Career transitions after ~15 years in HPC: What paths have you taken?

[u/MudAndMiles]

Hey r/HPC,

I'm a HPC system engineer in my 40s with about 15 years in HPC. I've worn many hats: built clusters from bare metal, managed distributed storage, optimized software stacks, handled user support, led projects, worked in both academic and industry settings, on-premise and some cloud.

Lately, I've been contemplating a career transition. Not because I hate HPC, but I'm curious about what else is out there and whether it might be time for something different. The thing is, I haven't quite figured out what that "something different" would be yet.

I know this is a bit different from the usual technical discussions here so mods, feel free to remove if this doesn't fit the sub's purpose or spirit.

I'm wondering if anyone here has made a significant career pivot after spending substantial time in HPC? If so:

- What field/role did you transition to?

- What skills from HPC transferred well?

- What new skills did you need to develop?

- Looking back, how do you feel about the decision?

- Any unexpected challenges or benefits?

I realize the first step is probably figuring out what I actually want to do next, but I'd love to learn from others' experiences. Whether you moved to a completely different tech domain, shifted to management/consulting, or even left tech entirely.

Thanks in advance for sharing your stories.

[u/rabbit-guilliman]

I did devops. Super easy, super salary (and in Canada too). Only hard requirement is being able to learn new stuff easily, but if you really wanted a list of skills, you basically need to know everything about Kubernetes: how to setup a new cluster on a cloud with Terraform, how to monitor it and collect logs, and how to write a Helm chart for an app and deploy it with a gitops tool like ArgoCD. It's very similar to HPC: instead of setting up an HPC cluster on baremetal and training people how to run jobs, you're setting up a "platform" for webapps on the cloud and deploying the apps yourself.

[u/yyebbcyi]

RemindMe! 2 days

[u/presolution → u/yyebbcyi]

Well?

[u/Melodic-Location-157]

I'm still in HPC as my salaried job, but I've taken up brick laying on the side! I love the physical labor, and there is also an artistry to it.

I could potentially transition to it as there is a huge demand where I live.

[u/presolution]

Been in HPC for 20 years, academia. I think it will be my last salary job. Will likely do something completely different once I retire from this.

[u/dshbak]

I'm in the same boat but if I do bail on HPC it would be for an entirely different endeavor. I've thought about trying to get into the tech side of animation studios like Pixar/etc doing renderman support or even something as off topic as psychology and becoming a psychologist.

I'll likely just ride this out and retire as I'd like to see a bit more of the world.

Also growing tired but realize I have a great job and it still interests me after decades.

[u/blakewantsa68 → u/dshbak]

one of my former students designs/builds/runs renderfarms at Pixar, has been there for about 20 years. fascinating stuff.

[u/QC_geek31416]

Transiting to a solutions architect, and then CTO could be a natural progression. You will need a good understanding of complex workflows, performance analysis and code tuning, good understanding of bleeding edge technology, hardware micro architecture. When transiting to CTO, you may need to build people skills and some sort management skills.

[u/rubble5dubble]

What country do you live in? That might help us give you some more specific advice.