7/10.. Changed end of 2016 and got a good raise. Got to learn a lot of new things and adapt to the new culture. Its nice to shake up things once in a while I guess.
Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#22I love it! which is actually bad for me, because otherwise I would retire early and travel the world... maybe next year :-)
12 years and counting at this position...
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#23I love it! which is actually bad for me, because otherwise I would retire early and travel the world... maybe next year :-) 12 years and counting at this position...
Wow, must be a great job:)
I always get surprised when I see someone at the same company for 10+ years in IT.
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#247/10 One job sucked and found a new one. New gig is okay. I think my expectations for work has decreased.
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#256/10 It's not the job's fault. Good atmosphere, coworkers, and immediate management. I just want to be doing my own thing. We have had a lot of turnover, though. Perhaps it's not as good for others. Edit: I think the job deserves 8 or 9/10, it's my own attitude affecting how I answer the question as-posed.
Yeah, I know that feeling. I've concluded that I'm simply not a very good employee. Don't get me wrong, I perform! And they've let me make a lot of changes that fix many of the problems they've had. But my mind's always on my side jobs and how fast I can grow them into a business that can support us full-time. The inefficiencies at a mature business just bug me so much.
You may find those technical inefficiencies are what enabled the business to mature and sustain itself...I know several people whose “business” has extremely “efficient” tech but zero revenue. I.e. customers don’t care how efficient the tech is so long as they can pay you money to solve their problem...and putting too much energy into the tech prevents you from other revenue-generating activities such as lead generation, sales, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#26I've 34 years of experience in software engineering. Since about 1986, I have been either hired as the team lead or eventually been appointed the team lead at each of the six employers that I have worked for. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am once again starting over as a team member in a new group. I wasn't given much choice in the matter as my attempt to apply to an open position that I thought had potential, was squashed by my management. At least, knowing my desire, they offered up two choices of becoming a team member of a couple of projects with funding, openings, and years of internal customer base. However, it was a choice for me between the least of evils. Something that I could not convey to my management since I was already apparently "in the dog house" for having applied to the position of my choosing earlier. So now I have the psychological dilemma of trying to act like I am joining the team by my own choosing because I do not think any existing team member has any idea of the way I was collared. Whats more, the technology stack and engineering practices of my new team are poorly thought out if not completely random (and this is the better of the two choices). There was no mention of me being added as some sort of white knight to fix it. As far as I can tell, management has no idea of the cruft that is this system. So my spouse urges me to have patience, that I will eventually take over, as I have done in the past. But I struggle to keep my head up day to day, being assigned feature and bug tickets and instructed on kluged up solutions that match the overall product. Meanwhile, I fantasize how I could rearchitect and rewrite this system into a much better product. It isn't healthy. It isn't fun. I hate it.
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I know that feeling. I've concluded that I'm simply not a very good employee. Don't get me wrong, I perform! And they've let me make a lot of changes that fix many of the problems they've had. But my mind's always on my side jobs and how fast I can grow them into a business that can support us full-time. The inefficiencies at a mature business just bug me so much.
You may find those technical inefficiencies are what enabled the business to mature and sustain itself...I know several people whose “business” has extremely “efficient” tech but zero revenue. I.e. customers don’t care how efficient the tech is so long as they can pay you money to solve their problem...and putting too much energy into the tech prevents you from other revenue-generating activities such as lead generat…
I said absolutely nothing about technical inefficiencies.
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#281/10. Constant mass layoffs, most subject matter experts have quit, the code is a legacy pile of bugs and where changing one line of code is incredibly painful. Also new college grads are making 20k+ higher than my current salary despite having 2 years of experience in the bay area. I've been trying to find a new job but I'm so exhausted and stressed out at the end of the day that I don't have the energy to grind lee…
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Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#29I went from a huge bank with excellent engineering that never shipped anything to a small startup that is constantly on fire and a product that needs a lot of work. I love it. I'm excited about the company, there's a lot of room for me to grow, and it's small enough that I can have a lasting impact as we solidify our engineering culture. I report directly to the CTO, though I believe we'll be getting a director soon…
I just did the opposite and love it. I was burnt out, now I have time to play with some new ideas and technology. Meetings where you can sit there, be sociable and think of other stuff. I can take a few days off, turn the phone off and know the place isn't going to burn down without me. Luxury. In a few years I might move back but I feel like I've done my time.
Re: Ask HN: How did you like your job in 2017?
#30"Awful" would be the first word that comes to mind.
I've spent three years at my current position at one of the "big 5", and after the first 9 months there were reorgs and I haven't been doing the things I was hired to do since. Instead I work on things that I have zero interest towards, and can feel my soul being sucked out of me daily.
It has gotten to the point where I cannot even imagine heading in to work each morning. My entire body and mind rejects the notion. Somehow I manage to make it in on autopilot, and pretty much autopilot throughout the day. Any acts of sentience on my part while at the office are immediately doused with reminders of how much I hate all of this, and I quickly retreat back.
Unfortunately, this has done nothing but cause an ever-amplifying depression spiral. At this stage I can't even imagine trying to get another job as I don't think I'm capable of passing the whiteboard-hazing at any tech company given my current state of mind.
I'm just going to wither away here until the end I imagine.
To be fair: it's not "awful" by any traditional metric - I'm not being overworked, yelled at, treated like shit, etc. But acknowledging that doesn't help my thoughts, any.