Ask YC: What's your day job?
I'm interested in what day jobs hackers on here have? I'd like to see what the mix of people working IT related jobs with side projects vs non IT related jobs with side projects. IT being the usual admin, developer and designer type positions.
And its always interesting in general to see what other people do for a living.
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Startup.
Before this one, I had another one for seven years (at some point it stopped being a startup and became a very modestly successful lifestyle business, which wasn't really what I was aiming for, so I shut it down). And when I get bored with this one, I'll start another.
I've frequently done contract work, on the side, to make ends meet. Even some quite long projects with great small companies--including another startup. But I've always known I would own my own business...since I was a kid. And I've always planned and acted accordingly.
Before this one, I had another one for seven years (at some point it stopped being a startup and became a very modestly successful lifestyle business, which wasn't really what I was aiming for, so I shut it down). And when I get bored with this one, I'll start another.
I've frequently done contract work, on the side, to make ends meet. Even some quite long projects with great small companies--including another startup. But I've always known I would own my own business...since I was a kid. And I've always planned and acted accordingly.
Just out of curiosity, why did you shut the "very modestly successful lifestyle business" down instead of selling it ? Obviously such businesses are hard to sell to the usual business purchasers (VCs or those business guys who buy franchises or whatever), but you can often find an relative or in-law or local stay-at-home mom who is willing to run it. You might have to be "on call" to consult and help them through problems. Was the business really so specialized that only you could do it ?
Myself, I currently work as a freelance programmer, and do some sys admin work to make ends meet while I try to get my other ideas under way. However, I am going to have to change something, as it is taking up more and more time and making less and less money. If I could get a job as a programmer where they were willing to let me work 2 or 3 days a week for proportionate pay, I think I would take it at this point.
Myself, I currently work as a freelance programmer, and do some sys admin work to make ends meet while I try to get my other ideas under way. However, I am going to have to change something, as it is taking up more and more time and making less and less money. If I could get a job as a programmer where they were willing to let me work 2 or 3 days a week for proportionate pay, I think I would take it at this point.
Was the business really so specialized that only you could do it ?
Yes, unless I sold it to someone who was roughly just like me, which narrowed it down to a half dozen people. It was an Open Source based business, and a big part of its appeal was the fact that a well-known developer on the project was the one supporting the systems and software.
Selling it would have taken more time for a questionable payout. I wanted to move on to other things as soon as possible (and while it's taken a little over three years, one of those other things is now able to pay about the same as the old business when I left it).
Yes, unless I sold it to someone who was roughly just like me, which narrowed it down to a half dozen people. It was an Open Source based business, and a big part of its appeal was the fact that a well-known developer on the project was the one supporting the systems and software.
Selling it would have taken more time for a questionable payout. I wanted to move on to other things as soon as possible (and while it's taken a little over three years, one of those other things is now able to pay about the same as the old business when I left it).
So you moved on to multiple things?
I accepted that what I was doing was no longer making me happy, so I started trying other things.
I notified all of my customers (including a couple of long-term contract customers) that I was leaving the business, and spent a year or so tinkering with other projects that I'd started while running the old company. I knew I had several support contracts still outstanding, so I couldn't do anything serious for another year, anywa...so I spent the time tinkering and thinking about what I would really love working on.
One of them was Virtualmin, and after some thought, I realized it was the thing I enjoyed most--I'd been doing it pretty much entirely for fun, and the only thing preventing me from calling it a business was an assumption that the market was already saturated with products in that space. Turns out I was wrong; the other products in the space are bad enough, and the industry is big enough ($20-$40 billion worldwide depending on who you believe, though hosting is a mostly private equity industry, so very few public numbers exist) that following Paul Buchheit's advice of, "add 'done right' to the end of just about anything", works out fine.
During the tinkering phase, I also started building a simple Ruby on Rails app (yet another "disk space on the web" project, along the lines of Dropbox, though I didn't really solve the client-side, or try to...I was thinking DAV was the solution to that), I spent some time doing the math on a content filtering product I'd developed during the life of the old company (also a big industry, but not one I enjoyed), and thought about a number of other ideas. A wiki, a dating site, and a site for getting Open Source project features developed called Ransomware.com (this one probably would have been the winner had it not been Virtualmin--I still own the domain, and may do something with it for fun in a year or two).
Anyway, the important thing is that once I'd settled on Virtualmin as my next business, I dug in with a vengeance. Everything else was forgotten. In fact, I had to think pretty hard to remember what any of the other ideas and projects I tinkered with were when I started writing this reply.
