Ask HN: Career for someone good at making time-sensitive critical decisions?

4 points by preordained 2 years ago | 14 comments

I don't think there is any way to avoid this coming off as a humble brag so I'll just shoot.

My son is really clever, always has been. It really shines in an interesting way in games like Magic the Gathering or more complex board games which our family has always been into. He dominates these things in a way that seems preternatural for a kid. I say this as an adult and a decent programmer, and my wife was top notch in school, my son (15 now) makes us feel DUUUMMMB sometimes.

I can honest to God say that if he had the domain expertise he is the one I'd want to count on to defuse a bomb or do some risky surgery. That said, I only know of things that might be suitable for such an individual from the common tropes (brain surgeon!). Is there any thing lesser known that sounds worth thinking about?

_g0wg 2 years ago |

My previous job was as a Project Manager in a very fast-paced industrial fabrication shop. We generally promised 1-week from the time a customer sent us a set of shitty blueprints to the time the product is waiting to be picked up. That included making 3D models, getting parts from suppliers, fabricating the parts, powder coating them, quality assurance, etc. Some customers got 3-4 days.

Quite often with that tight of a schedule, something would go wrong in the supply chain and we'd be left trying to find an emergency solution. It sounds bad but it was a necessity of the industry we were in. It was often similar to a strategy game, having to plan several steps ahead and predict where the delays will come from, figuring out what you can change that will be faster to produce but will still fit within the customer's requirements.

Bostonian 2 years ago |

Financial trader, although there is career risk from automation.

JumpinJack_Cash 2 years ago | |

Or Professional Poker if he's a chad who wants to look in the eye the person he's taking money from.

gtirloni 2 years ago |

I think that's a nice to have skill once he figures out what he really likes to do.

Time-sensitive critical decisions as a career sounds like guaranteed burnout.

akg_67 2 years ago | |

> Time-sensitive critical decisions as a career sounds like guaranteed burnout.

More than burnout, it was the boredom of "lulls" in between time-sensitive critical decisions that got me.

In my pre-sales/post sales system engineering roles, I was routinely approached by leadership and teammates to "put out the fire" as they used to say. I enjoyed those kind of challenges but such instances were not that frequent, may be once a month, and I found the time in between such cases incredibly boring. But the high of solving a pressing problem and then relaxing for a while was very addictive and rewarding.

I expect that I might have burnout if I was dealing with such cases everyday but a few cases a month might not be that bad.

gtirloni 2 years ago | | |

I've worked at many companies as a SRE/DevOps where I was putting out fires every other day. It's fun to save the day and be the hero, especially if it wasn't you that created the problem in the first place

But unless there's a plan to put a stop to constant fires, you start to resent your boss, your coworkers, other teams, etc. I've been burned out many times and I've learned to recognize when it's happening but I wouldn't advise a career as an IT firefighter. Maybe for a couple of years if you're getting paid really well but work on a escape plan.

VirusNewbie 2 years ago |

If he's bright and does well with pressure, almost any high paying high pressure job would be a place he could succeed. He likes biology, he could be an ER doctor. If he likes tech, he could be a world class SRE. If he's a people person, sales or law would love someone like him. Trading or quant would probably be a fun game for him and make him gobs of money.

Just encourage him to study a wide variety of topics so he can pursue his passion.

badpun 2 years ago |

Air traffic controller, firefighter, emergency rescue worker, pilot, military or police.

Most of jobs like these are more about being able to make decisions under pressure than about being super smart, though.

Desafinado 2 years ago |

Extraversion is a big factor, what level of day to day intensity is comfortable for him. To me that's a bigger aspect to look at.

ttymck 2 years ago |

Military officer, EMT, air traffic control

syndacks 2 years ago |

Designated hitter in the MLB

bhag2066 2 years ago |

A quarterback?

nprateem 2 years ago |

Trader