One thing I feel is worth pointing out is that in my experience a position that seems really interesting because it's in an "interesting" field...might not be.
For example, you see a job posting at AwesomeCorp doing blockchain-based AI security arbitrators, and then you get the job and discover that you're just writing a CRUD app around a bunch of premade solutions glued together, and then you discover the "blockchain" is just an SQL server, but it got investors excited so they stuck with it.
So, sometimes a job in a less sexy field can actually end up being more interesting/challenging, and getting paid more is always nice.
Right - in other words, is it fun working at a carnival? Carnivals sure seem fun!
The core mission of almost every company is pretty boring. I think that’s because human needs and wants (which is how companies create value: by meeting them) are old news. People need to eat, move stuff from place to place, talk to their friends, get paid. Big deal. Revolutionizing how those things are done: who cares?
History remembers real revolutionaries, not the people who made it easier to transact on the blockchain.
There are exceptions (SpaceX comes to mind) but generally speaking what matters is the work you personally get to do, the environment you do it in and who you do it with.
Bingo. It’s important to practice appreciating the meaningfulness of the mundane. That’s where most of the real action of life is. There are also plenty of interesting ways to make improvements here.
And we can still keep some time for daydreaming and chasing the next paradigm shift.
This certainly is true depending on the industry. In ad tech for example, countless companies claim they're using AI to optimize digital campaigns in real time or whatever, when it's just a "dump Google analytics into Google BQ and run regressions". Good companies do exist but you have do really look for them.
I have seen first hand a big old company buying for millions an "automl startup" which was just a simple web interface to pycaret.
Career progression comes naturally when you, at once, work with something you like and it has impact/meaning. You have to find both.
Yeah, back in uni I had a friend really, really good at algorithms. Won international competitions, did lots of cool projects etc. Got offers from multiple of the FAANGs, saying they were interested in utilizing his skills. When he started the job he got assigned to work on the frontend for some ad moderating tool... made good money, though.
I'm currently about to leave a job that fits this kind of description. The way it was presented to me ended up not fitting what it actually is like on a daily basis.
Just need to figure out the right questions that can expose the core of the role and see if it's really what you want or if red flags will come up.
For example, you see a job posting at AwesomeCorp doing blockchain-based AI security arbitrators, and then you get the job and discover that you're just writing a CRUD app around a bunch of premade solutions glued together, and then you discover the "blockchain" is just an SQL server, but it got investors excited so they stuck with it.
So, sometimes a job in a less sexy field can actually end up being more interesting/challenging, and getting paid more is always nice.