Comment by snowwrestler

Comment by snowwrestler 8 days ago

Pick the immediate direction that will put you in a position to work with the smartest people. That’s probably more important than picking a technology.

Your side projects with agents have impressed people in your org. Do those people impress you? My gut reaction is that if they are impressed by the side projects of a recent college grad, they may not be at the top of that field.

At an early stage of your career, the best work environment is one that makes you feel like “damn I’m really going to have to perform to keep up here.” It’s not great to be very early in your career and feel like “damn, I’m the smartest guy in this room.” It can create bad habits and a sense of entitlement.

And the tricky thing is, if you are a high performer, most situations will make you feel like the latter.

fhd2 8 days ago

> Your side projects with agents have impressed people in your org. Do those people impress you? My gut reaction is that if they are impressed by the side projects of a recent college grad, they may not be at the top of that field.

I generally agree with your post, but this nerd snipes me a bit. I'm regularly impressed by juniors. By what they achieve in relation to their experience. Sometimes they do stuff I genuinely couldn't do, and that's normal - skill isn't linear. Or they think of stuff I didn't come up with. But in most cases, I'm impressed by the talent and promise I see for them to become strong seniors in a few years. Especially when it comes to hiring, I tend to look more at a person's trajectory, than what they can do right now. But your question - "Do those people impress you?" - is certainly a great one to ask.

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aenis 8 days ago

This.

The only times i was really happy at work was when I was working with giants, people way smarter than me.

And then I made a turn to easy corporate jobs where progress was effortles by comparison and colleagues very eager to lay praise. This led to years of unhappiness and intellectual stagnation. (And money, but that hardly compensates, and I think a smart engineer can make money without having to work a dull corporate job).

Also, high praise in corporate environment often means no career progression past certain points. They already have their management buddies, and they need efficient engineers in the lower ranks.

Besides, robotics its where its at. Just ask where nVidia is investing. Or look at the demographics. Or anti-immigration politics in western countries. It will be robots all over the place within a few years.

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factorialboy 8 days ago

Contrary (and cynical) take.

If your goal is to climb the corporate ladder, work where you feel you can rise the fastest.

The smartest people won't be your peers in higher management.

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Stephen_0xFF 8 days ago

Yeah, but then you get laid off from your cushy VP or Director role at 45 and realize you weren’t as smart as you thought you were when you’re searching for your next role that will pay you your previous salary. You’ll probably think back to this crossroad and regret it. Especially since robotics hasn’t had its ChatGPT moment just yet, but looks soon.

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- lnsru 8 days ago
  
  As director or VP one should be able to retire at 45 in USA. Then you don’t care anymore about next job.
  
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  HeyLaughingBoy 7 days ago
  
  Most people making it to VP or Director by age 45 haven't been in that position long enough to retire. Not to mention that getting there by that early point generally requires a certain amount of drive that's difficult to just shut off and retire.
  
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Hedepig 8 days ago

I mean, this could be phase 2 of career growth. Focus on personal growth first by surrounding by experts.

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- surfpel 8 days ago
  
  Maybe.
  I’ve seen some pretty incompetent people just show up and play the game make it decently far. I prioritized learning first and got great offers right off the bat, but I definitely overdid it.
  Different strategies for different people.
  
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- harvodex 7 days ago
  
  It just all seems so random and personal to me to make any blanket statement in this area.
  The biggest thing to me is to not blow the small handful of opportunities that randomly present themselves. In this context, there is a good chance those won't be in agents or robotics.
  At 50, I am happy with my life but I have blown almost all my opportunities. I have grinded out a decent life but it is pretty minimized vs what could have been.
  I was offered a nice career at 21 in the financial markets from my part time job while going to college for CS so turned it down. CS was delusion with my math skills and I dropped out. Ended up spending a decade grinding to get into the financial markets after college.
  Before CS I thought I would get a PhD in psychology. A real Freudian fan boy professor made me abandon that. I thought Freud was so absurd on first encounter. At this point I have read almost all of Freud's work on my own. I should have stuck with the original plan in psychology.
  On the other hand, maybe the path I have traveled is the optimal path because at 50 I am not done. I still have huge dreams to make this all be the right path. The bar is not that high.
  It is all a relative valuation.
  
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gazchop 8 days ago

Yeah this. Also leverage yourself a position where you are well known and indispensable.

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- baq 8 days ago
  
  Indispensable is unpromotable. Train your replacement on your own terms before they make you.
  
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  gazchop 8 days ago
  
  I don't want to be promoted!
  At some point you get to the state where you can't perform a work function. We lost more people above me than along side me.
  
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n_ary 8 days ago

^ I am in 100% agreement with /u/snowwrestler here. It is very important to be around people more smarter than you early(and even late) in ones career. Not only will you learn and grow faster, you’ll have lower risk to burn out and also enjoy your work.

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ar7emiy 6 days ago

Man this is precisely my dilemma right now. I’m an 1st year analyst with a ms in data science doing ai engineer requests for in an insurance company where heads of analytics division think transformers are from movies. Knock on wood I pull off a pay package that’s being discussed, which would keep me for sure, but I can’t find(/failing to recognize) anyone in the company who I’d aspire to. Instead, out of boredom essentially, I’ve been doing Ai full stack development projects for companies, but again no inspiring people just repeating customized (though admittedly some rather interesting) problems with bit extra income. Am I just not looking for the right perspective?