What to do if you're just semi-technical?

Well you don't necessarily have to be a great engineer to start a great startup. In fact, if you're running a startup, and you're the best engineer there, you've done something wrong. So if you're thinking of going down that route you don't have to be worried about the fact you can't write the best code in the world.

However, I'm not sure what you mean by "semi" technical. To me that would be someone who is a decently skilled programmer and could hack together an app without it being really well written code. You say you couldn't write more than a single-page application, and if that is really the cap of your abilities (and it's almost certainly not, you just need to spend time learning) then I wouldn't quite qualify that as semi-technical.

You're not fucked. Your "career path" is partly determined by past job titles, and partly by your ability to sell yourself. Neither one is going to be on a fixed path at age 25.

As human beings, we all spend a lot of time agonizing over the path not taken, and that's not limited to our career choices. I've slowly come to realize the paths not taken were usually no better than what I actually did, it was just easy to imagine the counterfactual as paradise.

I used to think I hated computers.

Then I thought I hated code.

Now I know I just hate having a boss.

If you find yourself changing job roles a lot, but remaining unhappy, maybe the specific subject matter isn't the problem. Maybe you need variety. Maybe you hate working in a hierarchical structure. Maybe you hate groups, or hate working alone. You're the only one who can figure this out.

I'm in almost the exact same position. I've considered myself decent in front-end design and development but have had a strong desire to become more technical and proficient in programming and backend technologies so I could be a "one man shop" and prototype larger ideas. It's a tricky situation.

I ended up co-founding a company and we received grant money which enabled us us to bring on a CTO. I've learned a ton working side by side with him but still can't deploy a rails app easily on my own.

I would say you have two options. 1. Push through and spend some serious time teaching yourself what you need to. Take advantages of all of the resources easily available online and connect with friends who have experience in CS and are willing to help you through your problems or 2. Try to find someone who is technical but in the opposite position as you. They lack design and/or marketing/sales skills. Do NOT try to get them to work for you but instead work together so you can leverage each others strengths and improve each others weaknesses.

Good luck!

You act like 25 is the end of your life or something. First of all, get over it. Second of all, I got out of the Army at age 23 with barely a technical bone in my body. I took courses and took on projects where I could learn new things in a different field all the time. You should never stop learning - many people don't become "technical" until later in their careers, contrary to the startup tabloids and HN news/comments you see here. Younger people THINK they are technical, but really don't know the first thing about what their doing until they've been in the business at least 5 years or more (college does not make you "technical", it gives you enough background to survive, but not to thrive). I've had the perspective now of looking back at my 25 year old self and realizing that even though I thought I knew it all, I knew nothing really - and there is SO MUCH MORE to the IT field than software development.

So, with that, there is a burgeoning field that combines business and technology - think of it as being a "translator" of sort, turning jargon into actionable business information. There is also Project Management, which is where most semi-technical folks go to and end up earning twice what most developers do (and end up becoming their boss).

So, keep learning and move into project management where you'll work with both the business side and technical side alike while getting paid handsomely for it. That's my advice.

A few ideas:

. Start a business that can scale despite technology. Pen, paper, lots of talking - add tech later

. Use a 'content framework' such as Drupal - it can cover a wide range of business models where storage and viewing of user data is required

. Learn to code, voraciously. By the time you're 30, if not before, you'll be ready to put together something of much greater value

You're hardly out of the gate at 25. If you think tech is where your interests lie, after double checking with the other fields you've tried, then face in that direction and start walking. It's that simple.

You're only 25, no need to feel fucked - you have plenty of years ahead of you!

It sounds like you enjoy working with/around less technical people, and helping them out in the tech jungle. Have you thought about setting up some form of support shop that targets this audience?

If you're serious about starting your own company, then technical skills shouldn't matter.

There is a common misconception that "startup" == "software business". You can build multi-billion dollar companies that aren't primarily reliant on software (think Starbucks!).

I do think that passion and excellence are important. So try and focus on the thing you're great at (hint: it's probably what you enjoy doing most). So if you like talking to people and helping them solve their tech problems, maybe that's where you should start.

I have a friend who's in his mid-thirties and had spent more than a decade trying to be a "hardcore code". Recently he decided to focus on what he likes most - which is talking to people. He's now got a great business going selling other people's software and making good recurring revenue. Most important: he's having the time of his life.

So don't focus too much on code or being technical. You can go far on something like enjoying talking to people and solving their problems. If you want more help I can tell you about my friend's business (he seems to have been in a similar position to you) - drop me a mail malanj_at_gmail.com

In my experience, knowing tech in a tech world is useful. Knowing tech in a non-tech world is a burden, because it implies a focus on something that doesn't matter.

