6 ms·

I worked at a startup as the first Dev, it was a shock for me having to now consider things like: * What company laptops to buy? * Assess the merits of AWS an

I worked at a startup as the first Dev, it was a shock for me having to now consider things like: * What company laptops to buy? * Assess the merits of AWS and GCP and make a decision. * Divine an architecture that will get the product to the customers ASAP but will last at least a year with growth before needing a major rethink. * Present to customers, board members and potential investors about the tech. Eventually I was coding around 60% and doing these other things around 40% of my time. I guess this would be what a CTO does, so it was a great taster for me however I did get burned out with it after a year (plus working in London was taking its toll as well). For any developer who is quite senior, I would recommend trying it. I learned a lot about myself.

asah 7y ago
Y this is exactly what a startup CTO does... and more!
jermaustin1 7y ago
What about London took its toll? I've been contemplating a switch from NYC to London. I know it will be a 30-50% pay cut, but I've been told by other's who have lived and worked in both that it is worth it for the better work/life balance.
- mseidl 7y ago
  I'm German, but was working in the US, but gave up the higher pay to the better health care, and quality of life in Germany.
  - ChicagoBoy11 7y ago
    Cries in NYC with mediocre employer-provided health insurance
  - Dumblydorr 7y ago
    I'd be interested in a write up or blog post of what things specifically were you weighing, pros and cons and numbers. Too often I hear of European healthcare being cheaper but I never see case by case details. My experience as a healthy person in US is mixed. I rarely need things, but it is hard to navigate the complex insurance business when I do try to get things. I see many people, meanwhile, one accident or illness and it sets them back a long way financially.
- roberttod 7y ago
  I worked in London for 7 years, now in NYC for 3 years. London's definitely better for work life balance. I've managed to find a great balance here in NYC after trying hard to do that but struggle to find friends/colleagues that get it. In London you'll find plenty of talented and smart people that don't feel like working beyond 6pm is acceptable.
- esotericn 7y ago
  London is probably easier than NYC having lived in London and visited NYC. Both are pretty... 'fast paced', for lack of a better term. I've just moved out of London after being there for 5 years - the income required to have a decent standard of living is just getting daft, especially if you care about others around you and not just yourself.
- dastx 7y ago
  Londoner here. I've never worked in NYC but having been there for pleasure I can tell you things like commuting will be a lot easier (possibly even cheaper? Weekly tickets will set you back 35 quid if you commute from zone 1 and 2). My wife is American and recently quit her job with Delta (she's done both office jobs there and she's also flown as an FA). And based on her experience I can tell you you'll have a much better work life balance. This is especially if you're planning to work as a limited company contractor* as your responsibilities don't go beyond your contracted obligations. Having said all of that, Brexit is coming up so no one is really sure what is going on. * be careful if you do contract, if you do, read up on IR35 as that's about to shake up the contracting industry for private companies.
  - C1sc0cat 7y ago
    More typically you will be commuting from further out Zones 1 and 2 properties are SV levels of expensive - your looking at £4k to 5k year for a season ticket from an affordable area.
    - leoedin 7y ago
      There's plenty of affordable areas in zone 2 and 3 which have average rents considerably less than SV (a 1 bed flat might be £1100-£1400/month). Annual travel within zone 3 is £1648. It's really not comparable, especially since the pound dropped 20% after the Brexit referendum.
      - C1sc0cat 7y ago
        I would imagine the original commenter moving from NYC to London isn't going to be interested in renting some tiny one bed studio flat and living on ramen. I was talking about buying - why throw rent money away.
        ukoki 7y ago
