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Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

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Re: Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

#31

Post by le-mark »

gwbas1c wrote: post #22

I've learned to appreciate my job for what it is, and for the benefits that it provides in comparison to other jobs that I could easily obtain. It took me almost a decade of bouncing from a few different jobs, and failing miserably at trying to run my own company, before I found my current job. My job isn't perfect, but no job is. I'm board and eager to move to another opportunity, but that opportunity will be chosen…

> I've learned to appreciate my job for what it is, and for the benefits that it provides in comparison to other jobs that I could easily obtain.

This is what it boils down to, imo. Currently I'm working on a horrendous legacy code base with a very low performing team, in a very low performing organization. Over the years I've learned what matters to me, and this job has what I need: good pay, time off, and I can come and go as I please so long as I'm here for "core" hours (ie on location, not remote). The last part is another way to say my boss is cool. He's new too, although he's been here longer than I have. We're both dismayed at the do nothing culture, and terrible code here.

That's about all anyone can ask for IME, find out what matters to you and optimize for that. When I go home I don't give a thought for work, I get to concentrate on my family 100%.

Re: Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

#32

Post by bontaq »

Yep, I like my job. I work at a healthcare startup and have been here since near the beginning.

Working conditions are nice, I'm on one of many small-ish teams (usually 5-10 people including management), 9-5 work doesn't raise eyebrows, I get to work with decent technology (clojure/scala/typescript), my colleagues are clever, and I've gotten much better at programming.

One of the best parts is that though it may be a bit circuitous, I can usually see exactly who I'm helping and how.

Re: Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

#34

Post by hangonhn »

I love my job even though it's the hardest job I've ever had in terms of hours worked and learning curve. I worked 8 years at a big corporation where I was fairly high up and was paid a really nice salary along with RSUs but the last 3 to 4 years there was just miserable for me. Based on my current happiness and contrasted with my previous unhappiness, I think the reasons are:

1. My work see the light of day. My efforts matter. I don't mind working hard as long as it is not wasted. At large corporations, projects, even big ones, are often scrapped for reasons that aren't anything related to the the technical work. I get it but it still sucks and it really makes me not want to try hard. Having effort and outcome being correlated with each other is a huge motivator.

2. I know what's going on but am never the smartest person in the room. Working with people at least as smart and skilled as I am is amazing. I don't have to worry about other people and their work. We can just divide up the work and be reasonably sure things will get done in a reasonable way. If not, talk it over and fix it.

3. I have a lot of responsibility and independence and we attack the problem. I've had the opportunity to learn and experiment with so much in just two years and those experiments are actually getting deployed. Having a hand in pushing things like Docker, Clojure, etc. at my company is amazing. I remember all the silly meetings at my old job over the choice of language for QA that ended up exactly where we started versus now when we decided to try out a new tool written in Clojure even though none of us ever used Clojure. We are all smart enough engineers, why should a new language stop us from solving the problem.

Re: Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

#35

Post by kenbolton »

chuck32 wrote: post #30
kenbolton wrote: post #12

I work from home for a profitable business-to-business startup servicing the payments underwriting industry. I did not know such an industry existed before working on this project, and the job came through my alumni network on LinkedIn. I just started my fifth year with this organization. My responsibilities include everything engineering; everyone else focuses sales. I've met one of the three co-founders twice, firs…

"I try to put in at least four hours of work every day, including weekends, and balance that with four hours of year-round kayaking, hiking, house-work, seasonal snow-sports, or some other physical activity." Well done for achieving work-life balance.

Appreciate the sentiment, but gotta admit that I feel like I am still pretty far from this achievement. I suspect that balance is a goal that will remain perpetually just out of reach, and I am fine with continuing to work on it! To that point, I started skateboarding last week in an effort to improve balance. Rodney Mullen is my new hero.

Re: Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

#36

Post by d--b »

Very happy. I was working at a firm full time for about 7 years. I told them I wanted more time to be with my family, develop personal projects and live abroad, and that I would really love to continue working part time and remotely. So now I consult part time for them from abroad. I took a pay cut, but I'm still very decently paid.

Re: Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

#37

Post by symmitchry »

I was a mechanical engineer for many years... And hated every job I had. I woke up every day dreading my work. I honestly believed that I would hate work forever.

Now I'm a coder (actually now I'm a manager, so less coding, but still a bit) and I really love my job. I wish I could work more. I love coming to work, I love my team, and we really have a ton of fun.

Our office is really chill but I have my own desire to be productive and write high-quality code. My teammates are great.

So my advice is: Don't give up. Like relationships, you can't stop searching for the right now, but because all the others have been terrible so far. Good jobs are out there!

Re: Ask HN: Is any senior dev reasonably happy with their job?

#39

Post by kenbolton »

d--b wrote: post #36

Very happy. I was working at a firm full time for about 7 years. I told them I wanted more time to be with my family, develop personal projects and live abroad, and that I would really love to continue working part time and remotely. So now I consult part time for them from abroad. I took a pay cut, but I'm still very decently paid.

This! Be honest and open about your needs, goals, and desires.
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