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Alternative careers for a developer | vaksel: nowadays pretty much any white collar job you do, will involve sitting at a computer all day. |
Alternative careers for a developer | mechanical_fish: From what I've seen, architects go to school, really arduous school, for years, after which they continue to work constantly, much more than 40 hours per week. I believe they get paid less than developers, have less job security -- and, yes, sit at a computer all day.But what do I know? All I can sugge... |
Alternative careers for a developer | lssndrdn: You could try selling software. If you're a developer now, you should be able to understand it and explain it to people. There are other skills involved in sales (it's best to be extroverted and to enjoy talking to people).But you'd be spending your time traveling and talking to people. |
Alternative careers for a developer | pgbovine: I would suggest you start by reading the essay Shop Class as Soulcrafthttp://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-sou...... and then read the entire (not very long) book, if you like the article. it might give you a starting point for thinking about fulfilling careers that don't involve sitting ... |
Alternative careers for a developer | falsestprophet: Sales Engineer
Construction site manager
Military officer
Field biologist
Criminal investigator [1]
Doctor, Nurse, PA
Teacher
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_agent |
Alternative careers for a developer | arethuza: I was actually thinking about doing a degree in geology just for the fun of it - then I saw what petroleum geologists get paid! |
What art to you guys enjoy? | rmason: +1 on Dali |
Alternative careers for a developer | da5e: Somebody somewhere is doing your dream job as a bridge to doing their dream job. |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | NathanKP: I think that is sounds like an awe-inspiring idea if only because it would give a lot of people a chance to try out ideas. It would be nice to see if it spawned community projects that HN members collaborated on.However, in practice it will probably be a nightmare to try to maintain. |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | adatta02: would probably be a lot of work for you.I mean the cheapest slices over at Slicehost are $20/mon and that should be pretty decent for experimentation puporses. Granted 256mb of RAM isn't a lot but hell I managed to get Firefox to start... |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | abyssknight: You better virtualize it and pray no one breaches the hypervisor. ;)In all seriousness, you would definitely want to prevent one user from taking out the whole box. As much as we all trust one another, there is always room for an 'oops, I rm -rf'd /usr/bin...' to happen.Great idea though, I'd definitely be... |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | Tichy: There are some free hosting options, though, for example Heroku or Google App Engine. |
Alternative careers for a developer | blackguardx: I am an electrical engineer and in the same boat as you. While being an engineer can be rewarding, the sedentary aspects kill the reward. It is physically draining.To remedy the situation, I decided to get a Ph.D. and become a professor. I am in my first year of grad school right now. While I know that pro... |
Alternative careers for a developer | izak30: My Dad is an architect in a small town (40k pop) and services much of rural south eastern ohio. He almost never sits at a computer during the day, and most of his drafting is done by draftsmen on datacad.I'd be happy to privately give you his e-mail to answer questions.Here's what I know that might help:
Becau... |
Alternative careers for a developer | santry: Having spent the last 15 years as a developer, I'm now working toward a career as an opera singer (I'm a tenor).Admittedly I find it difficult to identify many similarities between opera and software development. People often make a connection between music and mathematics, but for me the non-mathematic aspects... |
Alternative careers for a developer | ivyirwin: I am always surprised at the way in which architecture as a profession is romanticized. I blame Mike Brady...I went through the process of getting my Masters in Architecture. It is a long and very arduous process and something you shouldn't do without being passionate or dedicated to the discipline.The crazy ... |
Alternative careers for a developer | pavlov: I studied to be a film editor, but ended up as a developer. There's a surprising similarity in the thought processes and trade-offs involved in editing and coding. In both cases, you're in charge of building up a coherent microcosm using a constrained set of intellectual raw material that was created by someone... |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | _pius: I love the idea, but agree with others who say it seems like it'd be a tremendous amount of work to manage.One approach, given the extant free options like Heroku and GAE, would be to focus on what is actually difficult to get for free: various daemons, queues, fast key-value stores, etc. Maybe provide a RESTfu... |
