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41 years old now. Failed out of a top-ten college. Went to work assembling trophies for minimum wage. Lived in a shitty apartment and hung out with people goi

41 years old now. Failed out of a top-ten college. Went to work assembling trophies for minimum wage. Lived in a shitty apartment and hung out with people going nowhere. Felt doomed. Got interested in Linux (early 94). Took a job as tech support at local ISP. Accepted back into same top-ten school. Dropped out a year later. Moved to SFBA and took low-wage job as a junior sysadmin with early cable ISP startup. Left after six months and moved back home. Built successful e-commerce startup around my family's brick-and-mortar business (1995). Moved to Utah to ski and work for another startup. Then LA, Boston, and DC for more startup stints as a sysadmin. Back to college to finish degree. Moved to Utah again to do sysadmin work for backcountry.com. Later became manager over the systems, network, and desktop support teams. Moved back home to work for Rackspace. Stayed there six years. Got married. Commissioned in the Army Reserve and spent six months away doing initial training. Had two kids. Moved to WA. Currently Director of Technical Operations for a SFO-based SaaS company. I have an office here in Washington state. I've been here two years. Make great money. Love my job tremendously. Every day seems amazing that I get paid this well to do what I love. Extremely grateful. Bottom line: I've seen some shit and some hard times. Never give up. Keep working hard and it will get better.

bkjelden 11y ago
What do you think you've learned from living/working in so many different cities? I love hearing advice and insight from people who've lived in a lot of different US cities. What similarities they've noticed, what differences, etc.
- chrissnell 11y ago
  In general, I don't put much value in moving around a lot. I was still pretty immature in my early years in the industry and did what many young twenty-somethings do--try out a job, then leave when it gets boring. I bounced around a lot like this. As I grew older, I grew to appreciate the benefits of sticking with one thing for 2+ years: the seniority, the promotions, the advanced knowledge you develop, etc. My favorite place to live, hands down, was Utah. I really enjoyed my time there. I lived in Park City, UT for both stints. It's a ski town and totally different from how many might conceive Utah. The pay in Utah was never amazing but I got by. Now that I've been working remote for 6 years, I can picture going back to a place like Park City. Mid-sized, activity-focused towns in the Mountain West are awesome.
partyingcat 11y ago
When did you move into management? I am coming out of my early 30s and did a lot of things - started as a database programmer then law school + legal aid lawyer/policy maker. Moved back to tech 3 years ago as a data scientist. Doing well and loving it. I get a lot of opportunities and thinking now on whether I should continue honing my hard tech skills (esp when I don't have kids yet or a mortgage) or consider moving to management. Thoughts from a veteran!? Thanks so much.

bkjelden 11y ago

What do you think you've learned from living/working in so many different cities? I love hearing advice and insight from people who've lived in a lot of different US cities. What similarities they've noticed, what differences, etc.

chrissnell 11y ago
In general, I don't put much value in moving around a lot. I was still pretty immature in my early years in the industry and did what many young twenty-somethings do--try out a job, then leave when it gets boring. I bounced around a lot like this. As I grew older, I grew to appreciate the benefits of sticking with one thing for 2+ years: the seniority, the promotions, the advanced knowledge you develop, etc. My favorite place to live, hands down, was Utah. I really enjoyed my time there. I lived in Park City, UT for both stints. It's a ski town and totally different from how many might conceive Utah. The pay in Utah was never amazing but I got by. Now that I've been working remote for 6 years, I can picture going back to a place like Park City. Mid-sized, activity-focused towns in the Mountain West are awesome.

partyingcat 11y ago

When did you move into management? I am coming out of my early 30s and did a lot of things - started as a database programmer then law school + legal aid lawyer/policy maker. Moved back to tech 3 years ago as a data scientist. Doing well and loving it. I get a lot of opportunities and thinking now on whether I should continue honing my hard tech skills (esp when I don't have kids yet or a mortgage) or consider moving to management. Thoughts from a veteran!? Thanks so much.