        > I was talking about buying - why throw rent money away. London has some of the lowest rental yields in the UK, especially as you move towards the higher end of the market. Renting is merely "very expensive", compared to buying which is "very, very expensive".
- new_here 7y ago
  Haven't worked in NYC but I've worked in London for 3.5 years and am in the process of leaving/going remote because I don't rate the quality of life here at all and I'm exhausted from it. Things that take its toll for me: 1. Too. Many. People. You can barely book a restaurant or get a seat anywhere. 2. Nothing works. Trains, airports and mobile network reception. 3. Commuting. Rush hour is crowded, the tubes are disgusting, getting anywhere across town takes at least an hour so you rarely want to risk trekking somewhere unless you know it will be worthwhile/you can get in. 4. Renting / moving house is super stressful. Estate agents are constantly exploiting you. A whole bunch of my friends raved about London a few years ago which is why I came out but I don't think it is what it used to be. That being said, there is a lot of opportunity here and you can earn well if you hustle. I'd suggest you look at starting out as a contractor. I think there are better places to live and work in tech, in other European cities like Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam.
  - dnate 7y ago
    shh berlin sucks don't go there
  - C1sc0cat 7y ago
    Never had a problem getting a set in a restaurant in London - and Compared to NYC the Tube is heaven. Typical Londoner complains that they have to wait up to 10 minutes for a bus - compared to the rest of the UK where you might get two busses an hour and they stop running after 6:30.
  - catchmilk 7y ago
    Been on HN for over a year, never created an account, but I just had to reply to this. Where in the hell have you been living? 1. Barely book a restaurant? London is so over-saturated with restaurants/bars/pubs, one can barely keep up. I've been living in London for 7 years and there's still an abundance of places my friends and me want to try. I can _maybe_ remember once or twice that we couldn't book due to it being full - but those were overly fancy places. 2. You've got to be kidding me. You mean the tube that comes every 2 minutes? Or the express trains to every airport (apart from Luton) that are spot on most of the time? I've traveled around America, Europe and Africa - London airports are by far some of the most efficient ones I've encountered (again, apart from Luton. Luton can suck it) 3. Is commute enjoyable anywhere in the world? You're talking as if people in Stockholm or Berlin loved sitting in public transport next to strangers for 30 min straight. 4. Point taken. The real estate market is one of the worst industries here, agents suck. That's what happens when a city has such high demand and barely any supply. I've seen people complain about a lot of things in London, but never #1 or #2 like you. Pretty unrealistic view of the city.
- mothsonasloth 7y ago
  Public transport, the London "bubble" which people get trapped in, drinking culture which I don't like, high income / high expenditure lifestyle.
bgnm2000 7y ago
I have a side project running on Dark, highly recommend
- codesternews 7y ago
  How do you keep motivated?
lucb1e 7y ago
That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect to do in a technical position in a small company.
qes 7y ago
I'm a CTO at a 30-ish person company and yep this is my job. Lots of development, but also handling all the infrastructure and ops for a long time (I'm able to offload more to other devs these days). I still primarily code but also do lots of long term tech strategy like cloud? and which, as well as business planning with the rest of our leadership level, hiring, training new devs, keeping all the devs up to date with new stuff, breaking down and delegating work, reviewing code, monitoring & alerting and understanding a system that's practically a living organism and being able to anticipate trouble spots rising, planning and executing what are sometimes multi-year efforts (e.g., significantly refactoring major parts of a 10+ year old code base). Personally, I like it, though it has its difficulties. It also makes me an exceptionally valuable person for this size of company - big enough to really need breadth and depth of experience, but not in a position to have several tech people with a decade or two of experience. Find the right company (I was lucky to) and it's a golden ticket.