Alternative careers for a developer | callmeed: What about professional photography? While the industry as a whole is currently in flux, there are several technical aspects which often come naturally to hackers/math types.If you truly learn the craft and work hard at marketing, you can create something of high value to others–be it art, helping other compa... |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | aichcon: I think it's a nice thought, but I don't think a lack of hosting is what's stopping people here from getting their ideas out. |
Alternative careers for a developer | dan_sim: What else can you do? In my opinion, it would be a bad idea to do something that requires the same skills than a developer. If you can cook, why not be a chef? If you can play music, why not be a musician? |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | jefffoster: Sounds very similar to http://hcoop.net/. It's $5 a month and you get superuser access to almost everything according to the FAQ. |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | bumblebird: You can get a VPS for $19.95 a month now, with pro-rata billing. Set one up for a couple of days, see what happens, if it fails, cancel it and get most of the $19.95 back.I don't think server cost is an issue to most people these days. Not until you start to scale, and then it's all good news. |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | jasonlbaptiste: Talk to rackspace's cloud division about doing something. They seem big on working with developers and they offer really small slices. You can spawn via an API, so letting people on/registering and being on their own vps is fairly easy. Maybe do it where it's invite only or there's some advisory boar... |
Alternative careers for a developer | replicatorblog: I am an art school grad, have been an industrial designer, UX/UI designer, and have a lot of friends who are architects. Unless you are REALLY gifted aesthetically. I wouldn't go through the time/expense of design school. You could probably transition to UI design pretty easily. ID is an interesting fie... |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | josephruscio: Not trying to troll or anything, but in the age of services like EC2, App Engine, and Heroku, why would anyone get locked into a long term hosting contract without prior proof of "legs"? |
Alternative careers for a developer | JohnFritzen: Become a cobbler. |
DropZap has a high rating in the US app store. How should I market it? | DenisM: peteysd is sort of right - a target audience has to be established before the app is developed. Otherwise you're creating an app "for everyone", and the truth is that selling apps "for everyone" is much much harder than for specific target. Targeting is king.In your case I suggest to target people who like brai... |
DropZap has a high rating in the US app store. How should I market it? | DenisM: Very god job on video quality by the way, how did you encode it? |
Alternative careers for a developer | webwright: Sales engineering or sales both pay really well and have a less technical component.I've REALLY enjoyed woodworking and home remodeling. Impressive output that wows people, creative problem solving, etc.Medical stuff isn't going anywhere, though you better like working with old folks. Nursing is fairly app... |
Alternative careers for a developer | loudtiger: I'm in sort of the same boat. Developing things and creating software is a means to an end for me. Do I enjoy working for myself? Sure. More so than working for the man. But in the end, it's also so that I can be free from the ties of money.One thing that I (and some of my other fellow CS graduates) have con... |
Y Combinator vs. other incubators | andrewhyde: All have their strengths, read up and make sure they match what would be best for your company. If your company / founders need to be in the valley, no better than YC. If it doesn't match your style, there are several other quality programs. |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | ankeshk: I used to give free hosting to Indian bloggers and startups. (More bloggers took me up on the offer than startups though.) Tips from my experience:* I kept it as a first-come-first-serve thing. I didn't want to become the judge out there.* But I kept a rule from the beginning: people had to move once they b... |
Alternative careers for a developer | jcapote: Become a mechanic; That's what I would do anyway... |
Alternative careers for a developer | jriddycuz: Consider becoming a tradesman or artisan of some kind. General construction labor doesn't pay all that well, and is pretty boring, but if you have the skills, specialty craftsmanship can be very lucrative and fun.You can make physical things you can be proud of, and you don't have to use a computer. Also, at... |
Alternative careers for a developer | sganesh: If you're in the US, you can become a foreign service officer as they need a lot of information technology people in different areas. If you're interested in living in different parts of the world, this would be a good career path.http://careers.state.gov/officer/index.html
http://careers.state.gov/specialist/... |