I notified all of my customers (including a couple of long-term contract customers) that I was leaving the business, and spent a year or so tinkering with other projects that I'd started while running the old company. I knew I had several support contracts still outstanding, so I couldn't do anything serious for another year, anywa...so I spent the time tinkering and thinking about what I would really love working on.
One of them was Virtualmin, and after some thought, I realized it was the thing I enjoyed most--I'd been doing it pretty much entirely for fun, and the only thing preventing me from calling it a business was an assumption that the market was already saturated with products in that space. Turns out I was wrong; the other products in the space are bad enough, and the industry is big enough ($20-$40 billion worldwide depending on who you believe, though hosting is a mostly private equity industry, so very few public numbers exist) that following Paul Buchheit's advice of, "add 'done right' to the end of just about anything", works out fine.
During the tinkering phase, I also started building a simple Ruby on Rails app (yet another "disk space on the web" project, along the lines of Dropbox, though I didn't really solve the client-side, or try to...I was thinking DAV was the solution to that), I spent some time doing the math on a content filtering product I'd developed during the life of the old company (also a big industry, but not one I enjoyed), and thought about a number of other ideas. A wiki, a dating site, and a site for getting Open Source project features developed called Ransomware.com (this one probably would have been the winner had it not been Virtualmin--I still own the domain, and may do something with it for fun in a year or two).
Anyway, the important thing is that once I'd settled on Virtualmin as my next business, I dug in with a vengeance. Everything else was forgotten. In fact, I had to think pretty hard to remember what any of the other ideas and projects I tinkered with were when I started writing this reply.
programmer
(I remember a time when almost everyone here would have called themsevlves that. But now, we have 47 different words for "programmer".)
(I remember a time when almost everyone here would have called themsevlves that. But now, we have 47 different words for "programmer".)
I'm actually a Rockstar™ Developer.
I like "Code Monkey"
I always liked "Software simian"
If we're talking Dilbert I like webiot savant.
Rocket Surgeon
I do financial due diligence for M&A. Mostly on the buy-side. (with a webapp side project)
that's very cool. an investment banker hacking a webapp
Delicious. Or Amazon, if you go back further.
Is there any detailed information on what Bezos did for Shaw? I had always assumed he was a developer or similar there, too.
BitTorrent. Ashwin worked for Goldman Sachs.
ashwin didn't develop bittorent. he's the hired "marketing guy"
I press a little button every once in a while. If I don't the Earth's spin will slow down and everyone will die.
Consulting and contracting, with a variety of technologies. My profile has links to my pages, which have this information in more detail. Does yours?
There was a poll recently on this:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=223846
I'm, well, we run a startup. :-)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=223846
I'm, well, we run a startup. :-)
no day job here... "all in."
I'm a networking systems engineer but my heart is in software development. I've developed small programs to assist my day to day tasks, take part in open source projects, have written a blog or two to discuss technology as I see it and my book reading list is endless. In a year or two I see myself transitioning into the software side of the company after acquiring my degree and having some of those side projects to showcase what I can do. I guess I could say that I am currently and primarily a systems hacker by day-job, and software hacker by hobby with the goal of making it a profession.
Asking a question is great on HN, but you should preface it with your answer to your own question... not a hard and fast rule obviously, but for questions like this it would certainly be nice to hear about what you do too. :)
Asking a question is great on HN, but you should preface it with your answer to your own question... not a hard and fast rule obviously, but for questions like this it would certainly be nice to hear about what you do too. :)
Web designer & front-end developer at a startup.
Startupper and drawer of unemployment. Corporate parents shut the startup they bought down, consolidating their location, resulting in a lil' severance + 6-month paid vacation windfall for me.
Web/Software development business owner for the last 6 years. Previously all Microsoft dev. Currently a company of one (me) doing RoR.
Trying to get past analyzing my startup ideas to just doing them.
Trying to get past analyzing my startup ideas to just doing them.
Working out my exit-transition as a programmer/manager at a 300 person consulting shop. I have pretty heavy experience of Oracle and SQL Server based back-ends, batch processing etc., which long-term will make money, but it's not the way the world is going.
Planning to work iPhone software and web-apps. Including perhaps a boutique jobs boards, with the slogan "I personally apply for every job posted!", much like the people who start dating sites to "attract a mate".
Planning to work iPhone software and web-apps. Including perhaps a boutique jobs boards, with the slogan "I personally apply for every job posted!", much like the people who start dating sites to "attract a mate".
I just stopped working on my latest startup in the past two years (unfortunately for me, Microsoft announced they were going to do something very similar and it was enough to scare off my few investors).
