Poll: What are you doing full-time?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=223846

by sah • 18 years ago

65 52 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

PieSquared2• 18 years ago

Yup, I'm still studenting, and have a long way to go. I wonder if all these start-up opportunities and communities will still be around when I finish college...

fallentimes• 18 years ago

Based on the direction markets and firms are heading (lower startup costs, computers becoming commoditized, smaller firms being able to compete easier with large firms), there will be even more opportunities.

PieSquared2• 18 years ago

That's encouraging. :)

Of course, I wouldn't want to speculate about then, because who knows what could happen in 7 years... It's humbling to think that the Internet has only been around about double that.

symptic• 18 years ago

Basecamp was made in 37signals' part time. If you have an idea or the willpower, you don't have to wait to graduate from college.

ScottWhigham• 18 years ago

If you founded a startup and are working on that startup, what option should you choose? :)

webwright• 18 years ago

I would assume the distinction is founding a startup versus being employed by people who founded a startup. That's how I read it.

ssanders82• 18 years ago

Might want to add consulting / contracting as an option...

sah• 18 years ago

Good call. Done.

mannylee1• 18 years ago

Working at a Startup

tomh-• 18 years ago

What if you work at a startup, founded a startup and go to school? :)

neilk• 18 years ago

Burnout?

pg• 18 years ago

Fortunately News.YC's clever poll software allows you to choose multiple options.

bkovitz2• 18 years ago

I quit my job six weeks ago. I've had an idea for a web site sitting in the back of my brain for several years now. Amazingly, no one else has done it. I put up an ad on craigslist asking for someone to pair-program with me. We've been pairing 4-5 days a week.

We expect to go live next week.

I'm scheduled to start a Ph.D. in another six weeks. I could delay. It's a tough choice. Getting my first toe in the entrepreneurial water has been exciting and fulfilling. I'm getting to do things "the way I always wanted to".

timr2• 18 years ago

If you want to be an entrepreneur, and you don't need a PhD to do it (e.g. you aren't starting a biotech company), then for the love of all that is holy, don't start a PhD program. Quitting is like gnawing off your own leg.

The PhD program will be there later. Trust me.

bkovitz2• 18 years ago

Thanks for the advice. The reason I want the Ph.D. is to become a professor, and the reason I want to be a professor is to be paid to indulge my curiosity and to teach (I love both).

Delaying a year to do this site is definitely an option I'm considering. Cooking Indian food in my kitchen has got to be way cheaper than gnawing off my own leg. ;)

twism• 18 years ago

this is a very interesting poll. I have always wanted to know what the hacker news community constitutes.

coglethorpe• 18 years ago

Had to click three things.

eyudkowsky• 18 years ago

Founding a nonprofit.

brandonkm• 18 years ago

Being a musician?

pxlpshr• 18 years ago

working @ a startup, consulting, and lending a hand at establishing a better startup environment in Austin.

ctkrohn• 18 years ago

Would also be interesting to see how many people are working in tech vs. other fields. I definitely get the feeling that I'm one of the few people here in a non-computer-related area.

dkokelley• 18 years ago

I work at a bank as a teller, but it's only part time and I'm also in school.

michaelneale3• 18 years ago

Yeah it is always surprising when people describe their day job (when it isn't tech).

lyime• 18 years ago

FULL TIME = 70% School + 30% Startup

wumi• 18 years ago

GMT 3:48

Even if every person voted 6 times, it's still an average of 4:1 people who voted in the poll to those who upmodded the post.

ComputerGuru• 18 years ago

People upvote if they liked the story, and they vote just to share.

Hexstream• 18 years ago

Not sure if it's typical but I almost never upvote a story (however I'd happily downvote some of them if I could). Last time I checked it automatically saves it in your favorites. Since I never go back to check a story, no matter how interesting (in which case I'd just hit Google), I find it would be an utter waste. Accumulating stuff I know I will never use like that seems... frightening to me, for some reason.

Zak• 18 years ago

I'm doing lighting design for a band. We're leaving for Europe in a couple days. I'm also trying to develop the next generation of stage lighting controllers.

FiReaNG3L• 18 years ago

Lets see, PhD in AIDS research, founding 2 startups

iamelgringo3• 18 years ago

Working as ER nurse: 36 hrs per week

Working 20-30 hrs per week on www.nomadnurse.com : Online tools for traveling/contract nurses

Right now, it's just a landing page, but my goal is to have a place for travel/contract nurses to review where they've worked, a place to review recruiters/companies, a forum, job postings and tools to help decrease the reams of paperwork that travel nurses have to fill out for every 3 month contract and for every state license they apply for.

michaelneale3• 18 years ago

Well I just spent a weekend waiting around ER rooms as my daughter had half a tooth nocked out (and sedation needed, some minor surgery).

I do not envy your job. Whilst I can assume that there is a large element of satisfaction (and it doesn't seem to be as hellish as they make out in movies) it can't be easy. Its just more bad news and frustrated smelly people all the time. Never ending.