Alternative careers for a developer | Ixiaus: Try systems administration. Setting up servers, monitoring networks, you even get to do a little bit of programming by writing scripts to manage common tasks.I think sys admins generally make more than developers do (unless you are an upper tier programmer). |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | colinplamondon: I don't get what the point is, when you can just push to Heroku and go off one dyno until people pay money. |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | jacquesm: Wow, I'm really quite surprised at the negative sentiment, that's not what I expected.1) the world is a lot bigger than just the 'affluent' portions of it, in some countries 3 to 5 bucks per month is a big deal, this server will cost a fairly large multiple of that. If you can get a server with these specs fo... |
Alternative careers for a developer | halfabee: Designing/Laying out fire sprinkler systems:http://www.sprinklercareer.freewebsitehosting.com/Found from another site, good details:Even now jobs are plentiful.All it takes is two years at a community college at one of three community colleges in the country.Entry level average wage is low to mid $30's.Averag... |
Alternative careers for a developer | thenduks: I think you should continue writing software.1) You say you aren't very good at it... In my experience that means you're probably pretty good at it :)2) Physical and substantial... well, it's easy to get disillusioned with some enterprise app or something. Maybe you just need a change of scenery? Get into web... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | gurraman: I had the exact same desire about a year ago; I was bored with web development and wanted to learn a new discipline (I never went through with my plans though, so I have no real advice for you). My planned route was to get a formal education at the university. I'm sure there are self-taught bioinformaticians ... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | sganesh: Some of these jobs look like a good place to start in the field.. http://www.bioinformatics.org/jobs/ The best way to get in is to find what these companies are looking for and start honing your skills in that direction. |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | gms: Maybe read a textbook on bioinformatics, implement a couple of non-trivial programs/algorithms, and put them on your resume? |
Alternative careers for a developer | lhorie: How about carpentry? |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | abyssknight: I have a friend who is doing his master's thesis in Bioinformatics. If you like running batch jobs that can run days and fail in the middle, then its a great discipline for you! All kidding aside, the local University might be a good place to start. Often working as a grad student you can learn the books a... |
How about this idea, a 'friends of HN server' ? | lhorie: How's this better than just finding a free PHP host in a free subdomain? (honest question) |
Y Combinator vs. other incubators | CSunday: From what I've observed, YC would be the most enjoyable place to be, in comparison to others; but it depends on the type of person you are, and what exactly you are looking for. |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | mcgin: Might be worth checking out these guys - http://diybio.org/See if theres a local group and go along and talk to a few people. I'm sure they'll have some stuff you can get your hands dirty on that will at least get you some experience in the field |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | kapauldo: do a search of recently awarded government grants on bioinformatics, particularly small business grants (SBIR). awards are all public, so you should have no problem finding them. contact those folks and just tell them honestly what you are interested in doing (be sure to read their awards first so you have ... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | Mongoose: There are a lot of bioinformatics positions out there that don't require much biology out of the box. Many universities have bioinformatics departments with lots of programming positions. I worked for the past year as a student programmer helping develop and maintain the data entry website for a set of intern... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | twharris: You don't need courses solely in bioinformatics. You need a solid foundation in molecular biology and genetics. These will give you the requisite background to speak intelligently about the issues. You can take additional courses in (or read independently) about bioinformatics concurrently. |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | tjr: A few years ago, I was talking with the director for bioinformatics and such at a reasonably large medical research university. He told me they really don't hire "pure" computer science people any more, because there are increasingly academic programs combining CS with biology, and they much prefer to hire people... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | phren0logy: There are plenty of approaches that are helpful for programmers in both Web and Bioinformatics domains. Seriously.Check out Programming Collective Intelligence, and I bet it will give you some ideas. |
Facebook app-ing? | rdj: First, you need to define a few things:
- very small (10's, hundreds, etc)
- focused (girls who wear pink?)
- successfullyI've always assumed folks wrote facebook apps to grab the eyeballs of the 16 million users and ride the network effect.I'm curious about what you are looking for specifically.
