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Ask HN: Career Advice, should I move to the tech industry?
I have been lost for a few years in my career, and it's getting to the point where this is starting to affect me psychologically, and my relationships as well. My problem might seem silly, or it might seem like a rich person problem, I apologize in advance for that.
I've been working in the financial industry for about 15 years, doing quantitative trading (writing algorithms to trade). I feel at the top of my profession (I am paid very well, 1 MM+ and recognized in the field). However, a couple of years ago, I started to completely disengage. I felt I stopped learning anything. I think the field is very hard, and now I feel completely incompetent.
I feel like I have the following options:
1) Stay in my current job, but I can sense the pressure mounting due to my lack of results. My compensation has gone down a lot recently, and will probably go down much more. I have been trying to reengage, but have been even unable to do the bare minimum.
2) Go to another company, in a similar role. I feel I will be paid only the first year, probably 1 MM (they guarantee the first year payment), and then be fired as I undoubtedly fail (I am now unable to perform)
3) Try to change industries. Go to Google for example.
When I think about options 1 and 2, it makes me very unhappy. I feel like a fraud, and I feel very incompetent. Part of me feels that I should do 2, as I have a responsability to my family to make money. I certainly do not feel rich, as I think I might be unable to work soon, and the money I have saved will not last forever.
Option 3 makes me feel the best, I feel like I could learn something new and have a new challenge. However, I don't know if it's even remotely doable to earn say 500k+, and if Google would be even interested at all by hiring someone like me.
So anyway, that's my situation. I feel lost, and any advice would be higly appreciated!
- mtmail 9y agoWith 1 MM+ per year past earnings do you technically have to work at all? Can you take a sabbatical to recharge?
- algoguy 9y agoI could take a sabbatical, yes. However, I fear my skills would completely collapse, and then I would not be employable at all. It would certinly be very hard to come back to the industry. I have enough money to take time off, but not enough to retire. My fear is therefore that I would take time off, would really struggle to get back to work, and if I were able to, would earn a tenth of what I was making before and would feel like I've regressed a lot.
- moocow01 9y agoWithout knowing you to me it seems that maybe your biggest obstacle is letting go of the idea that money/salary equals a measure of personal or professional development. If what you want to do is switch industries and learn new stuff, you should do exactly that and be ok with whatever salary comes with that change. If for some reason your family requires you to be making a very high salary that situation needs to be adjusted to be way more reasonable anyways. Overall I think that maybe you are feeling trapped by a high salary in a not so positive employment situation - I personally wouldn't qualify that as being rich. Perhaps think about using whatever assets you have amassed to change your situation while scaling down your financial obligations so you can take any job that looks exciting.
- algoguy 9y agoThanks for your reply. I think your advice is reasonable, and I've been trying to get my family to lower the expenses (which they have been receptive to try and do). What you say is reasonable, but it feels scary for me to take the plunge. In particular, say I take a 10 times salary reduction, and discover 2 years in that the new job is actually as boring as the old one. I'm afraid of feeling even worse then...
- zapperdapper 9y agoIt may be the new job is just as boring, in which case the only difference is the money. On the other hand you are very unhappy where you are so isn't it worth forgoing the money, in the hope that you do find something more appealing?
- askafriend 9y agoIf you're already 15 years deep into your career then I would say to suck the quant industry dry of all the money you possibly can with your expertise before you switch to something else that you'd enjoy. $1mm+ is no joke and a very very rare opportunity. Don't be a sucker. If you must, take option #2 - get that $1mm, and then exit. This isn't the most wholesome suggestion I've given, but given the harsh realities of the world and capitalism at large, you must protect yourself with money. Form an exit plan, set aside a large cash reserve so that you technically never have to work a day in your life ever again, and then chase your passions and explore all the other things the world has to offer.
- algoguy 9y agoThanks for your advice, I appreciate your input. It sounds reasonable, and that's sort of where my mind has been at for a few years. I'm getting to the point where I struggle to see myself doing it anymore, but I am not indeed in a situation where I have enough money aside (the high compensation I have is only in the last couple of years). But maybe you're right, maybe I should suck it up and try to be thankful for the opportunity to make money, in spite of how much I hate that job.
- consz 9y agoAs someone in this industry, I agree with this post 100%. There is absolutely no moral qualms about doing this -- take as much compensation as the industry can possibly bear and get out afterwards.
- zapperdapper 9y agoYep, option 2 sounds like the best bet.
- jotjotzzz 9y agoFriend, you may have already answered your question here. There are an abundant amount of reasons as to why someone would lose interest, disengage, or suffer motivation evaporation. If you lack the motivation to learn and improve in your job, it is only a matter of time that you can last in it, as you are experiencing now. You have done that soul-searching and found, to your dismay that you may want something else. Since your skillsets may be transferable to other industries, why not go ahead and do it. Your situation is very similar to what I have gone through, so in a way, this message is also one I'm writing for myself: Your fear, the question that is stopping you is the sudden shift in lifestyle because perhaps you may get paid less than what you are making now. You can prepare for this, as everyone already stated, by saving as much as you can before your next endeavor. Though you also need to strip away your ego because I know you will see this as a move down, starting from the bottom again. The question you keep asking yourself is, can I continue to do this every day, trade away my time for money doing what I no longer enjoy? Your soul is answering this by saying, I'm not interested in this anymore, why are you still here? So I mean, you just need to figure out who you're listening to, your ego or your true self. (In my case, I did receive a temporary cut in pay, but I enjoyed what I did day-to-day. And having a massive cloud over you versus feeling light-hearted every day is night and day. Also now I am paid even more than what I had been making before, and my expertise in the other industry provided me with insights in my current industry).
- algoguy 9y agoThanks for sharing your experience. I find it very hard to know when the moment to say "stop" comes, but yeah, I think I have to say it at some point.
- zapperdapper 9y agoIt sounds like if you don't say stop, they will say stop for you.
- ApolloRising 9y agoA different approach may be to find out why you did so well for a long time and now think you are not able to do so? This is not my expertise but why do you feel you are worse at your job now?
- algoguy 9y agoI think what happened is imposteur syndrome, coupled with doing probably a little too well, too fast. I felt a bit of a fraud, that I was merely copying other's ideas, not really bringing too much to the company, and was just lucky to be leading the most successful team of the company (people had quit, and I was promoted because there was a vacant position). I also felt that I had not much more to achieve, and therefore that I had no challenge to solve. I completely disengaged and felt I had to hide the fact that I was just lucky/copying other people. That made me feel that I had to play politics to hide my shortcomings, and made me disengage even more from the technical side. I feel it would be quite a bit of mental effort to get back on the technical side, but I also feel I would fail if I did so. Younger guys come out of university, work 14+ hours a day and are more skilled than me already in some areas. Also, I started to have kids at about the time things started to go downhill, and I think that played a very large role: I became much less interested in spending so much of my time at work, focusing on making money and not helping anyone real...