[HN Gopher] Ask HN: If you were starting your career today what ...
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: If you were starting your career today what would you do to
get rich?
Hello HN, I'm supposed to answer the above question to a group of
HS students and would love to get HN's collective wisdom. And just
to be precise the point isn't to expand their horizons or show them
other ways to measure success etc, just what to work on to get rich
in 2021 as young people seem very confused with the current
landscape. Thanks.
Author : bosaad
Score : 19 points
Date : 2021-06-02 18:48 UTC (4 hours ago)
| playing_colours wrote:
| Focus more on business side, build connections.
| swiley wrote:
| I would have gotten an art/math degree and minored in CS instead
| of majoring in it. The better gender ratio and social
| opportunities probably would have resulted in a stable long term
| relationship by now. Plus BSCS degrees are pretty shallow (this
| is an ongoing trend, you can read ACM recommendations on CS
| curricula to see where it's been and where it's going.) You'll be
| teaching your self most of the immediately useful things (like
| git) and a minor usually covers most of the interesting stuff.
|
| There are technologies you think sound boring like Ansible that
| are a really good thing to learn. Companies like boring
| technology because it means the workers can spend time working on
| the product instead of cleaning up messes. I'm glad I learned
| Linux/vim/git but I wish I had spent a bit of time on deployment
| automation as well.
|
| I spent way too much time messing around with low level stuff, it
| doesn't matter as much as you might think. I probably could have
| completely skipped university if I had given more attention to
| some of the more abstract ideas (don't try skipping it though,
| you don't know what you don't know and learning it this way can
| be painful.)
| cableshaft wrote:
| Having hobbies that aren't computer-based and going to groups
| and club meetups can help with the relationship thing. I never
| studied board games or hiking or writing fiction in college but
| met a lot of people through those meetup groups.
| sterlind wrote:
| > better gender ratio and social opportunities probably would
| have resulted in a stable long term relationship by now.
|
| you don't have to date someone in the same field. you just have
| to not fall into the monoculture surrounding software. it's
| tough to break out of, but easier now that WFH is more of an
| option.
|
| my partner is a nanny, for instance. we met as housemates and
| fell in love. we're lesbian, though, so I guess that doesn't
| really address the gender imbalance issue (or maybe makes it
| 10x worse for me?)
| [deleted]
| podric wrote:
| My undergrad major had a 50/50 gender ratio and there were only
| a handful of romantic relationships to come out of it out of
| the hundreds of classmates I knew. So, I wouldn't count on
| finding your S/O in your university program. There are plenty
| of other opportunities to meet a potential S/O in college, like
| clubs and house parties.
| ArtWomb wrote:
| In terms of generating pure alpha, quant funds will arguably be
| dominant through 2030s. 2 Sigma, Man Group, BlackRock, etc. Even
| main street banks are using Aladdin for portfolio management. Try
| their community outreach. You may be able to score a direct video
| chat for your class with one of their mentors. I think what's
| surprising for students to learn is that you can do a stint in
| pure science or math, and then naturally transition to financial
| engineering ;)
| akimball wrote:
| Same thing I did last time: buy Bitcoin & Monero
| softwaredoug wrote:
| I would see your task differently and more about maximizing
| _opportunities_ for wealth (and other kinds of fulfillment)
|
| 1. Maintain a public presence, including talking about problems
| you're working on, open source contributions, blogging, speaking,
| social media, etc.
|
| 2. In (1) and in all interactions make it clear you have great
| communication and interpersonal skills. Work really hard at this
| because if you can help investors, managers, etc understand what
| you want you can go really far.
|
| 3. Have humility and a beginners mindset. If someone is
| smarter/better than you it's a chance to learn. If you fail, it's
| a chance to learn. Listening is a chance to incorporate
| perspectives and options into an overall better approach AND it
| comes with buy-in from who you're listening to if you truly care
| about their perspective. Also, of course, if you have skills
| others need, freely give your knowledge away.
|
| 4. Pick a valuable niche. This is where the tech/market skill
| lies. If you can understand something, and combine it with the
| soft skills above you can go far. And by "understand" I mean in
| reality you know enough about a very hard problem both add value
| AND bring a _lot_ of humility about what you _dont_ yet
| understand. Or perhaps nobody understands.
| podric wrote:
| Great response! I'm definitely saving it.
|
| What are some good examples of (4) for SWEs? I'm guessing
| topics like WebRTC, video codec algorithms, compilers?
| softwaredoug wrote:
| I kind of stumbled into a problem space I saw lots of my
| clients struggling with (search relevance) and sensed a
| market need ~9 years ago and tried to maximize my
| opportunities in it. You can read the full story here if
| you're curious:
|
| https://softwaredoug.com/blog/2020/12/22/hack-your-career-
| wi...
| Trias11 wrote:
| ML/AI
|
| Crypto/DeFi
| lnwlebjel wrote:
| "Make something people want" and/or develop rare and valuable
| skills. There are as many problems that people will pay money to
| solve as there ever has been. Also, the Who's Hiring thread is a
| testament to the fact that software companies are still talent
| limited. Perhaps specializing in security would be a good move,
| since that seems to be a massive ongoing problem. However,
| ownership is the best bet, so making some rare and valuable
| thing, out of software, perhaps that solves a security problem in
| the context of a startup ... that has to be a solid
| recommendation.