(Right now, I'm ... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | nvn1: Coming from having done a Bioinformatics PhD and Post-Doc, I reckon getting in touch speculatively with people in Bioinformatics should work. You might get a lot of knock-backs but there's definitely a need for people with IT skills and a genuine interest in Biology. I'd also say that a strong grounding in statis... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | rglullis: That's exactly what happened to me, but I have to say that it was more of an accident than a planned move.I was looking for a job where they'd hire people with Python skills and that could provide sponsorship for a H1B. The intersection of these requirements proved to be quite small, but I was fortunate to fi... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | falsestprophet: You may not have luck finding work in the field without knowledge of biology or chemistry or statistics or maths. There are many graduate programs that focus on retraining software developers as bioinformatics researchers. Also consider cheminformatics.Please send me an email [1] if you want to learn mo... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | blaser: You can get into bioinformatics without a background in biology, but you'll need some math. Assuming you have basic calculus & some statistics, I'd recommend looking at the Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago's online certificate in bioinformatics (http://proteomics.bioengr.uic.edu/online/). You take an intro cou... |
Writing an 80App | codepoet: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=840244Crawling "only" 120k pages can be done easily with a pure Python solution over a normal home / office internet connection. The packages urllib, urllib2, robotexclusionrulesparser and lxml are a good start.Important: Don't forget to implement a crawl rate limit. |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | Mz: Pick up a copy of "What color is your parachute?" Read up on the advice on informational interviews. Do your best to find some contacts in this field and see if they will agree to an informational interview. (Rule #1: You are NOT networking at this point. There can be no intent to finagle a job this way.)Someo... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | caffeine: If you're contacting people about this (and you should), try to do some reading beforehand. In particular this bit:I've always wanted to work with new biological technologies, for example figuring out what genes do, or how proteins fold, or anything cool like that where I can increase the world's knowledge.W... |
Alternative careers for a developer | Mz: Some years back, I had the epiphany that I wanted to "do something in the built environment" career-wise. I went through some college catalogs, made a list of all the majors related to the built environment and read what was required to complete a degree in them. I eliminated Architecture off the bat because you b... |
Alternative careers for a developer | psyklic: This has just as much substance as someone posting "What should I go into in college? I'm good at math."It's hard to choose, but careers aren't like funnels where everyone who would enjoy software development would be a great architect! |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | tom: What you're describing is the life I left to start my latest co. I worked at a big research university having not had bio since college .. years ago. The key is to find ways you can help, find someone who needs what you have to offer, and work like crazy to get them to like you. Not that I did this, I kinda fel... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | NonEUCitizen: Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
ISBN-10: 0140157352
ISBN-13: 978-0140157352 |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | gintas: Bioinformatics is cool, but it's basically less sexy than you might think. There are various directions to work on, but the kind of work is essentially statistics and pattern matching. If you want to figure out what genes do or how proteins fold in general, go read a textbook. Spending a year on a single gene ... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | kaz: The E-Myth (the E stands for Entrepreneur): http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou...Derek Sivers has a good collection of his notes (and many other biz-centric books) here: http://sivers.org/book/EMythRevisitedHis opening line nails it: "Everything needs to be a system. Think of your busines... |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | Mz: I don't have an answer but I am hoping this will lead to links or discussion of things like building website traffic and SEO. I have been pondering starting such a discussion myself but a) I suck out loud at starting discussions and b)I just haven't gotten around to it.Not trying to high jack your discussion. I w... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | webwright: Made to Stick
http://www.madetostick.com/ |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | Paton: What kind of business are you interested in?If internet/tech... read TechCrunch and Mashable.
Watch "This Week in Startups" by Jason Calacanis.Watch some picthes from TC50. (Click the logos to see their pitch): http://www.techcrunch50.com/2009/Business Week and Money magazines are decent, but less tech related.T... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | gte910h: MicroISVAnything by Eric Sink |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | byrneseyeview: http://www.amazon.com/Buffett-American-Capitalist-Roger-Lowe...This is the best business book I've ever read. Buffett is methodical, implacable, and brilliant -- but too smart to overthink anything.The nice thing about Buffett is that being a little more like him will make you a little more money (unlike... |
