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Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#201

Post by brimble »

tinco wrote: post #151
nwellnhof wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But on the Ruby side, stuff gets deprecated/broken all the time, so we need much more manpower to maintain it. Maybe you should consider Perl? I'm only half joking. I have a few Perl projects running unchanged for 15 years and hopefully for the next 15 years as well.

It's not Ruby itself that has features being deprecated/broken all the time, it's the libraries they're using that are changing. If you built an app targeting Ruby 1.8.7 (~15 yrs old now?) with maybe rack and sinatra as your only dependencies using only the bare feature set that was available then, it would easily run on Ruby 3 with no code modifications. It would be a lot nicer than Perl too I bet. If you rely on in…

Software culture plays a role. If there's one big dog successful project around that everyone's using for a particular purpose and that crowds out and de facto kills other libraries that might do the same thing, but that project's leadership just loves breaking backward compatibility every two years (or more) and not providing security updates for older versions... well, you're stuck with frequent, painful upgrades that require code changes. If that's the norm for lots of projects in an ecosystem, it gets hard to do anything in that language without either avoiding many of its most useful libraries or having relatively high-cost long-term maintenance and/or projects that basically just die and have to be replaced with something new if they fall out of view of your developers for more than a few months at a time.

OTOH, if the culture of a language is that mature, popular libraries tend not to receive breaking changes, even if the principal maintainer reads a blog post and falls in love with New Paradigm X, maintenance can be much cheaper/easier, while still using plenty of 3rd party libraries.

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#202

Post by BerislavLopac »

isx726552 wrote: post #105
apohn wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work in a Customer facing role at a Enterprise Software Company that sold up and down the Fortune 500. I got to see a lot of different tech stacks. Many use a lot of proprietary software, which can be a type of hell nobody understands till you end up as an expert in a niche area and spend your day dealing with vendors and tech support to fix anything. After 5 years you are an expert on "EnterpriseSoftwareCo…

Yeesh I feel that way working at a FAANG (or MAGMA or whatever it’s called this week). I’m an expert at our internal systems and platforms, but that’s not a skill that’s transferable anywhere else.

I prefer AAA - Amazon, Alphabet and Apple. Netflix is irrelevant, while Facebook is too evil.

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#203

Post by idorube »

There's also too boring. I had a job at a software company that uses Rocket UniVerse (https://www.rocketsoftware.com/products/rocket-universe-0/ro...). It upscales a telnet based interface to a windows-like frankenstein that displays on conventional MS Windows pc's. The db is ironically noSQL before they even invented the term. But that interface, that tech...

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#204

Post by muzani »

tinco wrote: post #57

You've got the wrong impression of what is "boring" tech. A setup out of a rack in a rando datacenter isn't boring, it's frustrating. Saying doing things the old way is boring, is like saying sending your wife out to carry water from the well in a jar on her head is boring. We've got running water now, that has nothing to do with double-digit YOY growth, it has to do with actually reliably and comfortably deploying a…

I've joined such "boring" companies before. Using SOAP instead of JSON/REST. Using email attachments for source control. Having to download every new version of a dependency and attaching it with Eclipse, instead of it auto downloading when I update the version number.

Also my grandma used to have gas lighting and wells. That was fun, but I can't go back to that.

I think people just don't like the uncertainty with new tech, but the old ones can be uncertain too.

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#205

Post by muzani »

ParksNet wrote: post #131
bluetomcat wrote: post #59

Just leave your SF/VC bubble, move to a medium-sized European city and such jobs will be plentiful. Most likely you'll be maintaining internal business applications on uncool and legacy technology stacks. The value of these applications is mostly for the particular business and your experience wouldn't transfer easily to a new job. The upside is that job security is far greater there. Also, you'll have less opportuni…

And between income tax, payroll tax, sales tax, you'll be taking a substantial cut in income - for housing which is more expensive, colder weather, and less sunlight.

Come to Southeast Asia if you care about all that. Well, pay is a lot lower, but there's less taxes, more sunlight, lots of old tech, and good cheap healthcare. Also plenty of beaches, islands, and water parks.

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#206

Post by the_only_law »

laughingpine wrote: post #198
badthingfactory wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The non-tech F500 I worked at several years ago is doing everything they can to abandon .NET/Java in favor of low-code tools. Their engineers are jumping ship and they're having a hard time finding replacements.

This is the direction my current employer is headed. I was sent on a week long course to evaluate the viability of PowerApps. While there is certainly some cool stuff in there, it just doesn't feel like we should be moving all our development there wholesale. There is certainly a time and place, or at least that is how it seems to me. Business / money making / crucial systems? No. Some random HR survey application? M…

My prior job had a ton of PowerApps apps for very basic internal CRUD stuff. It always seemed like mostly a form builder though

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#207

Post by Optimal_Persona »

apohn wrote: post #195
badthingfactory wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The non-tech F500 I worked at several years ago is doing everything they can to abandon .NET/Java in favor of low-code tools. Their engineers are jumping ship and they're having a hard time finding replacements.

>in favor of low-code tools. Their engineers are jumping ship and they're having a hard time finding replacements. I have a friend who works for a major low-code software company. They're doing quite well financially because of all the excitement around low-code. The product is good if you stay within the boundaries of what it can do. Some managers people think they can replace their enterprise Tableau/Spotfire/Power…

My nonprofit works with a very talented Microsoft consultancy to help our transition from on-prem servers to Microsoft 365 cloud. My main contact there (Director of Biz Operations) says they have transitioned most of their custom development from .NET to Power Apps/Power Automate. It's not the only toolset they use, but he says it's the right tool for many small-medium biz CRUD needs.

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#208

Post by lifeplusplus »

froggertoaster wrote: post #167
lifeplusplus wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What classifies as boring business

My greater point is: beauty (or boring) is in the eye of the beholder. Some value a high-stress, cutting-edge environment. I don't and my employees largely don't either. Boring == predictable to us. We are definitely not "move fast and break things" like NPM is. We move appropriately fast while de-risking our customers long-term. My suggestion: figure out what kind of boring/not boring you like, and find a job that s…

i didn't meant to be critical i trully wanna what businesses are generally seen as boring. as someone who just doesn't have much exposure i only recognize retail businesses. I have no idea what type of businesses are in all the office buildings everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#209

Post by smm11 »

manuelmoreale wrote: post #15

Small design studios. They still exist and they often need developers to develop “regular” websites using very down to earth stacks. There’s a ton of business that simply need basic websites and those still need to be developed by someone.

There's a ton of businesses with mail servers, ERP systems, workstations, industrial equipment, web sites, and hardware to support salespersons, events, and visitors.

Keeps me busy, and automating as much as I can, before I ride off into the sunset. Sometimes the shiny ring isn't what you need to chase.

Re: Ask HN: Where can we find the unsexy jobs?

#210

Post by froggertoaster »

lifeplusplus wrote: post #208
froggertoaster wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My greater point is: beauty (or boring) is in the eye of the beholder. Some value a high-stress, cutting-edge environment. I don't and my employees largely don't either. Boring == predictable to us. We are definitely not "move fast and break things" like NPM is. We move appropriately fast while de-risking our customers long-term. My suggestion: figure out what kind of boring/not boring you like, and find a job that s…

i didn't meant to be critical i trully wanna what businesses are generally seen as boring. as someone who just doesn't have much exposure i only recognize retail businesses. I have no idea what type of businesses are in all the office buildings everywhere.

I did not take your question as critical at all. :)
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