5 ms·

Ask HN: Who here feels their work is relevant and what do you do?

7 points by mezod 9y ago

cimmanom 9y ago
What does "relevant" mean? Relevant to what?
- cuchoi 9y ago
  Maybe she meant meaningful?
  - ajeet_dhaliwal 9y ago
    I think you’re right. Also I’m guessing the answer changes depending on whether the boss is asking or a friend. David Graeber isn’t right about everything but look up his book ‘bullshit jobs’, spoiler alert, a lot of people think their jobs are meaningless or even totally useless. The more meaningless it feels the more the pay.
    - mars4rp 9y ago
      who can explain that? so the more meaningful and interesting jobs are more people want to do it, so the pay comes down?
vfulco 9y ago
After 24 years on Wall Street in various capacities, I am now in Shanghai, China. It took a personal tragedy for me to re-invent myself but currently I am assisting people globally by resume editing, LinkedIn Profile creation, interview coaching and final edit and review of academic applications to overseas universities. The work is deeply satisfying vs. my prior role making rich people a little richer. And I guesstimate, with proper use of technology, I still have 4-5x revenue potential until I need to find more staff and layer on some new biz lines.
muzani 9y ago
System analyst. It's the sweet spot between manager and developer. I think the most important role is someone who can say to the client that they can't do something impossible. This person can't be the developer themselves. And they need to back it with facts. It was really hard to do this as a developer because it would take a week to gather the facts to explain that something can't be done in a week. So they'd be unhappy that we spent the week on meetings instead of work. This work also directly makes it easier for developers to do work and easier for managers to schedule tasks. It's also a near irreplaceable role - it would take at least a month to train a new SA's technical skills and a few months for them to understand the user wishlist as well as why the limitations are limitations.

7 points by mezod 9y ago

cimmanom 9y ago

What does "relevant" mean? Relevant to what?

cuchoi 9y ago
Maybe she meant meaningful?
- ajeet_dhaliwal 9y ago
  I think you’re right. Also I’m guessing the answer changes depending on whether the boss is asking or a friend. David Graeber isn’t right about everything but look up his book ‘bullshit jobs’, spoiler alert, a lot of people think their jobs are meaningless or even totally useless. The more meaningless it feels the more the pay.
  - mars4rp 9y ago
    who can explain that? so the more meaningful and interesting jobs are more people want to do it, so the pay comes down?

vfulco 9y ago

After 24 years on Wall Street in various capacities, I am now in Shanghai, China. It took a personal tragedy for me to re-invent myself but currently I am assisting people globally by resume editing, LinkedIn Profile creation, interview coaching and final edit and review of academic applications to overseas universities. The work is deeply satisfying vs. my prior role making rich people a little richer. And I guesstimate, with proper use of technology, I still have 4-5x revenue potential until I need to find more staff and layer on some new biz lines.

muzani 9y ago

System analyst. It's the sweet spot between manager and developer. I think the most important role is someone who can say to the client that they can't do something impossible. This person can't be the developer themselves. And they need to back it with facts. It was really hard to do this as a developer because it would take a week to gather the facts to explain that something can't be done in a week. So they'd be unhappy that we spent the week on meetings instead of work. This work also directly makes it easier for developers to do work and easier for managers to schedule tasks. It's also a near irreplaceable role - it would take at least a month to train a new SA's technical skills and a few months for them to understand the user wishlist as well as why the limitations are limitations.