Facebook app-ing? | alex_c: Like rdj said, that really depends on what you mean by small, focused, and successful.I've had moderate success with Facebook apps (~1 million users total), but I haven't touched the platform in about a year, so I might be a bit out of the loop. Still, I'd be happy to answer questions. |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | jmonegro: "Founders At Work" by Jessica Livingston[1] http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/d...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Livingston |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | jergason: I am in an undergraduate-level bioinformatics course right now, and can echo what was said about statistics. The biology isn't too tough to pick up, but I am weak in stats and that is my greatest difficulty with this class. That said, I am enjoying it immensely. The book we use is a good overview of the subje... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | renkeyes: I'd recommend "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey A. Moore. It almost perfectly describes the lifecycle and challenges faced by the two software-product-based startups that I've worked for. |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | Zarathu: Hey, you should check out my app! http://looklookbuy.com |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | daleharvey: I would go for 4 steps to the epiphany, it gives you practical steps to follow to avoid that process of sitting down as a programmer and deciding magically what everyone wants. (then being dissapointed when you spend x time coding it and finding out they dont) |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | dnsworks: Pick up a copy of the tried and true, "How To Win Friends & Influence People". The rest of the fad business books come and go, but this one is a great start to learn how to interact with people when you're trying to sell them on "something". |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | jason_tko: Great question.Firstly, the more I've gotten involved in business over the years, the more I've come to realise that for any kind of sale requiring human contact, personal relationships are absolutely paramount.This is fairly straightforward, but it bears repeating. People will buy from people who they like... |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | vaksel: -email a bunch of bloggers, the more the merrier, Even if you don't really think you got a shot, do it anyways. Also email regular media, you never know, they might want to cover you. It's only 5 minutes of your time, and a single hit will make it all worth it.-hold a launch promotion, give away some ipods, or ... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | anigbrowl: I really think you might be best to start off with something like 'Small business kit for dummies' - not because I think you're a dummy, but because you say you don't know much about business. Instead of books about motivation, leadership, negotiation and so on, you probably need something more down to earth... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | amishandroid: I haven't read all of it yet, but so far Peter Drucker's "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" is an excellent read.It talks about how to think differently, to turn situations to your advantage -- beneficially refactoring your views.It's not really a starter kit, but I don't think I'd want to operate a busine... |
Alternative careers for a developer | johnmw: Have you considered working in a pet store? |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | ecq: Most of the books I read are usually business profiles/bios of founders/companies.1) iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business2) The Google Story3) The Perfect Store: Inside eBay4) Paypal Wars5) Barbarians at the Gate (not tech-related but one of the best business books of all time) |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | snorkel: Just a quick critique on roorky.com, you should make it more obvious how many books are available there. As far as I can tell there's only two books mentioned on your site, which are the 2 free samples linked to from the front page. Are there any other books available? Having the same short attention span as a... |
What exactly is going on? Hacked site. | dan_the_welder: I looked again and it seems to all be .cfm extensions.So perhaps a Cold Fusion vulnerability. |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | zaidf: Growing a Business by Paul Hawken |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | zavulon: I'm going to go ahead and recommend "4 Hour work week" by Tim Ferris, BUT - you have to take that book with a big grain of salt. Some of the stuff he's talking about is fluff, and he's gotten some fair criticism over it - but he has some invaluable, very practical advice on automation of certain areas of a bus... |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | patio11: I think people around here fall into a thinking trap regarding "reviews".The average user perceives no value from the opportunity to review your application. That sounds suspiciously like work! They perceive value from using your application (one would hope, anyway). I think folks here say "I need folks to ... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | jorangreef: Jeff Bezos once said his favorite business book is Built to Last (http://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-Compan...). You can still hear him use language from that book in recent interviews. |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | ankeshk: Go offline.1.Find a list of bloggers in your niche.2.Find their contact details. (Either their contact page, or their whois.)3.Send them a snail mail letter explaining your offer.This seriously gets more high profile bloggers to review your products - because it cuts through the clutter. Its more work, but a ... |
Most development bang for our buck w/o another full time hire? | davidcuddeback: Perhaps you don't need another developer at this time. I find that operating at n-1 developers forces a team to really consider what the most important features are. As a developer, it's really easy for me to start thinking of really cool features, and if only I had another programmer or two on my tea... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | jhlb: My introduction to the way that businesses work was an "Engineering Economics" course. It is about how accounting works, i.e. "financial accounting" vs. "management accounting", the time value of money, what the numbers on a quarterly report mean, &c. If you find a course syllabus online you can see what topics a... |
What's the best first business book for a programmer? | paraschopra: Nobody mentioned 'How to Get Rich' by Felix Dennis yet? It is an absolute must! |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | nreece: Try following some (if not all) DIY marketing ideas listed at http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/30/43-do-it-yourself-... |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | warwick: I've got some desktop Mac software. Today, I've got an application of mine on MacUpdate Promo. We discount my app, they promote my app, I tweet and post on my blog, they take a cut of the sales, I take a cut of the sales, and with any luck at the end of the day we'll both be happy.I try to do 1 or 2 promotio... |
How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service? | pradeepkrishnan: Watch this! I think its going to be worth while! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1KNkqgq3eo&feature=playe... |
How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics? | whichdokta: http://www.tcoffee.org/Courses/Exercises/index.htmlhttp://www.larrygonick.com/html/pub/books/sci3.htmlDon't laugh, excellent books! |
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