I tip my hat to you.

iamelgringo3• 18 years ago

Sorry about your daughter. I hope she's okay.

Thanks, though. It's a lot better here in Silicon Valley than it was in the ghetto in Chicago. It was pretty much a nightly occurrence to be wrestling a drug addict or drunk every night. Nights were measured by how many gun shots or stabbings we took care of. There's not nearly the culture of violence here, which makes work a lot easier.

It's still pretty high pressure and high stress. I could be a little weird, but working on my business is a lot less stressful for me. I hope it takes off.

wd• 18 years ago

Hardware engineer at a day job. Software hack wannabe by night.

djm2• 18 years ago

Just quit my office job. I'm going to France in July to spend two months cycling. When I come back I am intending to start a startup (though I still have a few ideas I am trying to decide between). I will probably be working part time as well.

jodrellblank• 18 years ago

Good luck with that. I daydream of a similar path (though Spain/Portugal rather than France).

djm2• 18 years ago

Daydreaming about it won't get you there! I have never traveled before doing this trip but have wanted to for years - I kept on putting off because it wasn't the "right time" etc.

A few months ago after deciding to leave my present job, I finally made up my mind to go for it before having to find a new way of making money.

Having made the decision everything has just fallen into place since. I have discovered that making the decision in the first place was the hardest part and I think this probably holds true in many aspects of life.

Another thing you will find when you decide to do something like this is how much your peers support you. Apart from a few negative types everyone I know has been really encouraging and offered to help me where I needed it.

I wish you well with your plans, but start doing it instead of dreaming it! :)

amitry• 18 years ago

Taking over the world (Pinky and the Brain).

ced2• 18 years ago

Living in cheap asian countries on savings from my grad school year. Trying to develop AI that isn't Good Old Fashionned AI. Learning music. Learning Turkish. Biology. Reading.

neilc• 18 years ago

That's very cool -- I've often considered doing that (moving to a cheap Asian country). I'd be curious if you have any more advice about it -- which countries were good, what sort of places to stay in, etc.

ced2• 18 years ago

I went for the sound bite, but the truth is: I left grad school last December, and I've been in Turkey ever since. I'll likely move to India in a few months.

Turkey outside of Istanbul is rather cheap, but not incredibly so. My nice 4-bedroom flat is 400 euros/month in a good student neighborhood (split with my 3 roomies of course). A very good student meal is around 4 euros, so we eat out a lot. The fruits/vegetables are ridiculously cheap in bazaars. People are really friendly and helpful, though it's hard to find people who are... different, for lack of better term. The uni libraries suck in Izmir, which is bad for me.

Staying with Erasmus students turned out to be best for me. Living with Turkish men has proven... difficult, and the culture doesn't really allow mixed-sex appartment sharing before marriage.

I never did it, but you can get 15 Euro/hour teaching English here, which is really good money for Izmir.

Everything else I've heard second-hand, so you might have more luck with Google. India is supposed to be dirt cheap (7 euros/night reasonable hotels). I'll go there alone and network my way into an appartment. My roomie went to Iran for two weeks, and it seems so interesting, culturally. If there wasn't the threat of a looming war, I'd stay some time there before moving more to the east.

Finally: moving/finding an appartment is very costly, both in time and money. Changing country is even moreso. If you're staying less than 4 months in a city, you're not really living there, you're just travelling. (nothing wrong with that of course, but my goal is to get work done and learn as much as I can)

Feel free to email. I wish I knew more people doing what I'm doing.

kp212• 18 years ago

Working as a corporate tool. Got a verbal offer (would need to negotiate my comp) to work with some really bright guys again at a startup. Debating what to do, asking myself why am I debating what to do...

watmough• 18 years ago

Working at a regular consulting company.

In my weekends, I'm trying to marshall what resources I can to learn other things.

Right now, I'm playing with SproutCore, but have been deflected in setting up Django to serve as a back-end, and I'm finally learning some Python, and I'm really impressed with it.

ampradhan• 18 years ago

Fulltime sales engineering job, hacking and consulting gigs on the side for my own startup...

keefe• 18 years ago

Working on scalability of an RDF server at an established semantic web company. Enjoying going to moffet field every day. Not enjoying lack of free time as I finish prototypes of my own project.

kajecounterhack• 18 years ago

High school, part time hacker for a couple OSS projects

That leaves me a striking question: How many other readers here are high schoolers like me?

ujj• 18 years ago

working on a day job at an established company to pay for me and my two buddies working full time on a startup.

humanlever2• 18 years ago

I'm interning at Sun, volunteering with Miro, and taking summer classes.

I'll be getting my BS after a little over two years in school and as one of those “big picture” people, have become increasingly more focused on what I'm going to do once December rolls around.

Mistone• 18 years ago

i'm working a a big behemoth web security company 40-50 hrs. per week - and working on my startup 20 hours per week - and raising my family (2yr old + 1 on the way) with my wife. our startup is set to launch in August - so its a big push right now.

Poll: What are you doing full-time?

Related Stories