Hacker News with Generative AI: Career Advice

Ask HN: How can I realistically change careers? (ycombinator.com)
I’ve spent almost two decades in digital-focused roles, specialising in strategy, user research, and creating frameworks for better customer experiences (ostensibly UX I suppose).While I’ve found the work rewarding, I feel it’s time for a significant career change—potentially outside of this domain entirely.I’m seeking advice from others who have made mid-career transitions:

Career Advice, Career Change, Professional Development

152 points by throw101010101 20 hours ago | 145 comments

How should software engineers adapt to AI-driven layoffs? (ycombinator.com)
With major tech companies laying off mid-level engineers due to AI efficiency gains, what strategies are engineers using to stay competitive?

Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Layoffs, Career Advice

10 points by nguyentranvu 21 hours ago | 20 comments

I am offering mentoring: In which I help you (dynomight.substack.com)
I am offering to act as a “mentor”, to you, in case that seems like something you’d find useful.

Mentoring, Career Advice, Personal Development

28 points by crescit_eundo 2 days ago | 47 comments

Ask HN: How to work at a bigger tech company? (ycombinator.com)
My career trajectory looks something like this: medium sized publicly traded company, early startup, another startup over the course of about 5 years.I’m pretty tired of the startup scene to be honest and would like to try to work at a larger tech company but I’m having a hard time even getting interviews.I think this is partly because of a bad job market, and partly because I have two no name companies on my resume that I’ve worked for.

Career Advice, Job Hunting, Tech Industry, Startups

10 points by llmdrinker 4 days ago | 19 comments

What I wish I knew before I quit my job (michaeldrogalis.substack.com)
Before I quit my job at Confluent, I was worried about taking the plunge.

Career Advice, Personal Finance

66 points by dillonshook 4 days ago | 47 comments

Document Your Progress at Work (shivamrana.me)
How can you ensure that your contributions are also recognized?

Productivity, Career Advice, Work Culture

57 points by tminima 4 days ago | 3 comments

Ask HN: I'm a dev who never wants to be on call again. What are my best options? (ycombinator.com)
Ask HN: I'm a dev who never wants to be on call again. What are my best options?

Software Development, Career Advice, Work-Life Balance

9 points by waylandsmithers 6 days ago | 10 comments

It's Not Your Fault You're Behind in Life – A Software Engineer's Struggle [video] (youtube.com)

Software Engineering, Career Advice, Personal Development, Video

6 points by _venkatasg 7 days ago | 0 comments

Ask HN: How to approach first days on a new job as a senior PM? (ycombinator.com)
Inspired by this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42656184I'm starting a new job in a few days as a senior PM at a ~1000 person company, but I've never been a PM before. My career path has been: PhD -> Engineer -> Founder.

Management, Career Advice, Startups, Software Development

61 points by LifeIsBio 7 days ago | 48 comments

Ask HN: How to approach first days on a new job as a senior engineer? (ycombinator.com)
I'm switching companies, onboarding a team in a senior position. I would like to approach my entrance in a more deliberate manner than I did on the past.

Software Engineering, Career Advice, Onboarding, Management

115 points by rolothrow 8 days ago | 64 comments

How to become a Data Scientist? My journey, overview of skill set, practice tips (mljar.com)
In recent years, many people have been drawn to the field of data science, often believing it to be a fast track to wealth.

Data Science, Career Advice, Machine Learning

12 points by pplonski86 9 days ago | 4 comments

Ask HN: How to correctly search for jobs on LinkedIn? (ycombinator.com)
LinkedIn appears to be the premier site for connecting job-seekers with job openings, teeming with recruiters and detailed job postings. Therefore I puzzle over why it is so difficult to actually perform job searches there.

Job Searching, LinkedIn, Career Advice

10 points by psim1 12 days ago | 5 comments

Being a career-obsessed engineer wasn't the optimal way to be fulfilled (strategizeyourcareer.com)
The tech world moves fast—why shouldn’t your career?

Career Advice, Engineering, Personal Fulfillment, Technology

14 points by fransotodev 13 days ago | 5 comments

Ask HN: I'm 38 and I have just left my last startup. What should I do next? (ycombinator.com)
I'm 38 and I have just left my last startup. What should I do next?

Career Advice, Startups, Personal Development

11 points by drumnerd 15 days ago | 10 comments

Ask HN: Where to Work After 40? (ycombinator.com)
I turned 40 last month and spent the past decade working on my own startup that ultimately failed. I'm now trying to figure out the next step.

Career Advice, Startups, Ageism

311 points by asim 16 days ago | 273 comments

Ask HN: I've lost interest in software, what next? (ycombinator.com)
I just have lost interest in this whole thing and any motivation to keep going.

