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The flip side of this advice is that unless you really don't mind being tied to a single metro center, try to avoid becoming too specialized. Even if you like t
by dcolkitt 6y ago
The flip side of this advice is that unless you really don't mind being tied to a single metro center, try to avoid becoming too specialized. Even if you like the city, one problem is that even during industry boom times, rising cost of living is likely to eat most of your career gains.
If you're going to bet your whole career on an unrivaled mastery of the minutiae of Postgres performance, then you better like the Bay Area. If your focus is to be a maestro of credit derivative trading, then I hope you don't mind spending your life in New York.
But general-purpose skills like sales, management, and accounting are likely to be valued almost everywhere. And therefore give you the freedom to live nearly anywhere. It might be scoffed down by the ultra-skilled industry professionals. But a guy who knows how to run an ice cream shop in many senses has a lot more career freedom and stability than a Google engineer or Goldman trader.
- throwawaygh 6y agoOn the other hand, mid-tier accounting has a two year part-time ramp-up time for an otherwise experienced professional. From world-class $db expert to... $generic_backend_dev... has, what? a few weeks of figure out how to chameleon to the local interview culture? > But a guy who knows how to run an ice cream shop in many senses has a lot more career freedom and stability than a Google engineer or Goldman trader. Yeah, probably a lot of ice cream vendors in the midwest right now who are really glad that they're not Goldman traders!
- msh 6y agoI cant see your point, I dont know enought about goldman traders but I am certain that a google engineer can get a random senior dev job as easy, if not easier, than a random ice cream shop manager can get another job paying as well as a dev job.