Ask HN: Career paths to consider if I am better at supporting than creating? | Hacker NewsHacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitloginAsk HN: Career paths to consider if I am better at supporting than creating?10 points by _override 22 minutes ago | hide | past | favorite | 5 commentsI have a BS/MS in computer science and somewhere around 9 years of experience, where the first half was spent working as a backend developer and the second half I've been working in product owner roles. I switched from development to product because I simply realized that I wasn't very good at implementation and system design work to be honest. I wanted to work with tech from a more overarching level, and let the experts who were much more skilled than me handle the implementation work.Around 8 months ago I switched companies and am still working as a PO, but this organization I am working in is a terrible fit for me. I don't want to go too far into why I really dislike this job, but a big part of it is that the organization wants me to make technical design decisions which I am just really not good at, since the development team doesn’t have this experience themselves. This is making it completely impossible to deliver on the project I’m responsible for.This has really made me think about what I should do for my next role. I fully admit that I was and still am a mediocre developer, which is why I moved into a PO role in the first place around 4 years ago. I have such a huge amount of respect for people who are great developers and architects. It's a challenging role and I can imagine it's exciting if you are creative and like to build new things. But I am just not cut out for it. I am not very creative, and I often have no clue where to even start when I need to build new things.The parts I've enjoyed the most in the various roles in my career have been things like:- 2nd/3rd line ticket management and troubleshooting. It's been quite fun going through logs and trying to figure out what went wrong, perhaps trying to recreate the situation in a test environment with an API client.- Supporting customers. For example helping customers with installations of software. It honestly gives me a huge sense of accomplishment when I get to see a customer making use of our products, and helping them investigate why something may not be working.- Being an interface between business and tech. I've always thought of myself as someone who is able to understand both business needs and technical needs quite well. Even though I'm not good at implementing software, I can understand limitations of software, read and understand existing codebases, and so on.- Testing software. It's a lot of fun to test software to see if there are any issues before we go live!- Just working with people in general! I really like to do whatever I can to support my team and the people that I work with.I thought I'd ask for some advice to see if you guys have any recommendations for career tracks to consider, given that I am just much more comfortable supporting existing software than building new software. I like working with people. I like achieving results. I'm just not cut out for system design and building new software.Honestly it might mean that I need to live with a lower salary, and that is fine with me. To be completely honest, given the fact that my current role is genuinely making me sick with severe anxiety (made a post about this a while back [1], I've learned that money isn't everything. There isn't a point to making more money if my job is literally killing me and I am losing my health. I'd much rather work with something I enjoy that isn't making me feel sick. Life is too short.Thanks for reading this. I really appreciate any advice or thoughts you may have.[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533073 help

Galxeagle 0 minutes ago | next [–]
‘Wanted to work with tech from a more overarching level’
‘I get a huge sense of accomplishment seeing customers user our product’
‘Interface between business and tech’You might like trying your hand in Professional Services either at a System Integrator like Deloitte or first-party in a product company (now often re-labelled as ‘forward deployed engineers’).Their main problem space is getting customers to successfully use the product through marrying your understanding of the tech’s limitations and sweet spots with the customer’s organizational goals and culture, so daily work revolves less around deep technical design and more about org alignment and strategy (which is why SIs sometimes get a bad rap on a tech forum like HNews).It probably pays less, and it can be more stressful when you’re billing for (and justifying) every hour, but in my experience the way it tends to be more dynamic (new projects+teams+customers often) and you get to see very direct impact is often quite rewarding.replypluc 2 minutes ago | prev | next [–]
Developer Experience is gaining in popularity. Your clients are internal and your objective is to remove obstacles, create shortcuts, keep everyone happy and productive. Lots of it is communication, finding out everyone's pain points and discussing what is technically feasible to ease that frustration - so that may tickle your people/support string. Things that are/can be part of DevEx are DevOps/Platform Engineering/Infra/CI/CD, QA, IdP, internal frameworks, onboarding, etc. Fun stuff imo.replygucci-on-fleek 9 minutes ago | prev | next [–]
Perhaps a sales engineer?> I am just much more comfortable supporting existing software than building new software.Having technical skills is required, but you'd be doing little to no coding or design work.> Being an interface between business and tech.A sales engineer matches this almost by definition.> Just working with people in general!The job is essentially entirely about working with people, both with the customers you're trying to sell to, and with the developers who are actually making the product.replypetterroea 16 minutes ago | prev | next [–]
Sounds like you may enjoy being a QA engineer. Good QA engineers are a really really good value add to a software team and can really save our ass. Technical QA engineers understand why things break, and are easy to coordinate with when preparing a larger release.At my previous employer, the head QA engineer was the one pushing back at the PM when they were too ambitious. They basically owned the current "Is the next release still a buggy mess?" state.replyamr_shawky 2 minutes ago | prev [–]
Technical pre-sales?reply

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A highly experienced individual with a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science and approximately nine years of experience, including time as a backend developer and subsequently as a product owner, sought career paths that emphasized supporting existing systems rather than creating new ones. This shift was motivated by a realization that they were less skilled in implementation and system design, leading to a desire to operate at a more overarching level where technical implementation could be handled by experts. The current product owner role, however, proved unsatisfactory because it demanded technical design decisions for which the individual lacked the expertise, resulting in an inability to deliver projects effectively and causing significant anxiety.

The individual identified several areas within their career history where they found significant enjoyment and accomplishment. These included managing second and third-line ticket resolution and troubleshooting by examining logs and recreating situations, assisting customers with software installations, acting as an interface between business needs and technical requirements, testing software to ensure quality before deployment, and generally working with people to support teams. The core preference lies in supporting existing software and interacting with people, rather than engaging in the creative aspects of building new systems or undertaking deep architectural design.

Based on this preference for support, interfacing, and problem-solving, several career tracks were suggested. One avenue mentioned is working in professional services, such as with a System Integrator like Deloitte or in a first-party product company, where the focus shifts from deep technical design to aligning technical understanding with customer organizational goals and culture. This role involves marrying technological limitations with business objectives, potentially offering dynamic project involvement despite possibly lower direct compensation.

Another highly relevant direction is the Developer Experience space, which emphasizes removing obstacles and fostering productivity for internal clients. This area encompasses roles such as DevOps, Platform Engineering, Infrastructure, Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery, Quality Assurance, Identity and Access Management, and internal framework development. These functions align with the desire to reduce frustration through communication and understanding technical feasibility.

The possibility of a sales engineer was also floated, as this role aligns well with the preference for acting as an interface between business and technology, requiring technical fluency but minimizing the direct need for intensive coding or system design. Furthermore, the role of a quality assurance engineer was recommended, as technical QA professionals possess the necessary understanding of system failures and can act as a significant value-add to a software team by ensuring product stability prior to release.