Ask HN: How do you do career planning? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you do career planning?

10 pointsvuxel4 comments

I'm 24, software engineer at a huge company that has roles for doing everything. They have a culture of holding career conversations, and give their people a shot at identifying and fixing what they want to do. I am due to go through this process soon, and I am really interested in advice on how others have handled their career planning. I personally don't like the idea of breaking my role into the Level I, II, III ladder, and I don't want to bind my professional life to that scale. I feel motivated towards understanding the business side of things, but I lack any background that would help me there. I want to have an educated roadmap (even if I don't follow it to script), and I would really appreciate advice on going about it. Thanks!

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As a ground rule, I aim to reconcile different aspects of a "career", like work-life balance, salary, future prospects. This is an ongoing process, there is no master plan for me. I don't aim for roles, money or status. I believe that most of that is by chance anyway. Instead, I let myself be guided by my interests, and try to be open for opportunities at the same time.

Most of the time I try to save energy and to avoid pressure. But if I sense something worthwhile, I can work really hard and go for the extra mile. For instance, at some point I realized unexpectedly, that I was aiming for a good university degree. So I pushed hard, and in the end my thesis was among the very best. This suddenly enabled my PhD studies, which enabled some grants, insights and relationships. I didn't plan to do a PhD, but it turns out that having one is also very useful outside academia. Therefore, instead of being powdered in the post doc mill, I left academia timely. Now working in industry, I lay dormant until I sense another capture. Again, I more or less do, what currently interests me (C/C++, Linux stack). This might change soon, and I would switch then in a heartbeat.

So I would advice you to avoid doing something, what you struggle against. Don't let yourself press or lure into some fixed scheme you don't like. Instead, find out what is important to you, what interests you, and go with the flow. Be patient, but don't hesitate to switch, if there is a good opportunity. As a software engineer, there should be plenty of it.

I work at a small company and have about a dozen engineers under me. When I approach these problems I do this:

Identify where your want to be when you retire. This could range from anywhere between CEO to a fortune 50 company to an individual contributor at a small start up. Next identify attributes of the company or industry that are important to you. There wrong answer.

Next identify where you want to be in 2-5 years, ignoring job titles. This becomes our immediate action plan.

Now see what job titles fit into that at your current position, and develop a checklist to get there.

I'm 19, i am still studying as xybersecurity specialist but i am not sure i would work as this. I am going to try myself in any different working style

I have three metrics of success: 1. How much positive impact you've made. This is up to you, whether it's feeding your family or changing the world. 2. How happy you are. 3. What enriching experiences you've had.

Money and "work life balance" is a just a mix of these three options. E.g. you don't want to be running a business making millions a day if you're stuck in a room, divorced with no vacations. Some things like automated stock trading will make you decent money, but it scores poorly on social impact, so I'd avoid those.

Happiness is important too. As far as I'm concerned, if you are going to be unhappy for 20 years to retire a little earlier, that's pretty bad. There are jobs out there which are difficult and hard work, like farming and consulting, but if they truly bring you happiness, you should factor them in plans.

One example for the third is that I once had 2 months straight of work - it was traveling the whole country teaching programming, driving hundreds of kilometers per week. Not too well paid, but I got to visit all kinds of people and it was a fun road trip. It would fail all kinds of metrices like "work life balance" and "money", but I'd pay to do it again.

My own career goals do not include retirement, but yours may. I prefer not to be in upper management either. Again, these are all sliders which you have to define yourself.

The other thing to look for is a compound effect.

Everything massive in life is compounded. The simplest one most people understand is compound interest. It's better to have money earlier than later. Slow and compound is better than fast and one shot.

With work it's not so clear. You'll want things that can lead to better things.

Let's consider two options: 1. Running a franchise or gas station - $100,000 a month 2. Consulting gig - $80,000 a year

Let's say Option 1 still forces you to work 30 hours a week, doing management stuff, and the only way to stop is to sell the company, which may not be possible. It pays very well and you could probably buy anything you want. But you won't meet a lot of people who are interesting. You'd be too tied up to work on fun projects.

Option 2 isn't so good at a glance, but it exposes you to more options. You might end up an early stage employee in a good startup. You might be able to work with both Google and Huawei, or even some secret police stuff. Your experiences in those new roles could open up further roles.

Option 2 compounds, in that if you take this opportunity, you are likely to unlock more than 1 opportunity.

Option 1 doesn't compound. It is effectively a career dead end, and the option of selling the company is a step down from it. You might be able to open more gas stations, but why bother doubling your work hours, when you already have more income than you need?

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