Comment by mockingbirdy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mockingbirdy | Hacker News Reader

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> But if I was in my 20s or early 30s, I'd be looking to leave tech entirely and go into something else where experience is actually appreciated and valued.

I'm in my 20s and think about this a lot although I already moved to management (with a lot of software development, still) as well.

There's a great article [1] analyzing this problem (quotes from the article: "Professionals with higher cognitive ability drop out of STEM careers earlier and faster", "High-ability workers are faster learners, in all jobs. However, the relative return to ability is higher in careers that change less, because learning gains accumulate").

Knowledge depreciates a lot faster in software development than many other fields. That's why I really think about going into finance or sales (still fast-paced), but attending expensive top business schools and starting as an analyst with a low salary again is pretty rough after already building my current skillset. Currently feel a bit stuck with my career options right now. Money's still good and the work is fun, but working in a field that is set up to be a grinding mill as an IC is not an entertaining thought. High-tech projects will still be fun, I guess, but still definitely something to consider. Specializing early on may mitigate this.

[1]: https://whoisnnamdi.com/never-enough-developers/

Good assessment on the need to shift domain to ensure long-term stability. However, can you help me understand why you shortlisted finance and sales?

For sales: After attaining product-market fit and everything becoming more stable, it’s all about sales. Software development in the growth stage turns into an endless grind of features and bug fixes and is regularly seen as simply a cost. Sales is the mechanism that allows the business to get new customers, so this is something which has a higher impact in the growth stage.

For finance: Managing finance and deals is one of the most important aspects in any business. You can make the same money compared to tech without a ceiling and I’m personally interested in economics and financial topics.

Both have a quantifiable aspect (deal/fund size, new revenue/customers) that makes it easier to measure your impact on the business. This means that it’s easier to get a fair compensation - although bad performance will get noticed easily, too. And the knowledge in these areas compound, especially in sales.

On a personal note, I’m interested in psychology and economics and can build connections with others quickly, so these two fit quite well and I'm convinced that sales and finance are important ingredients for any type of work (philanthropic included).

Best of all worlds would be to build a MVP using software development skills until product-market fit is reached, then being able to grow customers using sales skills and then supporting further growth with external capital and managing an exit using finance skills. - In reality, these are all separate roles, but I'd like to be able to work in these other two areas, too.

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