Ask HN: Would I be stupid to give up a big tech job?
Hi HN. I am a 26 year old who has been working as a full stack dev at a big tech company for the past 4 years. It's a cushy gig. However, there's a part of me that's kind of bored with web dev and wants to take a crazy bet on something cool, like try to get into ML or ML research, or go back to school, or maybe go to work at a trading firm on wall street. I find myself daydreaming about such potential moves, but I always end up thinking to myself that my current situation is so lucrative that I might as well ride it out for as long as possible.
Has anyone had any experience with giving up a lucrative job like this to try and get into another area of CS? How did it go? It's a tough call, I will definitely regret not getting into ML & AI if it really picks up in the future, but I will regret leaving FAANG even more if the ML revolution doesn't materialize / if I fail. Should I just try to continue to ride the FAANG gravy train for as long as possible, then try and do some other stuff?
Has anyone had any experience with giving up a lucrative job like this to try and get into another area of CS? How did it go? It's a tough call, I will definitely regret not getting into ML & AI if it really picks up in the future, but I will regret leaving FAANG even more if the ML revolution doesn't materialize / if I fail. Should I just try to continue to ride the FAANG gravy train for as long as possible, then try and do some other stuff?