Ask HN: How can I prevent myself from being pigeon-holed?

2 pointschrfrasco2 comments

I'm about 6 months away from graduating university (compsci + stats). I've also been working as a front end developer for about 1.5 years.

I do enjoy my work but I'm worried about not being able to get jobs in other domains. How can I avoid this? Is this even something to worry about?

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Once you join a company and start working full-time, aggressively volunteer to take on tasks that aren't your specialty. In any company there's always something that needs to be done but no one has the time to do - setting up release automation or test harnesses, build jobs etc. You not only learn more technical skills, you also get an idea of what other types of work you might enjoy doing.

You can do what others have done - create or contribute to various open source projects in different areas and then use this in your resume when needed.

You can always expand your capabilities by getting involved in other projects in your work environments. Find out what different people are needing done and provide a solution when you can. people will recognise that you are the "go to guy" for solving their problems.

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