I ended up signing on full time with my favorite consulting client as a practicing software architect for them. I get to solve problems with big data and drive the direction for all of their IT ops. It's fun, and I figure it'll do until the next big idea hits me.
I ended up signing on full time with my favorite consulting client as a practicing software architect for them. I get to solve problems with big data and drive the direction for all of their IT ops. It's fun, and I figure it'll do until the next big idea hits me.
Software Engineer at an early-stage startup in the Bay area. I was hired to do Python, but they want me to eventually learn C (which I am really looking forward to).
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Platform and developer network consultant to large companies and other start-ups, but I often end up giving advice on a wide variety of topics - development methodologies tru to blogging PR.
I'm probably a prime example of PG's "go all in" strategy rather than doing my project on "the side" as I'm essentially doing the same work for other people so that they can get ahead of me. :(
I'm probably a prime example of PG's "go all in" strategy rather than doing my project on "the side" as I'm essentially doing the same work for other people so that they can get ahead of me. :(
undergrad/Tim Hortons baker - but I don't plan on doing that forever
undergrad
I'm an audio programmer in the games industry. It's never been as glamourous as it sounds...
I have a full time gig as web developer, plus a blog that gets around 30-40k uniques per day. I'm also working on a charity-focused bodycare line and I have a screenplay under development. My current web project launches in September.
Building Architect
I was a Suit, used to do technical sales :-). Now working on my startup.
developer @ http://huddle.net
Undergraduate student and associate software engineer at an embedded systems startup (that just got bought recently). I also do some side work with some peers at my school.
Contract java monkey. Currently doing VoD. Would rather be working on erlang/python/openlaszlo web fun for my kids. Educational software is uniformly poor in this country.
Software developer for large (5 - 7 billion USD) non-tech manufacturing company. Currently investigating the local startup / small company scene for an upgrade, though.
Market Research Analyst by the day and Hacker by the night and weekends ;)
Does having a completely different kind of job help your hacking enthusiasm? I am still figuring that out.
Does having a completely different kind of job help your hacking enthusiasm? I am still figuring that out.
Dev at a large company for the next week, then I'm off to see the wizard. It's going to be a hard transition, trading very cool projects for independence.
Developer for a small financial software startup in Boston.
BTW... We are hiring and are having a real hard time finding good developers. Shoot me your resume if interested.
BTW... We are hiring and are having a real hard time finding good developers. Shoot me your resume if interested.
I previously worked as a trader for KeyBanc Capital Markets and a broker for Banc of America Investment Services. I have now reentered academia.
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Software developer in a large company.
Software Developer in a once small startup company which has been growing by buying other startups. Now we are a becoming mid-sized enterprise with all the disadvantages of a small company combined with all the disadvantages of a large one.
Software Engineer at a large company.
Undergrad. and part-time Project Coordinator at a Fortune 5. I work on blogs, wikis, forums, etc.
Manager / Owner of a small but growing design, development & marketing company..
IT/Programmer Contractor - 2-3 days.
My startup - the rest of my waking hours.
I'm a front-end/back-end web developer/pr/web marketer at a startup.
Freelancer, python web stuff, with my own project on the side.
Client Support Administrator for the United States Air Force
Software Development (mostly web + ivr and telephony stuff)
Web Development Consultant but working on my first startup.
CS Grad. Student/Part time PL/SQL guy - With side-project.
Rails developer for a DoD contractor plus side projects
Why does the words "Rails" and "DoD" freak me out all of a sudden?
finishing med school
previously - electrical design engineer
current - full time phd student
current - full time phd student
I test videogames.
Freelance coding, currently python web stuff.
highschool nerd
I have just graduated high school last week! Transforming from student to full time hacker!
I still have 1 year of tormenting boredom
software developer for defense contractor
I'm not an entrepreneur at this stage of the game, I'm just here for the news.
I'm not an entrepreneur at this stage of the game, I'm just here for the news.
I'm a web R&D manager for a bank.
Meat popsicle
Developer @ www.2threads.com
No other product managers?
before: game developer (pirates of the burning sea)
now: meetcast.com
software test technician
Software Craftsmen :)
Software Engineer
programmer (EA)
non-technical at ticketstumbler
web / user interface designer
justin.tv
Management Consultant. Specifically an Agile Coach. I teach organizations and their teams who have gotten lost in paperwork and procedures how to get in touch with that little start-up inside all of us -- without taking down production by being a cowboy.
But it's Sunday and I'm busy coding on my startup. Doesn't that count as a day job?
But it's Sunday and I'm busy coding on my startup. Doesn't that count as a day job?
software engineer
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