I was a developer for the first 4 years of my career, but I've spent the last couple years doing sales and marketing. It turns out a really enjoy them, and my technical background has been enormously helpful while working at a technical company. For me, my technical knowledge is now domain expertise: I understand what our customers have to put up with, and I understand why our solution [1] will help them. My day-to-day is decided non-technical, and I intend to spend fewer and fewer hours writing code.

In short, I'm interested in working in technology forever. I'm interested in it as an industry, because I like the problems there, but not as a profession, because I don't like the altitude of problem-solving when you're the one writing the code.

I don't know you well enough to tell you what to do, but it's worth separating what you enjoy day-to-day and what you enjoy about the mission of the place you work, and figuring out how much each one motivates you. I enjoy the day-to-day aspects of marketing and product marketing enough, but I love being part of a company that I feel solves a real problem using cool technology.

My question for you: if you like explaining technology to people, is it because you like working on the story, or you like the personal connection?

We are all semi-technical outside of the narrow situations and technologies we have a lot of experience with. In other words, you can learn to be technical, but only in narrow subfields like a particular programming language, programming environment, application and so on. University education is good for getting at the shared core of these things (computer science and especially mathematics).

But what should you do? Well, I suppose you need to decide if you want to become more technical in some subfield, and what field that would possibly be, or if you want to learn the metaskills of managing projects where you are semi-technical in the sense that you know a lot about the project you are managing, but could not put it together yourself.

Note that these are complementary skills, so you can have both (and often should strive to have both).

As a technical person I would tend to think that the easy path towards a less-technical managerial position would go through an entry level technical position, but that is certainly not the only way.

I have been there... When I first started college (I'm 25 now) I knew a bit of coding, and done a lot of art related stuff, but I wouldn't consider myself excellent in either of those practices, so I felt every bit of a failure as you do. Eventually, I figured out that even though I wanted to do things related to art, and related to computers, I was not inclined to go through the path that would lead me to being excellent at either of those those thing. So what I did was force myself to go through it. I did it a day a time, always thinking, "tomorrow it'll be easier, tomorrow it'll be funner". And it eventually got easier and funner. My programming skills started to take off, and let me tell you. After a certain threshold, learning becomes fun, and exciting, and I found that I didn't have to force myself anymore. It seems to me that beginner materials do not really provide people with inspiration. You want to work hard enough until you're starting to touch upon advanced material- that stuff is exciting as hell. At the end of the day, I ended up pursuing computer science as my area of concentration, but it doesn't have to be the same for you. Just pick one: art, technology, business, or whatever, and go for it! Give your all. Don't be scared that you're making a bad decision. It's relatively cheap to make a change after really trying (You can even come back to the other path, and explore that), what is really expensive is keep trying to do things half heartedly. Now, take a deep breath, and in the words of Dory from Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming". :)

I'd pursue project management.

Good Project Managers, Business Analysts, or Development Managers are much rarer than good Developers IME, and overall much more important IMO.

I'm a Developer. My wife is an Senior Operations Manager (head of the Business Analysts as well as some other roles). If I had to pick between having me on a team, or her, I'd pick her in a heartbeat. And there's not developer I know or have worked with that would make me rethink that choice.

Because she can make a lot of "OK" individuals and build a "Great", effective team.

IME you can easily have a number of "Great" individuals and end up with a "Failing" team without the management piece.

Also, this is maybe just me, but it really gets under my skin when I hear "great managers are there to run interference and give developers the room to do great things". That's absolutely false. I've been a Manager. I've tried to do that. It only ends up in failure. You do that and all you'll get are half baked projects that blow the budget nine times out of ten.

Great Managers delegate. They don't try to code. They get metrics. On everything. Just like the unquestioned advice about getting metrics for every aspect of your application, it's even more important to have metrics for your development. How long does it take to add a Form to the application? Is the Database involved in this Change Request? What does the Deployment Procedure look like? These things are in fact quantifiable, estimatable and predictable given experience and data if you know how to break them up.

Give people room to spike something, but when it isn't working out use the data to see that and kill it so you don't end up in a swamp. Don't try to be a Developer and a Manager at the same time. Until you've done every bit of your job you could possibly do in Management you don't get to go on recess playing Developer.

My wife's RFPs deliver within 93% of the hours estimate. It takes money to get there, but you put the effort in ahead of time, while it's just paper, when Change Requests are cheap. You try to avoid iteration of code during development because it's 10X the price at that point. You're able to plan budgets, quarters, quantify contributions, get people compensated fairly, make sure no one is ever working nights or weekends.

The worst slogs/most expensive projects I've ever worked on have had the least planning and most iteration during development. The best projects, where you felt you actually accomplished something every day, where you could see the light at the end of the tunnel because the whole thing was estimated and so far you're able to fairly accurately predict the accuracy of the estimates, have been far and away the most successful both in cost and client satisfaction.

That's my experience anyways.

