen
Agreed 1000%, ABG: Always Be Growing!

~~~
stuxnet79
I'm from Kernighan & Ritchie and I'm on a mission of mercy!

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BerislavLopac
At the age of 45, and with 20 years of software development under my belt,
moving to London from the backwaters of Croatia.

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fenier
As a intern, taking the time to master one of the most complex systems the
company uses - ended up greatly contributing to the permanent hire of myself
(which the company created a new position for).

Related: Reinvesting a lot of the money I made as a intern into books and
training so I could keep up with the discussions at work.

Was hired for general front end work (mostly HTML / CSS) now a few years later
do advanced JS work on Personalization, Web Analytics and AB testing.

------
hackerboos
Turning down a job at a startup and not moving to London, UK.

I successfully interviewed at a startup in London who made me an offer. I
miscalculated how expensive London was going to be, which led us into strange
negotiations were a recruiter thought I'd expect a certain salary but I turned
it down after running the numbers. They started 'nickel and diming' over 5k
which at first they said was no problem at all and the next day it apparently
was.

I had to turn it down as it would have left me worse off than staying on 2/3s
the salary in a smaller city.

The stock options were also really bad. Stay for 4 years and get max 120k GBP.
This was at < 20 employees.

Anyway I turned it down and took a much safer job and at a much bigger company
in Canada. The tech stack isn't quite what I'd like but there are a lot of
passionate and motivated people here making strides in the right direction.

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blue_dinner
Quitting my soul-sucking job and starting my own company. Been going strong
for almost a decade.

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darthsr
Getting out of SEO and moving to web development

~~~
ericzawo
This is something I'm currently working on doing. How did you get started on
that move?

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jf22
Quitting my job way too early to work on my super hip and cool startup.

Then running out of money and started freelancing for a local small business
for < 1k a month.

Three years later the business has grown and I'm the Director of Technology
(fancy title ooo) managing a team of seven.

We are hiring three more this month.

Worked out.

------
yolesaber
Bluffing about an offer from another company during my first real interview /
negotiation. It paid off and I started my professional life at a really good
salary level and now each increase (mostly from job hopping) has been actually
substantial. Not that I recommend everyone do this, but it basically gave me a
~30k boost starting out so I would say objectively the best decision career-
wise.

The other decision is to not work any job that requires on-call support or
pager duty. I'm finally at a place where I can leave work at work and focus on
things that actually matter to me.

~~~
stuxnet79
Never tried it, but I figure bluffing is very easy to do. It is not like they
will ask for a pay stub for "proof" and if they do ... run ... fast! Only
thing that might hurt you is if you throw out some extremely unrealistic
figures.

------
tjholowaychuk
Quitting and focusing on real life, finding parts that you really enjoy and
doing those instead.

------
lastofus
Getting un-stuck from working for a single employer for 5+ years and moving
into consulting/contract work.

I work fewer hours for more money, and have a very flexible schedule which
lets me work on my own company and side projects.

I feel like a human being with control over my life again.

~~~
Unklejoe
I always wondered how software contractors actually found work (though I'm not
particularly interested in becoming a consultant myself).

Do they search for companies who are hiring and offer to do the work as a
consultant instead?

Or do the companies find you?

Could you provide just a very general outline of the process?

~~~
lastofus
I've found work from both friends and recruiters.

People love to hate on recruiters, and for good reason. If you can find a
handful that are not terrible though, they can send along 3-6 month contracts.
I've also been connected with businesses through recruiters that were very
much in need of developers, with which it was easy to negotiate part-time
remote work, at a good hourly rate.

Through friends, I've been pulled into their own contract work where they need
an extra hand. I've also been introduced to business owners who need part-time
developers as well, who in turn send multiple jobs over time.

Best advice though is just to talk to recruiters, be explicit about what you
are looking for (not contract-to-hire, preferably short term remote jobs), and
see what comes your way.

------
drakonka
I answered this there and will offer the same here as well:

Applying for jobs just outside of my comfort zone. It has taught me that I can
learn quickly and stretch my capabilities to get the job done and has helped
me progress in my career, as well as ending up in jobs that are never boring
as there is always more to learn.

------
coderKen
1\. Focusing on my hobby which was programming while in school and skipping a
lot of classes.

2\. Invested a lot of my time in learning more(Data structures/algorithms,
advanced JavaScript) which gave me the courage to quit my soul sucking job and
helped me land a much b€tt€r one.

I'm still very young so I'm actively saving up my "F-u" money.

------
dano
Went to a startup at lower pay, for the new technology of workstation based
CAD rather than Mainframe. Years later, took the lead to Web based
applications, then to Internet connected devices, and now into massive event
analytics real-time processing.

Shifting gears and constantly learning new things. It's been rewarding in so
many ways.

------
hkmurakami
Proactively seeking out ways to help peers.

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kspaans
Don't let school get in the way of your education.

~~~
coderKen
This is so true right now especially for me. You sir, have a wealth of
experience. I actually focused on teaching my self programming while in school
and skipped a lot of classes and it paid off in the end $o much.

------
aprdm
Moving from Embedded systems to Web development.

Moving from my country to other countries.

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deepaksurti
Taking a year long sabbatical, when I could live off for 2 years without
working. Writing a 3D sport simulation game. Leads to me being a scientific
software developer now, another application of 3D graphics!

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erkanerol
I resigned after 1 month. It was my first job after graduation. I realize that
I don't like embedded systems. I continue my career with JavaEE and I am so
happy now.

~~~
stuxnet79
What about it didn't you like? JavaEE pays well, but it can be soul sucking in
its own way.

------
codegeek
Quitting my high paying job. Man that felt good and going decent so far doing
my own stuff for 1.5 years since then.

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kull
Stop working for other people and open my own business.

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cm2012
Getting work experience as early as possible - it really opens up
opportunities.