| mtberatwork wrote:
| Eh...get rich when? In a year? Two? Ten years? Personally I would
| scrap the whole question and give them the basics on investing,
| specifically investing for retirement. Get them thinking about
| low cost index funds and IRAs. The sooner they start, the quicker
| they will get to their riches. That's more actionable than any
| moonshot get rich quick schemes.
| meiraleal wrote:
| Crypto/DeFi/Blockchain programming. There is a lot of money to be
| made there without the need of a job and an annoying boss.
| makersmasher wrote:
| Would you mind elaborating a bit on this? How would you put a
| plan together to move towards this?
| akudha wrote:
| Can you elaborate? Other than trading cryptos, what other ways
| are there to make money?
| thebean11 wrote:
| Deploy a popular smart contract that scrapes a few tenths of
| a percent of transactions to you.
| toomuchredbull wrote:
| I didn't comment but I believe there will continue to be a
| lot of growth in this space. If you can make DEFI/NFTs easily
| usable to consumers you could make a lot of money. Many
| unicorns waiting to happen in this space.
| gtsteve wrote:
| The big internet companies pay excellent salaries, so I would
| propose getting a position there, climbing the corporate ladder,
| buy a reasonably priced home and build retirement and investment
| accounts. These companies pay well but it's a trap to addict you
| to what they can pay you so you can't consider leaving, so avoid
| lifestyle creep.
|
| Perhaps it's not very exciting but it is reliable.
|
| If I had my time again I might not have gone the startup route
| but I was lucky so not sad about that. Would I be lucky if I
| tried again? Perhaps, but probably not.
| ergocoder wrote:
| "paying excellent salaries" is an understatement.
|
| Staying at FB as an engineer from 2012 to now would easily earn
| you 10m... assuming career growth. There are probably more than
| 20 companies that can give you the same deal.
|
| That's a generational wealth if you come from a developing
| country...
| askafriend wrote:
| You nailed it. I'd add - avoid lifestyle creep, take that 10m
| and put it into stocks, real estate, startups and crypto.
| Then just sit back and watch the money flow.
| sunstone wrote:
| As a rule of thumb everyone who's born poor and ends up rich does
| it in real estate. That's not quite the same as saying everyone
| who invests in real estate ends up rich but it's a starting
| point.
| swiley wrote:
| Something a lot of real estate people seem to forget is that
| detached housing isn't the only kind of housing unit and there
| are plenty of countries where people are very happy with high
| density structures.
|
| I'm not saying we have a housing bubble but I wouldn't bet
| against it.
| ecshafer wrote:
| I agree with this on premise. But the US in particular
| (though Australia and Canada both share quite heavily in
| this), makes is practically illegal to build non-detached
| housing, in 99% of the country, once you included zoning
| requirements, parking minimums, set back requirements,
| community review boards, bans on multi-unit housing on a plot
| (so that even a duplex, triplex, etc are illegal even if they
| otherwise fit with zoning requirements).
| thorin wrote:
| Assuming if you aren't in the bay area and lucky in guessing the
| answer is always going to be finance/ banking. Technology is
| probably less important than domain.
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| Spend less than you earn. Invest the difference. _That 's_ the
| way to get rich. More income matters some, but what you _do_ with
| it matters more.
| [deleted]
| codingdave wrote:
| I feel like this question needs more context - is this a specific
| group of HS students? A club with shared interests, or an entire
| class of diverse people? I'd give different answers to a CS club
| than an entire class. And I'd teach that being rich is only
| partly about the money you make, and more about being careful
| with the money you spend. Living within your means, and
| saving/investing will make you rich in the long run. Higher
| salaries make it easier to do that, but the discipline of
| managing your finances has a huge impact over time.
| ergocoder wrote:
| Contra to a popular belief, saving doesn't make you rich. It
| makes your future more secure though. Of course, you must not
| spend recklessly (e.g. buy 20 Ferraris or a yatch).
|
| Investing that yields high reward is not saving.
|
| Making money is more important because as you move up the
| ladder your earning will grow exponentially. Any ladder
| probably achieves the same impact (e.g. a director earns 10
| more times than a senior engineer).
|
| No amount of saving can get you that much money.
|
| If you can move up the ladder quickly (or even slowly), making
| money will outpace spending.
| codingdave wrote:
| > director earns 10 more times than a senior engineer.
|
| Where the heck do you work??
|
| I certainly hope OP is communicating ways to be successful
| and secure, not how to strive to be in the 1%. For most high
| school students, "rich" means being able to easily pay their
| bills, have a decent home, and have plenty of disposable
| income. Only people who are already quite rich define "rich"
| as having the luxury of choosing whether or not to buy
| yachts.
| snickersnee11 wrote:
| Love that example. Glad I do not spend money recklessly.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-06-02 23:02 UTC)