Career Advice, Software, Burnout

12 points by throwaway123198 16 days ago | 6 comments

Ask HN: Moving from an IC Role to Vice President at a young age, any advice? (ycombinator.com)
Long story short, I currently work at a big tech firm (synonymous with a rainforest) on a fast growing cloud product as a solutions architect.

Career Advice, Management, Tech Industry, Leadership

5 points by sfredd 16 days ago | 12 comments

40+ JackOfManyTrades needs advice for job search (ycombinator.com)
Hi peeps. Living in Germany, have a masters in chemical engineering. After working a few years in my own field, got bored and switched sectors. Then realized I really enjoy learning, getting good at a new position, and then get bored. Was young back then so I kept switching jobs, fields, industries. Have also been working as a freelancer on the side for 15+ years.

Career Advice, Germany, Job Searching, Freelancing

78 points by Reflekt 19 days ago | 62 comments

Ask HN: What to do when you're out of money and can't find a job? (ycombinator.com)
I have reached the point of extreme desperation. I'm 39 years old, and I have been building software for 20+ years (started coding when I was 12), and I have multiple GitHub projects with 1000+ stars, and numerous with 100+. I have published 2 programming books, and have worked at some top companies.

Career Advice, Unemployment, Software Development

28 points by whoshiring57392 24 days ago | 24 comments

Ask HN: Learning programming when AI can do better? (ycombinator.com)
I'm a beginner at programming and following tutorials and online courses, but now all my friends and especially my big brother all told me to stop learning programming because AI can do any software engineer job and it'll keep being better and better. Is this true? Should I pursue some other path if the thing I like is gonna be automated by AI anyway?

Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Career Advice

6 points by sonnydoh 25 days ago | 17 comments

Talking over a wall changed my direction as a programmer (thecodist.com)
I started my programming career in October 1981 at a large defense contractor (GD). At the time, my goal was to work for a couple of years and then continue my education with a Ph.D. in Chemistry (I had already been accepted).

Programming, Career Advice, Personal Stories

147 points by fagnerbrack 29 days ago | 72 comments

Ask HN: How Do You Find the Right Fit for Career Growth? (ycombinator.com)
I'm 3 years into my career as a software engineer. I became enthralled with programming while in graduate school (studying a completely different discipline) and decided to drop out to pursue a 2nd BS in computer science.

Career Advice, Software Engineering, Personal Growth, Education

11 points by mcrogz 29 days ago | 9 comments

Ask HN: Fluent in go and Rust? Which one do you prefer and why? (ycombinator.com)
You should have done at least a full project in both, a bit more than just scratching the surface.

Programming, Go, Rust, Career Advice, Developer Experience

12 points by manx 35 days ago | 8 comments

Ask HN: How can a software engineer with a broad skillset make money? (ycombinator.com)

Software Engineering, Career Advice, Freelancing, Money Making

25 points by og2023 38 days ago | 30 comments

Ask HN: How do I rebuild at 36yo after a checkered career of undiagnosed ADHD? (ycombinator.com)
After 36 years of spinning my wheels unfocused, scatterbrained, and anxious, I was finally and recently diagnosed with ADHD.

ADHD, Career Advice, Personal Development, Self-Improvement

46 points by poorinterview 38 days ago | 26 comments

The End of Front-End Development (joshwcomeau.com)
Over the past few months, I've spoken with lots of early-career devs who are getting more and more anxious about AI. They've seen the increasingly-impressive demos from tools like GPT-4, and they worry that by the time they're fluent in HTML/CSS/JS, there won't be any jobs left for them.

Front-End Development, Artificial Intelligence, Career Advice

10 points by matthewsinclair 39 days ago | 7 comments

How can I be an AI engineer? (timkellogg.me)
You want to be an AI Engineer? Do you even have the right skills? What do they do? All great questions. I’ve had this same conversation several times, so I figured it would be best to write it down. Here I answer all those, and break down the job into archetypes that should help you understand how you’ll contribute.

Artificial Intelligence, Career Advice, Engineering

7 points by tkellogg 39 days ago | 8 comments

Ask HN: Nineteen Year Old Seeking Career Advice (ycombinator.com)
Hi everyone. I'm a second year in college and I'm really struggling with having a career vision for myself.

Career Advice, College, Personal Development

11 points by judiciously 41 days ago | 17 comments

Ask HN: Devs, where to start in robotic field? (ycombinator.com)
Ask HN: Devs, where to start in robotic field?

Robotics, Programming, Career Advice

9 points by sawirricardo 44 days ago | 0 comments

It's not enough to be right as an engineer (pedramnavid.com)
Early in my career, I was rewarded for being right. As a data scientist, I worked hard to understand some business processes, make predictions, model some outcomes, and help forecast some future states. As a data engineer, my ability to properly forecast future usage of a system and build systems that are resilient and scalable to that future state while being easy to maintain helped me grow in my career.

Engineering, Data Science, Career Advice

18 points by randyzwitch 44 days ago | 1 comments