Stop being average, stop calling yourself average, stop caring about your job description.
Do what you want to do, do it awesomely, live small, be patient.
Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
41–50 of 62 posts
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#42Build a side project you can be proud of! Will allow you to get your skills up in the areas you think are lacking and give you something you can show to prospective employers.
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#43You sound conscientious, competent, and reasonably experienced. That's worth a lot more than what you make. Apply for PHP development jobs in the geographic area to which you can reasonably commute. Network locally, but forget the blog stuff unless that's something you think you'd enjoy. And make sure to give your current employer a chance to bid against the firm that makes you an offer. You'll be surprised how much…
>>And make sure to give your current employer a chance to bid against the firm that makes you an offer.
I agree with the rest, but not this.
1. I think bosses are taught that: After this kind of negotiation, most people leave soon after, anyway.
2. The bosses underpaid him. In my experience, there seems to be a bit of strategy to keep employees self confidence down. He should leave that place, no good will come from staying with them. (This might be my own history speaking.)
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#44I suggest focusing on something that many (web) programmers don't have, don't think about enough, and are paid a heck of a lot more if they do:
How are your design skills?
Edit: by design I mean aesthetics and user experience
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#45The typical engineer is not a genius. Don't compare yourself to geniuses. The typical engineer also makes more than you do, and you should find a job and close that gap. If you are feeling like you are unworthy, go talk to any chaps in London about the guys making 50k sterling while being unable to do FizzBuzz. (I assume you have them in London, too.) If you're worried about your portfolio being insufficiently graphi…
Is FizzBuzz actually used as a coder test? Are their really paid coders out there who can't solve that in a couple minutes?
One test I commonly use in interviews is to ask candidates to write a function to sum up an array of values. A scary volume of them can't manage it at all.
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#46Ouch dude, I'm earning £17k/yr and I thought I was getting stiffed (Two years experience). If I'm still earning this kind of money in six years time I will be most unhappy.
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#47You need to learn about control and responsibility. See, you have become responsible for your work, but you were not in control of it. Your employers have controlled it, and you let them by not pushing back on their decisions, which is understandable if you need work. I've done it. The problem is you are also now responsible for this work, because your name is on it. You're now screwed because the rest of the world a…
Upmodded for enterprise Java douchebag.
(and the good advice)
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is FizzBuzz actually used as a coder test? Are their really paid coders out there who can't solve that in a couple minutes?
I just got thrown the FizzBuzz test a couple days ago. First time I had ever seen it. Startled me that everyone else knows what it is too! I don't know if it would be blindingly obvious without the mod operator.
var s = require('sys');
for (var i = 1; i Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#49Time to become a rockstar, mate. I say fill in whatever holes you think you have in your skill (if there are any) and market yourself as a rockstar. You're only a rockstar if you act like one.
Please don't market yourself as a rockstar - rockstars tend to be characterised by egocentricity, rudeness, and childish intractability.
Do market yourself as a skilled craftsman that can contribute to a team.
Re: Ask HN: Average coder at dead-end. What now?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just got thrown the FizzBuzz test a couple days ago. First time I had ever seen it. Startled me that everyone else knows what it is too! I don't know if it would be blindingly obvious without the mod operator.
I would consider the mod operator to be pretty basic though. (Feel free to call me out if I'm just being naive.) Outside of the mod operator, you could always use a combo of floor() and ceiling() (which I assume most languages have in a standard library). e.g.: from math import floor,ceil def divisible_by_3(n): result = n / 3.0 return ceil(result) == floor(result) Or even more basic: def divisible_by_3(n): result = n…
I used the old int(i) == i (or even, int(i/2) == i/2) way before I knew about the mod operator.