Ask HN: Who has the best job at an American tech company? - cfontes I'm talking about people who spend all their time at the office or in the office (not fielding customer calls or such) working on the company's tech product. ====== paulhauggis The best job: making millions and a lifestyle of traveling around the world. I've made a lot of mistakes in the past, and it seems that the people who are making a lot of money are the ones who jumped on the bandwagon as soon as it got started, and then spent every waking moment getting their share of the action. Even though I make a lot more money than them, I still have a lot of responsibility and stress. I'm currently working my way up to having a few million in my bank account. It seems this is the only way to have a solid income. My advice is to do all the part-time side projects, build a network of contacts, then jump on a company as soon as it gets off the ground. ~~~ throwaway092876 I do consulting gigs for a living, and I agree with paulhauggis' advice. If you're a true consultant (you provide the product or service yourself, rather than just selling a service), then you can build up your own product line to add to your consulting gigs and leverage the demand you build up. This way, the actual money you make isn't directly proportional to the time you spend on a project, but it can grow to that proportion in time. I have some friends who run a popular social media marketing platform for SaaS companies. They do some consulting gigs for non-SaaS companies, but don't have the time to develop their own software so they can be in a position to offer those SaaS companies. To get around that, they started their own SaaS/consulting company that offers the service they give other companies without that particular expertise (in the case of my friends, it's marketing strategy and consulting). ------ d0m To me, the best job would be a full time developer that can do the following:- - code from scratch - do UX and wireframes - talk to customers - have a decent idea of the current tech stack I see so many junior developers that can only code and do basic ops work. And this is a waste of talent. Because this is not what companies are looking for. I feel like the best work is in that middle ground: where you have the freedom to try a lot of ideas, but are given a team who is there to improve your code and design. This is not an easy position to be in, but I think for people who want to build on their career and keep growing with the industry this can be a good start. I've had the most fun in my career doing this. There is a lot of work to do, but there is so much more to learn than a junior level. ------ kunj2aan The best job is working for a consultancy - you work with a number of other people in the same time and on many different projects, while being able to focus on one big thing at a time. ~~~ kunj2aan That would be like $300k/year and would be done in 4-5 years. Or do you have another suggestion? ------ JSeymourATL I've been consulting for over 35 years now-- the best job, to me, is the one with the most freedom to experiment. If your goal is to make good money and you're OK with doing something for $12K per month, you're never going to get there. ------ hackerews I'm in my last 3 months of my internship before moving back home. Best company I've worked for so far. Everything is made so easy and enjoyable. I don't feel hounded all the time with stuff that has nothing to do with coding. ------ jtfairbank At our company we work from home and have lots of freedom. ------ gesman The best job: a remote work in a country that is peaceful and welcoming for foreigners with a great currency, low cost of living, where the language is easier to learn, not a foreign language. And other positive traits to make a life interesting. ------ tmaly I worked at several positions at small and large companies. It really depends on the company. I worked at a start-up in Boulder, Colorado that had some very interesting technology. I now work at a small start-up in New York City that has an even smaller budget. ------ mindcrime Honestly, this is pretty close to my ideal job. _If_ you don't care about having lots of stock options or RSUs or any of that... and you don't care about the office politics, and you don't care about the politics of your particular team... then this is pretty much what I'd like. Of course there are some downsides as well. One thing I've had a hard time adjusting to is the long hours. In the past I spent 16-20 hours a day coding on most days, but then again, that's what I enjoy doing anyway. But right now there's not a _lot_ of "go" in the day, and it takes a long time to finish up everything. ~~~ sotojuan > One thing I've had a hard time adjusting to is the long hours. In the past > I spent 16-20 hours a day coding on most days, but then again, that's what I > enjoy doing anyway. But right now there's not a lot of "go" in the day, and > it takes a long time to finish up everything. I feel the same way. I haven't seen people doing a full day's work in an entire year. ~~~ mindcrime Sometimes it seems like there should be. I'm finding myself getting a bit stressed about the lack of "go" though, mostly because of this. The company I'm at now is an "agile" company and it's my impression that they don't do hourly billing (at least, not anymore), but it seems hard for me to find a balance between not showing up on time for meetings, which would seem to imply you don't care about the company, and overloading yourself with stuff that has nothing to do with code. ~~~ sotojuan Hm, can't be as bad as some shops though. One coworker of mine spent 5 hours looking at a video a coworker had recorded, then two hours on Skype with a coworker a plane ride away (and not paying attention to my side of the call). But he's really friendly and