HN Explorer

Ask HN: What should I learn/study to get a high-paying, impactful remote job?

23 points by throwawaynay ↗ HN
Hi! I don't know if this is weird, stupid or hard to answer, but I'd love your opinions.

If I'm trying to be objective, right now I'm just a mediocre(maybe average depending on who you compare me to) web developer with some CS basics(I have some surface knowledge about a lot of stuff, but this is the only field where I'm employable), I regressed/stagnated a lot, and I don't think I can find the motivation to become great at anything if it's not to work on something truly life changing and really useful to the world.

I'm mostly interested by stuff that I could learn for free(including piracy).

When I say remote, I mean worldwide, preferably with the ability to be nomad.(IDC if I need to have meetings at insane hours from time to time)

When I say impactful I mean one of those things(by order of importance):

-working on climate change/sustainability/greentech, with a chance to actually make a difference about the global catastrophes that are about to happen, not just making people feel good about themselves

-life-changing healthtech: preventive healthcare, life extension, significant mental health innovations, significant quality of life improvements...

-maybe education, but something that could really cause a paradigm shift, there is a good chance I'm mistaken but I don't really think there is still much place for great innovation in that area given what's available for free on the internet

-maybe lifting people out of extreme poverty, at scale(like https://www.sama.com)

And I know that technically I could do web dev for companies working on this kind of stuff, but I don't think I'd really feel useful building the CRUD apps necessary to access the actually interesting/innovative/useful stuff.

So do you have any ideas/advice?

I'm thinking about Data Science/AI, but it seems really hard to become great/legitimate in this field, especially if I have to earn money at the same time I'm learning, and isn't there too many juniors already?Also wouldn't the kind of work I'm looking for be limited to PhD's, or really smart Master's?

I'm willing to learn about other things than tech. I'd still like to work with tech, but using concepts from other fields could be interesting.

Thanks!

11 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 39.1 ms ] thread
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
paulcole
> but I don't think I'd really feel useful building the CRUD apps necessary to access the actually interesting/innovative/useful stuff.

What you need to do is find companies that are doing work you find impactful. Then look at their careers pages and find jobs that fit what you’re looking for. Then apply to the ones you’re qualified for and start learning what you need to know for the jobs you’re not qualified for.

It’s going to be hard for anyone here to give you a better answer because only you know the kinds of jobs you’ll find acceptable, given that an impactful mission isn’t enough for you.

throwawaynay
>It’s going to be hard for anyone here to give you a better answer because only you know the kinds of jobs you’ll find acceptable, given that an impactful mission isn’t enough for you.

I get what you're trying to say, but it's not really that an impactful mission isn't enough for me, it's more that just getting a job at a company with an impactful mission isn't enough.

This is probably an extreme example, but what I'm trying to say is I don't think the janitor at the most impactful organization in the world feels like he's having any kind of positive impact about anything. Even if the job itself is necessary, he can be replaced at anytime by a random contractor who don't give a crap about the job.

Maybe it's just my ego talking, but I want my work to actually matter, I don't want to be an unimportant cog in a large machine that would work just as smoothly if I wasn't there.

paulcole
Yes, that is your ego talking and it’s fine.

But we can’t tell you what will stroke your ego. You need to look at companies whose missions you think matter (if you actually care about their mission) and then find roles at those companies that will stroke your ego.

Or just skip the mission and look for roles that stroke your ego. Do ad shit at Facebook or Google and donate money to soothe your conscience.

netizen-936824
Check out what university research departments and labs are hiring for. There are software dev jobs in the health/bio sciences as well as other fields of research, likely including climate change

Most university have central job boards where you can search for terms like 'computational', 'software', or 'developer'

hogrider
It's not my area of expertise but I hear data science is pretty good.
rboes
What is more impactful about data science than web dev? I can tell you as someone who spent years coding C++, it's not 'better' or more impactful. My brother was into AI and got out because he didn't find it was impactful. AI sounds so cool on paper and documentaries, but at it's core it's just statistics and coding put together.
throwawaynay
Who did you brother work for and what did he do?

My reasoning is that it's pretty easy, that almost anybody could do it, and that it's a lot less likely to change anyone's life for the better.

Let's take an example, who had more impact: the guy who made a cancer detection model twice as accurate or the guy who coded the Vue.js view to display the results to an oncologist?

The embedded engineer who made some machine use twice as less energy or the guy who coded the website selling those machines?

I feel like I'm wasting my potential. I chose webdev because it was the fastest path to easy money in tech and I really regret it.

burntoutfire
You're comparing apples to oranges - your non-web dev examples have high impact while your web developer is doing something less consequential. In reality, you can have high impact as a web dev as well - say noticing and fixing a large security bug which could be used to steal personal data of a billion people - or improving performance of a popular webapp (say Facebook's main page), which can result in large amounts of electricity saved every year. These accomplishments are probably as rare as the non-webdev examples you gave though. In reality, as a data scientist or an embedded engineer you'll also most likely to be working on an inconsequential detail of some inconsequential (or straight up BS) project. The engineering field is very detail-oriented and it just needs a hundred peons for every "cool job", regardless of the subfield.
m0llusk
You need to start small to learn the basics and really engage. High paying and impactful comes with experience, networking. Remote is only common in the last few years so that varies.
penguinlinux
one field that is highly paid is devops . not very difficult to learn either.