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Ask HN: What to do if you are not Heads Down?
Over the last decade I have been writing code, and have been pretty good at collecting a pay check as an engineer, or engineering consultant.
However I have been noticing that maybe not matter how much I am able to do something maybe it's not what I am best at, or maybe what I am best at is changing.
When I was young I was easily 'filled up' sitting down stairs in a basement hacking away at code or fixing a computer or maybe breaking one would be more correct. Today, however, I don't feel like that's me anymore.
I also used to do very well in school, both engineering school and in art school. I was top of my class in design and once I made the switch to computer engineering I was at the top of my class and often times challenged the teachers in class and won.
This all circles back to how I have changed and how I am not sure I want to be an engineer any more.
I want to do something where I have more of a say around the product, it's design and how it's marketed. Maybe that means I have to be a founder, but maybe there is a role I could move into to be happy, and learn something new in the process.
Have any of you made the shift out of engineering into another role that made you happy? How do you do it? I have tried to get product jobs before, but they usually want someone with that experience on their resume.
I have had a few people recommend me for evangelist roles, but I am not sure that would feed my hunger to create great projects.
what advice can you give? for someone that wants to contribute more to a product than just with lines of code?
- baremetal 16y agoSounds like you should be a founder. I found myself in a similar position a couple of years back, and yes becoming a founder did make me more happy and fulfilled.
- throwaway_11 16y agoThe current company I am at now has been having revenue issues, so I started lining up meetings with executives. The CEO seemed happy with it, but today I ended up missed a rough timeline, and the CTO came down on me. ( operationally not important code ) I know I could bunker in and get the code done quick, but I feel like the company is now just trying to leverage my connections long enough to make a sale or a pivot and not reward me for it anyways. I am just sick of being an employee. I guess if my luck was better earlier on, or if i was a better sales closer maybe one of the startups i was working on would still be here. On the upside i have meet so many great people while working at all of these companies. If i could figure out how to raise money this time i bet i could build a kick ass team and product. I have a product and a pitch, but i don't know anyone who can afford to quite their job right now to be a co-founder. Can you pitch alone. Otherwise I need to keep working on it on the side.