How's your spiritual health? Where do you drive meaning in your life? Who do you serve and who do you trust?
You hit the nail on the head. Three questions that perfectly sum up the essay of a comment I just wrote.
Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#22I got a job at one of the big tech co’s maybe 5 years into my career, which at the time I thought was a great achievement, but actually I found the job pretty dull and a bit like you say, quite far detached from what made me excited about programming. I quit after 18 months and went into contracting for startups instead, which seemed like a way to still make reasonably good money (though nowhere near as good as FAANG…
> went into contracting for startups instead Did you find these opportunities mostly through your personal network? What would you recommend to others looking to find similar opportunities?
Yeah, my first contract came from a friend from a previous job who now worked at the startup. Subsequent ones were word of mouth (from people I’d met at the first one mainly), and one came as a result of seeing a Who is Hiring? post on here looking for permanent employees but I thought I’d ask if they’d consider contractors and they said yes.
However, I have plenty of friends who are contractors and get all their roles through recruiters. Most of them have said it pays to cultivate a good relationship with recruiter(s) you can trust to find you good roles - if they know you’re good (based on feedback from previous clients they placed you with) you’ll likely be the first person they reach out to when there’s a new role that would suit.
One thing to be aware of is that contract roles are often looking for people to start ASAP and are not willing to wait for long notice periods, especially if you’re coming from a permanent role to contracting (I was told this is partially because people sometimes actually end up staying in the perm role e.g. because they get tempted to stay, wasting everyone’s time)… so you might find you need to take a leap of faith and quit without anything lined up, unless you can get an in through someone in your network who’s willing to wait for your notice (this happened for me).
As I say I’m not sure how relevant this advice is in other countries, my impression is contracting in software dev is more common in the UK than many other countries.
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#23I'm a similar age to the poster. This December, I've been doing a lot of thinking (and writing, in order to try to clarify things a bit) about how I want 2023 and the next few years to go.
I've asked myself these three broad questions:
1. What would my ideal future look like? Where would I like to be, in terms of relationships, career, hobbies and so on.
2. What does the opposite of (1) look like? If I really let things go, if I truly failed at life and screwed everything up, what would my life be like?
3. What 8 goals, challenging but doable, could I complete this year that would get me closer to (1)? These 8 goals must be measurable and be bound by a deadline.
I can't say whether or not this will deliver results, but I have found it quite motivating to ponder all this carefully.
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#24I don't know that I have any good questions to suggest that you ask yourself but I just want to point out that "average" or "normal" are not pejorative terms. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing a fine job at work and then going home to enjoy reading a book or whatever hobbies you have. The reason I point this out is that whenever I feel like you're feeling I eventually realize it's because I'm buying into th…
I am sure you have built things with your bare hands that you have been proud of or maybe someone close to you. if i compare theses events in my own life to the things i built as a dev i must say: something is off. and nobody is helped if we sugarcoat things like that. sw engineering is hard work and more often than not feels like a waste of time. i never aspired to stand out, all i want is build something i can be proud of.
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#25When I was trying to figure out my interests, passions, and career in general, someone suggested I ask myself this:
"What do I want to DO, BE, or HAVE?"
I found it grounding, centering, and it helped me to determine my goals. I still ask myself this, when I find myself without particular goals (such as if I accomplished my past goal(s)), or if I find myself bored or wanting to change direction.
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#26I don't know that I have any good questions to suggest that you ask yourself but I just want to point out that "average" or "normal" are not pejorative terms. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing a fine job at work and then going home to enjoy reading a book or whatever hobbies you have. The reason I point this out is that whenever I feel like you're feeling I eventually realize it's because I'm buying into th…
I am sure you have built things with your bare hands that you have been proud of or maybe someone close to you. if i compare theses events in my own life to the things i built as a dev i must say: something is off. and nobody is helped if we sugarcoat things like that. sw engineering is hard work and more often than not feels like a waste of time. i never aspired to stand out, all i want is build something i can be p…
I certainly didn't intend to sugarcoat anything. I was actually hoping to lay bare the harsh reality that work is often disappointing. I would hazard a guess that maligree has built at least a few things they're proud of at work. I read their post as expressing an overall feeling that they're not at home in their job, which to my understanding is a tangent from whether or not you have individual accomplishments to be proud of.
I'll double down on my original comment and say that if you depend on work to be your ultimate source of fulfillment (another way of calling it a home), the disappointment and reality that "sw engineering is hard work and more often than not feels like a waste of time" will always pull the rug out from under you at some point.
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#27I enjoy writing code and solving problems aspect of it, it's like a game, I'd only switch because it doesn't pay very well...
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#28> Have you had moments where you did a sober double take and decided to alter your course or commit to it and stay on it? Heck, maybe close the laptop altogether. One data point for you: In 2011, age 27, I left the laptop in San Francisco and took off with a backpack, thinking that I might never code again. About 2 months in I was in Thailand and randomly stumbled across an interesting book on assembly language, got…
You had us in the first half
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#29Sigh...
Taking a few things for granted here, (that you're probably well-employed and capable in a comfortable work environment that pays you comfortably,) is it so terrible that you just accept and be grateful for that, and find fulfillment, novelty, and self discovery in your time outside of work? Heck, you can even use your skillset to find ways to minimize the time and energy you have to spend at your job in order to maximize what you have to give to those other pursuits. But why burn the bridges of stability and the benefits it brings?
The grass often seems greener elsewhere, and there's nothing stopping you from making a more definitive break with software engineering once you have built momentum on a side project or endeavor that's proven its value to you during dabbling.
Not to mention, do you have a spouse/kids? What would a sudden break mean for them? If you don't, has mid-upper 30s you thought about that timeline? It's a lot harder to handle the early years of your kids' childhood in your 40s struggling in a new career than comfortably in your 30s.
Re: Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am sure you have built things with your bare hands that you have been proud of or maybe someone close to you. if i compare theses events in my own life to the things i built as a dev i must say: something is off. and nobody is helped if we sugarcoat things like that. sw engineering is hard work and more often than not feels like a waste of time. i never aspired to stand out, all i want is build something i can be p…
I certainly didn't intend to sugarcoat anything. I was actually hoping to lay bare the harsh reality that work is often disappointing. I would hazard a guess that maligree has built at least a few things they're proud of at work. I read their post as expressing an overall feeling that they're not at home in their job, which to my understanding is a tangent from whether or not you have individual accomplishments to be…
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