Ask HN: Pivoting Careers, How?

[list_programmer]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Hoping to find some advice and suggestions from people who did it successfully.

I've a bachelors in CS, and then recently graduated from Georgia Tech(OMSCS). I've been a Software Engineer and Team lead/EM implementing and consulting SaaS technologies for almost all of my 10 year career(SAP/Salesforce/Workday). The money is good, I work in one of the top 4 consulting companies in the Silicon Valley. I'm just plain bored now and feel that my reason to get up in the morning doing the same kind of work and implementations is going down.

I'd want to get into something interesting next. I'm looking to do something in Python/Go next, but I don't know where/how to start, looking to either get into Infrastructure (AWS/ Kubernetes/GCP) or into Machine Learning. I'm trying to pick them up, and I've the following questions:

1. How do I get started on these? There are just ton of things online, and i'm genuinely not sure where to start. Do I get a Data Science nanodegree/ How do I get started on K8/AWS/GCP?

2. How do you stick with them? Since I don't get to use Python/Go in my real life, since most of these SaaS implementations usually use vanilla JS, in some cases zython and the tools’ own scripting language, it's very hard to "use" what I learn in step #1. How did you go about using it everyday?

3. If I'm able to somehow complete both 1 and 2, how do I pivot? Do I start off as an entry level engineer and go from there? I'm genuinely interested in how others did it, I do have a lot of experience in Software Architecture, Design Patterns, writing code as a discipline, reviewing code, version control etc., just not in the aforementioned areas.

It's also important to mention that I'm originally from UK and on a work visa with a family here in the US, so maintaining a job(here in US) at least for the next couple years because of other family commitments(spouse is in Univ) and a kid is important.

[bg24]

I am not a programmer, but had to make a conscious switch to cloud/kubernetes in the last 3 years. FWIW -

1. Will your kind of work remain so in the next 10 years? It means technology (ex. Oracle). You should strive to move into a domain that stays relevant for next 10 years.

2. Are there areas that you can expand into? Given your condition (family and kid), you do not have the luxury of a fresh grad. Put it other way, how many guys (say 40+) do you see working in your type of role? And what adjacent areas do you see people growing into? For example, move from coding to product management or business development or solution architect? I am biased to this path.

3. Did you work on virtualization, linux or any platform? Kubernetes is a platform. Do you want to switch to kubernetes platform, or build applications on kubernetes? Time is essence. Unless you have prior knowledge of Linux platform, virtualization etc. it will be a long learning curve. In contract, app development is a different skill altogether (micro services patterns). If you pick app dev, Golang is the way to go if you have to pick a new language.

4. Do you deal with data a lot? If so, how about Python and data science, and then figure out how to use various data analysis tools on kubernetes. Again, this has to be an interim step for you to move into something that interests you.

5. Switching to a new role/project in your current company is better than looking one outside.

[giantg2]

I would love to know how to change my career too.

I'm thinking of looking for hourly positions, maybe even in other industries. I'm tired of how companies treat salaried developers. Plus, now that I have a kid I can't work 50-60 hours a week to progress in software development.

[blue0bird]

I’m in a very similar situation, and recently have been laid off. My plan is to find an open source project which is aligned with what I am looking for. My main problems are staying focused in one area and mastering it.

[cyberdrunk]

I'm not sure that working on an open source project is good way to learn a new subfield of coding. I've done it and, in retrospect, this time could've been better spent elsewhere.

When working on an opensource project, you'll become an expert on the few functionalities (and code that realises it) of that single project that you will be working on - while you'll be oblivious about everything else in the subfield. IMO just doing a project that's typical for the subfield will allow you to learn much more. So, for example, when learning ML, don't go do obscure work on R codebase, but instead try some simple challenges from Kaggle.

[list_programmer]

Sorry to hear this. I hope things are OK, I’m trying to find it too, failing almost everyday.

[weitzj]

Is there maybe a way to get infrastructure as code into your current projects? This way you could start getting the grips onto HashiCorp Terraform,

Maybe you have a project which would benefit from Terraform but is missing a provider implementation. This way you could extend your knowledge and learn Go to implement said terraform provider.

Even without having to program a custom provider you might have a chance to implement terraform for your customers. And from there on you could move onto K8s with terraform etc.

[list_programmer]

Thanks, I’ve been trying to do this, I’m slowly moving some of the services to GCP, and thereby getting my hands dirty thanks for the suggestion, I’ll try to look for more opportunities.

[user_agent]

I started as a clerk, then became a DJ (detroit techno, yeah!), then I was selling custom software in a software house, then I became an account manager for a couple system integrators (ICT), then a manager of a data center department (sales too), then a global account manager working for a giant tech vendor (networking) where I was dealing with the biggest accounts and massive deals, and now I'm a software engineer (web dev) and an entrepreneur (I've had 3 other companies in the past, too, with 2 of them bankrupt). 2 next companies planned, but I don't have time to startup them! Ugh, meanwhile I learned 2 foreign languages, become a psychotherapist (a good one!), read over 1000 books, became proficient in trading stocks, and God knows what else... I don't even remember. Ough, I converted from an atheist to a more spiritually aware person due to my journey thru philosophy and metaphysics ;)

I'm 34. I started working when I was 19. I don't have what you people call a degree. Instead I've put all the money that I was about to put into a "degree" to fulfill my home library with a lot of good books. Now I have 1k+ of them. Best investment ever!

What do you think, that I'm some kind of genius? WTF, I'm just a regular dude who's incredibly bored with BS the world has been trying to sell me on every corner. I do what I want to do and what makes sense. Period.

Coming back to the topic:

1) You sit on your ass and you start. If you don't have a clear vision why you are doing a given thing (especially long, complex projects), no wonder that you don't know how to start. Try to visualize the positive outcomes from the enterprises you want to dive into. Make a mission statement. Then make a plan. At least a hypothesis and test it. Doesn't work? Click next and prepare another one. Repeat, until it's going to work. Keep track of your attempts.

2) The same as (1). If you haven't internalize why you're doing a given thing, you won't stick with it.

3) You don't "pivot". You just do stuff you consider to be worth doing. The method is the same as in (1). First a plan / hypothesis, then fire and eventually you are going to get there. Isn't that logical?

There's no need to be scared, dude. The whole universe is trying to help you. No one knows anything! We can only test what we think might be a good shot. I'm not sure if you realize how much one can accomplish in 10 years. You basically can completely change your life... Twice. People tend to overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate long periods of time like 10y.

The rest is just details.

I wish you luck!

[user_agent]

One more thing that might help you:

There's this guy, Josh Kaufman, who teaches people how to decompose problems in a way that they can be more "digestible", so it's easier to approach them when we don't know much about a new topic.

Take a look on:

1) The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything ... Fast, Josh Kaufman

2) The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman

Another one is Tim Ferriss. I doubt one can mimic their techniques, but sometimes it might be a good idea to just see how other people are struggling with new things and they win at the end ;)