All that just to say: If you're interested in the Software Development field and want the best chance at having an impact, changing people's lives for the better: Be a great Manager. And that's not necessarily the one the "cool" developers think you should be.

find something that you are willing to put your life into. something that uses as many of your talents as possible. it does not have to be the same thing all the time. for a few months or years it can be one thing, then it can be other things. You are a multi-disciplinary learner. You must make your own path. Be bold and Move Fast.

Go in the directions that interest you. The education and business systems are not designed around people like you. Get over it. Find challenging areas that suck you in and keep looking for the things that suck you and you will have a great time and it will all be worth it.

Stop comparing yourself to the specialists. Specialization leads to smaller and smaller gains. Generalization leads to larger and larger gains. But the generalist must work harder than a specialist to realize those gains (they are bigger gains right?)

Pursue the things that excite. it doesn't have to matter why they excite you. If you do that, you will do fine. Don't beat yourself up about it. You are not going to become a specialist... EVER. So go do the thing people cannot see because it requires you to approach it from so many different angles.

Make your own path. Believe in yourself. Be bold. Move fast. Have fun and play. Specialists do not get to play in so many areas. YOu do, so enjoy yourself.

While it is difficult to find a specific title for these jobs, there is a lot of room out there for competent people with technical knowledge that can speak with humans. These people typically succeed in a role that requires managing a client relationship while also asking questions about what they really need from software to help their business. If you are part of a larger team that will be a solid chunk of your job, if a small team, you can also build what they need and learn more about development.

I would recommend taking a look at a mid to large consulting firm that does strategy work AND software development because most of the work you might enjoy typically shows up between those two areas. Make sure you tell them you want to be client facing if you like the people interaction. Good luck. Don't stress too much.

Hi! Semi-technical co-founder. To answer your question, yes I have been in this situation, and more or less still am. Feel free to contact me if you want to talk (email is in profile)

First off, I'm 29. I already feel like I'm a failure because I'm not Mark Zuckerberg rich at my age. Get in line!

> * I have ideas and goals of starting a company, but am unable to build everything myself, and lack the financial resources to hire anyone to help me.*

Great, so we've identified the main problem (I've been there!). Here's something I've learned - people who are technical will respect you much more because you do have a technical understanding. So all is not lost in thinking that you can't find someone to partner up with. Think of the whole technical/non-technical challenges like this: it's like walking into a French restaurant and asking for a cheeseburger in English. If you are able to throw at least a rudimentary understanding of French ("un cheeseburger, s'il vous plaît") you signal to the waiter that you want to talk on his level. This has less to do with your ability to speak fluently and more about respect of the person's craft/culture. In my experience techies love this. You know what they hate? They hate non-technical people coming to them and saying "Oh god that's so easy, you should be done with it in 5 minutes" or "build the next facebook with me! it's easy!". So you've already got a leg up on 90% of the people out there.

The most important thing here is to continue to search for what you enjoy. Some people find this at 18, some people find it at 60. Don't be discouraged if your path isn't equal to what you perceive everyone elses is. Stop reading TechCrunch dreaming about how or why you aren't the next 30 under 30 who just raised $50m in VC funding. Just get out there and build stuff people like.

Good luck!

"My brain bridges the gap that our culture has between highly technical people (developers) and those who need to understand the outcomes and requirements (everyone else)"

I am kinda like you. Actually I am like you except that I am a little older (32). I majored in CS but for some reason, never enjoyed programming while in college as much as I enjoy it now. Weird but true. And I don't even do hardcore programming in my corporate job anywhere. On the side though, I have started doing a lot of programming. In my corporate job, I am defined as a "Technical Business Analyst", "Technical Project Manager" etc. Basically, I am not a developer and I am not a business user. I am somewhere in the middle. You could potentially look at that as an option. You get to do some techie stuff like writing SQL queries, VBA, scripting etc as needed but more importantly, you focus on getting the business requirements translated/developed into the final solution and you work your way through the entire process. You are involved in the entire life cycle phase.

"I am 25 and I feel fucked"

Don't feel that. You are not f'cked. You will get wiser with age and realize that there is no silver bullet to anything. Everything is a choice and there is always a cost to every opportunity. What matters is that you grab the opportunity that interests you and create something out of it.

I'm with you there.

I got enough knowledge to be considered a techie, but I don't have a passion for programming (although I enjoy the challenge), it's a mean to an end to me.

I feel a bit overwhelmed when people start getting hyped over stuff such as stating typing vs dynamic // how cool Haskell is and the whole shebang.

I'm in a position which sits in between, half peoples skill - half technical.

The issue is that I'm working (not for long anymore, I'll be free in a few days) for an outsourcing group and it sucks to get stuck.

I'm gonna try to get back in the game and see how it goes from there.

