Ask HN: I’ve reached the crossroad – advice needed
I’ve managed a construction company, and I’ve been running my recording studio for the last 15+ years since graduating from college. I’ve produced numerous major label hip-hop artists from the Wu-Tang Clan, to Rick Ross, to Nas. I’ve finally reached a crossroad. The industry isn’t as stable as it once was, and I’m looking to transition my career.
I’m 37M, newly married with no kids (yet) and ready for some change. I’ve read HN daily for the last 5 years and I’m looking for advice as I’ve read so many articles here and comments upon comments of yours that have encouraged me to take the leap. Throughout my professional music career, and since I was a kid learning piano, I always built my own PCs, set up Linux servers for fun, coded websites and tinkered away. The joy has always been there.
I’ve finally decided to ask you all here at HN what path I should take if you were in my shoes. Currently I’ve been looking at Google Certifications (UX/UI, Data Analyst, Project Manager) Is that a route that would be suggested, or perhaps a different one? I hope this post isn’t too long, and I’m an open book.
I really appreciate any advice here as I am looking to reach the next phase of growth, development, and challenges in my life. I’m capable, determined, and very excited about this. Thank you to each and every one of you.
48 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 99.4 ms ] threadMaybe create a resource that highlights the physical studio that albums were recorded at. Feature obscure rap history or just review studio equipment. Reach out (same name on Twitter) if you wanna chat more.
If you have the skills to get an entry-level web development job then I'd suggest going to for that to get your foot in the door, work for 1-2 years, then look for something better paying. You'll also have a better idea of if you even like doing it professionally and/or what you want to "specialize" in. I'd also suggest staying away from larger companies (FAANG and the like), you will learn more at smaller company as you'll probably need to wear many "hats" which also gives you a good chance to see what you like (Is it DevOps? Frontend? Backend? PM? UI/UX? etc).
I feel like everyone (myself included) thinks "Oh, that company/industry has their shit together", spoiler: they don't. One lesson I have to keep reminding myself of and relearning is a large company (even successful ones) doesn't not immediately equate to knowing what they are doing. Imposter syndrome is a huge issue inside the tech industry, I imagine it's even worse for the people on the outside looking in.
Maybe a part-time web development job would work for you? Get your feet wet without having to go full-time right away.
My comments about certifications really boil down to "Don't expect a certification to result in a job or even better standing among other applicants". Being someone who is enjoyable to talk to/work with goes way further in my book. I'll take a "1x" programmer that's easy to work with over a "10x" that's a jerk or has no social skills. Also your "self-taught" skills are probably a lot better than you are giving yourself credit for. I'd bet money you would do better than the majority of new CS grads when it comes to actually producing.
Looking into it, I 100% take my self-taught music skills and management for granted. Having had to work with all spectrums of artists from pop, hip-hop, male, female, young to old, the goal would always end up being how do we get this song completed to the best of our abilities and ready for worldwide release.
It’s a tedious process consisting of communicating and directing tons of people to achieve the unified goal even when they don’t see it.
I’m assuming in tech, there are similar environments like that.
But also, certifications aren't bad but having a small project that you can apply what you learn to will give you a lot of confidence.
A small project on my own is a common theme I’m noticing here. I will get into that once I decide which direction to take in tech.
Thank you!
I work with and have a good friend who followed similar trajectory- serious touring musician, show producer, etc for many years, now we work together in tech. He's a project manager. He's fantastic. Half of PMing is logistics and half is personalities. If you have produced, you have done both. The terminology in tech you will have to acquire- the artifacts/objects/roles, the process (agile/scrum/etc), and the tools (jira, github, etc). Whether you do that through self-teaching, classes, certifications depends on how you learn- but I suspect what will best is to find a way to shadow a team. You will learn more in a month from sitting in, asking questions, then following up with research than from any other activity. So if you have any friends in tech on whom you can impose yourself to let you listen in- highly, highly recommend doing that.
Second point. There is a somewhat controversial movement in tech loosely known as "web3". If you have seen talk of "NFTs" or "crypto" these are adjacent. Some people hate it and attribute climate change, fraud and other evils to it. Others do not. If you are someone who would not, there is a burgeoning subfield impacting music. It is NOT stable, but there are lots of interesting and rewarding conversations for people whose experience spans the machinery both of music production and technology implementation.
Best wishes again, seriously. Love your energy in reaching out and am sure things will go well for you.
Just like I did in my teen years shadowing in recording studios and learning the process start to finish, I won’t be shy and go forward to shadow with teams in tech. I’ll go through my contacts and see if I can find any tech-related contacts.
Highly appreciated. Thanks again Jonah.
[1]https://worklife.splice.com
^ Send that to every music related tech company you come across. They'll pretty much all be interested at some level.
Edit to add: Take a go at some leetcode problems. If you can do the easy ones & make a reasonable effort at medium then you're good enough to get hired. If not practice until you can.
I'd suggest targeting a few companies a week and doing research. As a (former) hiring manager, it is so much more powerful for me to get a message like this:
"I was reading your company blog post about the resurgence of vinyl. It was really interesting. I sold all my vinyl in the 2000s, but have noticed it coming back at my local record store.
I also saw that <company> is using golang and typescript, based on your job descriptions. I've used golang and really enjoyed it; I found the abstraction of channels made it really easy to communicate between different components.
I was interested in applying to your engineering team. I have a lot of music experience and some tech experience. My resume is attached. I'd love to chat if you are interested in seeing if there's a mutual fit."
Than one like this:
"I was looking at your site and thought you might like to hire me. Resume attached."
Doing just the slightest bit of research (30 min) will, again, make you stand out in a sea of resumes. (Of course, a warm intro is even better; LinkedIn can help you find out if you know anyone who knows anyone.)
I’m still determining if I’ll move forward with PM or picking a language to become proficient in.
Thank you!!
Definitely visit their jobs page to get a flavor of what they are looking for, but realize that it is not up to date; there may be positions on there that are no longer available and positions that are available that are no longer there.
Also know that companies may not list junior/entry level positions because they get a flood of applicants when they do.
Can you possibly expand a bit on leetcode problems? I’ll definitely take a look if I just can get a direction where to look.
Better would be to study CS, IT, project-management, or job/industry-specific tasks you'd like to target. PBS crash-course computer science is a great way to soak some up in a jiffy.
Small programming challenges that companies use to gauge your coding ability.
That's assuming you want to write code. If you want a different role then it's not needed.
You don't mention a degree, but without it will be difficult to get a job at most coveted positions. For example don't even bother applying at Netflix or SpaceX, you won't even get a no-thank-you in response.
Also, with everything we learn that doing something for a living kinda takes the fun out of it. So setting expectations properly will be helpful as well.
I didn't plan this approach but it turned out to be a good model. I was very naive about how hard it would be to make my own money.