asah 7y ago

Y this is exactly what a startup CTO does... and more!

jermaustin1 7y ago

What about London took its toll? I've been contemplating a switch from NYC to London. I know it will be a 30-50% pay cut, but I've been told by other's who have lived and worked in both that it is worth it for the better work/life balance.

mseidl 7y ago
I'm German, but was working in the US, but gave up the higher pay to the better health care, and quality of life in Germany.
- ChicagoBoy11 7y ago
  Cries in NYC with mediocre employer-provided health insurance
- Dumblydorr 7y ago
  I'd be interested in a write up or blog post of what things specifically were you weighing, pros and cons and numbers. Too often I hear of European healthcare being cheaper but I never see case by case details. My experience as a healthy person in US is mixed. I rarely need things, but it is hard to navigate the complex insurance business when I do try to get things. I see many people, meanwhile, one accident or illness and it sets them back a long way financially.
roberttod 7y ago
I worked in London for 7 years, now in NYC for 3 years. London's definitely better for work life balance. I've managed to find a great balance here in NYC after trying hard to do that but struggle to find friends/colleagues that get it. In London you'll find plenty of talented and smart people that don't feel like working beyond 6pm is acceptable.
esotericn 7y ago
London is probably easier than NYC having lived in London and visited NYC. Both are pretty... 'fast paced', for lack of a better term. I've just moved out of London after being there for 5 years - the income required to have a decent standard of living is just getting daft, especially if you care about others around you and not just yourself.
dastx 7y ago
Londoner here. I've never worked in NYC but having been there for pleasure I can tell you things like commuting will be a lot easier (possibly even cheaper? Weekly tickets will set you back 35 quid if you commute from zone 1 and 2). My wife is American and recently quit her job with Delta (she's done both office jobs there and she's also flown as an FA). And based on her experience I can tell you you'll have a much better work life balance. This is especially if you're planning to work as a limited company contractor* as your responsibilities don't go beyond your contracted obligations. Having said all of that, Brexit is coming up so no one is really sure what is going on. * be careful if you do contract, if you do, read up on IR35 as that's about to shake up the contracting industry for private companies.
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  More typically you will be commuting from further out Zones 1 and 2 properties are SV levels of expensive - your looking at £4k to 5k year for a season ticket from an affordable area.
  - leoedin 7y ago
    There's plenty of affordable areas in zone 2 and 3 which have average rents considerably less than SV (a 1 bed flat might be £1100-£1400/month). Annual travel within zone 3 is £1648. It's really not comparable, especially since the pound dropped 20% after the Brexit referendum.
    - C1sc0cat 7y ago
      I would imagine the original commenter moving from NYC to London isn't going to be interested in renting some tiny one bed studio flat and living on ramen. I was talking about buying - why throw rent money away.
      - ukoki 7y ago
        > I was talking about buying - why throw rent money away. London has some of the lowest rental yields in the UK, especially as you move towards the higher end of the market. Renting is merely "very expensive", compared to buying which is "very, very expensive".
new_here 7y ago
Haven't worked in NYC but I've worked in London for 3.5 years and am in the process of leaving/going remote because I don't rate the quality of life here at all and I'm exhausted from it. Things that take its toll for me: 1. Too. Many. People. You can barely book a restaurant or get a seat anywhere. 2. Nothing works. Trains, airports and mobile network reception. 3. Commuting. Rush hour is crowded, the tubes are disgusting, getting anywhere across town takes at least an hour so you rarely want to risk trekking somewhere unless you know it will be worthwhile/you can get in. 4. Renting / moving house is super stressful. Estate agents are constantly exploiting you. A whole bunch of my friends raved about London a few years ago which is why I came out but I don't think it is what it used to be. That being said, there is a lot of opportunity here and you can earn well if you hustle. I'd suggest you look at starting out as a contractor. I think there are better places to live and work in tech, in other European cities like Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam.
- dnate 7y ago
  shh berlin sucks don't go there
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  Never had a problem getting a set in a restaurant in London - and Compared to NYC the Tube is heaven. Typical Londoner complains that they have to wait up to 10 minutes for a bus - compared to the rest of the UK where you might get two busses an hour and they stop running after 6:30.
- catchmilk 7y ago
  Been on HN for over a year, never created an account, but I just had to reply to this. Where in the hell have you been living? 1. Barely book a restaurant? London is so over-saturated with restaurants/bars/pubs, one can barely keep up. I've been living in London for 7 years and there's still an abundance of places my friends and me want to try. I can _maybe_ remember once or twice that we couldn't book due to it being full - but those were overly fancy places. 2. You've got to be kidding me. You mean the tube that comes every 2 minutes? Or the express trains to every airport (apart from Luton) that are spot on most of the time? I've traveled around America, Europe and Africa - London airports are by far some of the most efficient ones I've encountered (again, apart from Luton. Luton can suck it) 3. Is commute enjoyable anywhere in the world? You're talking as if people in Stockholm or Berlin loved sitting in public transport next to strangers for 30 min straight. 4. Point taken. The real estate market is one of the worst industries here, agents suck. That's what happens when a city has such high demand and barely any supply. I've seen people complain about a lot of things in London, but never #1 or #2 like you. Pretty unrealistic view of the city.
mothsonasloth 7y ago
Public transport, the London "bubble" which people get trapped in, drinking culture which I don't like, high income / high expenditure lifestyle.

bgnm2000 7y ago

I have a side project running on Dark, highly recommend

codesternews 7y ago
How do you keep motivated?

lucb1e 7y ago

That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect to do in a technical position in a small company.

qes 7y ago

I'm a CTO at a 30-ish person company and yep this is my job. Lots of development, but also handling all the infrastructure and ops for a long time (I'm able to offload more to other devs these days). I still primarily code but also do lots of long term tech strategy like cloud? and which, as well as business planning with the rest of our leadership level, hiring, training new devs, keeping all the devs up to date with new stuff, breaking down and delegating work, reviewing code, monitoring & alerting and understanding a system that's practically a living organism and being able to anticipate trouble spots rising, planning and executing what are sometimes multi-year efforts (e.g., significantly refactoring major parts of a 10+ year old code base). Personally, I like it, though it has its difficulties. It also makes me an exceptionally valuable person for this size of company - big enough to really need breadth and depth of experience, but not in a position to have several tech people with a decade or two of experience. Find the right company (I was lucky to) and it's a golden ticket.