I'll echo comments herein suggesting project management. If you're in QA, a good next step would be to get into your company's project management or program management group. So you'll make more money and get experience getting other people to get things done. Both of which will help when you decide to do your own thing.

to the commentors who've said "you're only 25. stop feeling that way": you have forgotten what it's like to be 25 and feel 25. i think your intention is to uplift and inject perspective, but you sound uncaring and distant to me. i recommend against saying this kind of blithe bullshit. people don't like hearing it. you don't like hearing someone say that to you.

i am 25. i teach in the humanities, but i'm not interested in a degree there. i love acting. i used to act. i'm currently:

soldering an IBM model F keyboard to a USB board so i can daily-drive it.

lusting for a lisp machine.

ordering an FPGA so i can write my own lisp machine.

reading psych books on the off-chance that i become a therapist.

inhaling everything Alan Kay that i can find.

leading communication workshops so people can communicate more how they want and less how they don't.

i see connections and a narrative among these projects (uhh sometimes) but i can't explain it to anyone else for shit. i really suck at it. it gets me down because i think people misperceive me as aimless. i'm not aimless.

this blog post spoke to me: http://sebastianmarshall.com/fundamentals-and-novelty-seekin...

i'm constantly looking for distractive life-hacks (cheat codes). i should be working on my fundamentals. i subconsiously believe that all my weirdo historical hobbies will come together to make me cool/money/content/dunno. those are weirdo hobbies and self-improvement/help tricks, though. i have one fundamental right now:

learning clojure.

it's a fundamental because it's more difficult than the others. this will be the first programming language i really learn. all that other shit (BASIC c++ java bash elisp c assembly python vimscript) was forced on me or learned as a hobby or learned so i could do something else. because I Am Learning Clojure to be a Professional Programmer, when i'm programming in it i'm thinking "i'm doing the right thing" and "i wish i was learning verilog/freudian psych/arduino C/[hobby thing]"

because there's nothing at stake when i learn a stupid hobby, but there's everything at stake when i'm learning the thing that'll eventually pay the bills. my advice is: recognize what you're bad at that you want to change, do the embarrassingly hard work to change it. could be programming, could be anything else. i feel for you.

i started talking about you, and i ended up outlining my problem. hope this helps. if you're in my city, hit me up.

> I also enjoy music, acting, singing... but I don't think I was born for the world of the arts. I want to make a real impact through technology, and the things I care about are problems that can probably only be solved with computers and money.

There's an entire, gigantic world of production companies filled with people like you, people who hate traditional enterprise, who want to work on something meaningful, who would love to have you. It's a hell of a lot of work, but jack-of-all-trades technicians is exactly what they're looking for.

A good way to find them is to volunteer at local theatre companies and ask around. I used to volunteer at Dad's Garage and the place was a veritable hub for anyone looking to get kickstarted into entertainment. If you're still in Atlanta, you've got nothing but options.

I was in the same boat a few years ago at about the same age. I doubled down, wrote a lot of code, got a junior level dev job. I read books at night (I recommend SICP & Coders at Work above all else). I watched a ton of screencasts. I also recommend the Peepcode (now owned by Pluralsight) play-by-plays because they show you how experienced devs think and work. Doing this I've been able to write code with & consult for CS & engineering grads and not look remotely out of place.

Putting in the time really matters, don't think of being technical as a skill someone is born with. It's really about an intimate knowledge of the technology and no one is born with an intimate knowledge of technology. You also need good judgement and hopefully your social science education taught you that. Don't underestimate the value of what you are already good at. Keep at it.

> I also enjoy music, acting, singing...

Well, it's not exactly along those lines, but I always thought a good business to start would be a screencasting service. Lots of companies need demo videos, and few people I know like to create them.

Technically, it's done. I wrote 130,000 lines of code, works great.

I wear all hats. My problems are not technical.

I have a problem with reality -- prison or something fucked up.

There is no more technical work to do.

Fuck.

Wait for God.

God says... not_good What_are_you_doing_dave left_field exports happy smile Shalom ROFLMAO fancy Isn't_that_special I_didn't_do_it you_see_the_light one_more_time Oh_Hell_No I'll_think_about_it genius huh Vegas yeah smile end glam comedy ghetto my_bad

By the way, nice pic you shared.

As one GT grad (MCRP03) to another...get off the bridge a build a castle (or a speed boat) -- on a solid foundation. When I sang "I'm a hellava engineer" at graduation I was entering real estate for a short and successful (until the music stopped) career wishing I actually had been an engineer when the banks failed. Now that I am an engineer -- and someone who's been f@!37cked a few times over for not choosing CS (self taught) -- I feel like I know what it means to be lost then found...it sounds like you need to dig deeper into programming.

When I started I thought I would do web apps but I just didn't feel like an engineer no matter how well I learned JS (I read four books before I used my first API). Picking up C and objective C has been far more rewarding even though I've only put one app in the store to date.

Your mind is plastic and needs to be told what to be. Don't settle on fu$&%d.