3 ms·

Ask HN: Advice about Wanting to Change Careers

Hello. I'm a computer science researcher working for a large multinational company in Silicon Valley. While I enjoy working with my colleagues and I feel treated with respect, the "publish or perish" pressures are real, with requirements to produce a certain number of patent disclosures and academic papers per year in order to satisfactorily pass our performance reviews. At times it can be difficult reaching these goals due to unknowns in the research process and matters beyond my control (such as paper rejections). I'm considering making a career change. I enjoy computer science research and I want to contribute to science, but due to the publish-or-perish pressures of industry and academia I would prefer to pursue research as a side activity rather than as a job. My dream is to work on topics related to my intellectual interests, such as programming languages and operating systems. However, pursuing research as a side hobby instead of as a job means I need to come up with another way of making a living, one that provides enough time for me to pursue my research on the side. I considered becoming a non-tenure track lecturer at a California State University campus, but I discovered that the pay is based on how many courses one teaches per semester, and there is no guarantee of the university offering its lecturers a full-time teaching load (4 classes per semester), which runs the risk of dealing with very low income in a very high cost of living area. Another idea that I'm considering is starting my own software business. It won't be a VC-funded startup; rather, it would be either a consultancy or it will offer software. However, I have been struggling to come up with business ideas. I'm curious to hear about other people's opinions. I'm an active Hacker News reader but I'm posting on a throwaway account to preserve my anonymity.

bruce511 3y ago
Have you considered a different university? Somewhere where the cost of living is more in line with the salary? The big advantage of academia I general is in how much free time you have. Classes are more-or-less only 6 months of the year, and there's very little prep work from year 2. Even 4 classes a day is only like half the day. In the business world you're looking at min of 40 hours a week (much, much more if you're scrabbling for income), maybe a couple weeks vacation a year (in which, trust me, the last thing you'll want yo do is research.) Sounds to me like you're already in a perfect gig for doing what you want to do, you just need to figure out how to make it work for you. Or switch to the next best thing, research + teaching.
- throwaway21042 3y ago
  Thank you for your input; I’m the OP. Based on reading the comments, I’ve realized that starting a full-fledged business may be counterproductive to my goals of wanting free time to pursue unfettered research due to the demands of starting a business with any hope of replacing my Silicon Valley researcher salary, due to the time investment necessary to start such a business. However, I’m interested in pursuing side ventures for making money, such as side projects. Even if they doesn’t generate enough profit for me to live on, it may be enough for me to eventually shift to a lecturer position without incurring too much financial hardship, which will also give me more time to do the type of research I want (especially during the summers). If I’m able to make even just $20,000/yr from a side project that doesn’t consume too much of my time, that would go a long way for me for reaching this goal.
dilippkumar 3y ago
> However, I have been struggling to come up with business ideas. My email is in my HN profile. Shoot me an email, I’m happy to share my worksheet in exchange for feedback.
serjester 3y ago
I can't speak to career advice, but I would advise against starting a business. I've started more than I can count. It's long. It's a slog. And you're most likely going to fail. In my opinion start a business if you simply can't imagine yourself doing anything else.
- bruce511 3y ago
  More to the point, starting a business will leave you very little time (read: no time) to do any esoteric research [1]. Starting a business consumes -all- your time. It's usually long hours for little pay [1]. [1] for the first 10 years or so anyway. If you can use that time to build a passive-income product, or get big enough so effectively employees are doing your work, then you'll have lots of free time to work on whatever you like. But it's a long play.
- skyyler 3y ago
  I'm going insane trying to work for other people. I think it's about time to try a business.
dafzal 3y ago
> in order to satisfactorily pass our performance reviews. Stop caring about promo cycles and treat your job as a paycheck. There is always another rung on the never ending ladder and your surroundings will always pressure you to push and climb to the next rung. But you don't have to accept this ladder and can disconnect from it. The pressure if artificial, the worst thing that can happen is you get fired in which case you find something else. It's ok, that doesn't seem that bad. You have a steady paycheck which allows you to pay your rent and work on cool things. You lose that when you start a business. While you gain freedom and flexibility, you face the real pressures of making payroll and rent. I'm around to chat more if you want. My whatapp in in my profile.
vbh21 3y ago
I would suggest pursuing your own business. I have a Master’s in CS from a big school and worked in a similar job as yours and got tired of it. What has helped me is moving away to my parents’ house to save money, and pursuing my online startup for a while..:) Good luck.

bruce511 3y ago

Have you considered a different university? Somewhere where the cost of living is more in line with the salary? The big advantage of academia I general is in how much free time you have. Classes are more-or-less only 6 months of the year, and there's very little prep work from year 2. Even 4 classes a day is only like half the day. In the business world you're looking at min of 40 hours a week (much, much more if you're scrabbling for income), maybe a couple weeks vacation a year (in which, trust me, the last thing you'll want yo do is research.) Sounds to me like you're already in a perfect gig for doing what you want to do, you just need to figure out how to make it work for you. Or switch to the next best thing, research + teaching.

throwaway21042 3y ago
Thank you for your input; I’m the OP. Based on reading the comments, I’ve realized that starting a full-fledged business may be counterproductive to my goals of wanting free time to pursue unfettered research due to the demands of starting a business with any hope of replacing my Silicon Valley researcher salary, due to the time investment necessary to start such a business. However, I’m interested in pursuing side ventures for making money, such as side projects. Even if they doesn’t generate enough profit for me to live on, it may be enough for me to eventually shift to a lecturer position without incurring too much financial hardship, which will also give me more time to do the type of research I want (especially during the summers). If I’m able to make even just $20,000/yr from a side project that doesn’t consume too much of my time, that would go a long way for me for reaching this goal.

dilippkumar 3y ago

> However, I have been struggling to come up with business ideas. My email is in my HN profile. Shoot me an email, I’m happy to share my worksheet in exchange for feedback.

serjester 3y ago

I can't speak to career advice, but I would advise against starting a business. I've started more than I can count. It's long. It's a slog. And you're most likely going to fail. In my opinion start a business if you simply can't imagine yourself doing anything else.

bruce511 3y ago
More to the point, starting a business will leave you very little time (read: no time) to do any esoteric research [1]. Starting a business consumes -all- your time. It's usually long hours for little pay [1]. [1] for the first 10 years or so anyway. If you can use that time to build a passive-income product, or get big enough so effectively employees are doing your work, then you'll have lots of free time to work on whatever you like. But it's a long play.
skyyler 3y ago
I'm going insane trying to work for other people. I think it's about time to try a business.

dafzal 3y ago

> in order to satisfactorily pass our performance reviews. Stop caring about promo cycles and treat your job as a paycheck. There is always another rung on the never ending ladder and your surroundings will always pressure you to push and climb to the next rung. But you don't have to accept this ladder and can disconnect from it. The pressure if artificial, the worst thing that can happen is you get fired in which case you find something else. It's ok, that doesn't seem that bad. You have a steady paycheck which allows you to pay your rent and work on cool things. You lose that when you start a business. While you gain freedom and flexibility, you face the real pressures of making payroll and rent. I'm around to chat more if you want. My whatapp in in my profile.

vbh21 3y ago

I would suggest pursuing your own business. I have a Master’s in CS from a big school and worked in a similar job as yours and got tired of it. What has helped me is moving away to my parents’ house to save money, and pursuing my online startup for a while..:) Good luck.