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Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#51

Post by davisr »

csharpminor wrote: post #35
davisr wrote: post #3

I currently work at an ad agency (we call ourselves a "boutique data-driven marketing company") in Milwaukee. My official title is Developer, but I do a lot of things: I manage servers, code applications (HTML/CSS/Javascript, but also C, R, and loads of shell scripting), research new concepts, automate existing workflows, and so much more. Before I did this, I worked as a freelancer doing one-off website jobs for sma…

I've been working for a b-corporation that is in the ed-tech space. There are a lot of problems to solve here. After two years, I feel that educational software is more about production quality/entertainment value than about solving technological challenges. Poorly designed content that is not engaging can't compete with other resources on the web. Building a platform to facilitate learning is difficult, because the…

Thanks for your insight. I think the problem with a lot of educational programs (not all, though) is that they intend to replace live instruction. In my ideal world, computers would always remain _supplementary_ to the instructor.

The idea of what a 'computer' is to most people is disappointing to me. More people should see computers as thinking machines, as machines that allow us to extend the reach and complexity of our own thoughts. They are not word processors or spreadsheets, and they certainly aren't multiple-choice answer facilitators. While they prove useful in those regards, the real power is in the mind of the bit manipulator: the student.

I think that if we start using computers as facilitators to learning, rather than replacements for instruction, we'll see a lot of students become more interested in learning. Concepts are very difficult to understand from a book, so blackboards were invented. However, blackboards are very static, so it takes a lively animator to control it. However, it's foolish to believe that every teacher wants to be outstanding. Computers offer us a chance to go one step further than the blackboard, without much additional effort from the instructor.

Visualization is a key problem. There needs to be a way to visualize things on a computer with almost zero learning curve. Blackboards are so much simpler than learning the syntax of a programming language. Bret Victor's work on Drawing Dynamic Visualizations is a step in the right direction.

Students should be using computers to explore the nature, and the best way to do that is by having them build models and simulations. Live classroom instruction should be supplemented with these tasks, to allow students to figure things out on their own. That builds a deeper understanding of problems, and allows students to see connections between things.

I agree, it's a matter of content. However, it's not that the content isn't entertaining enough, it's that it isn't participatory enough.

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#52

Post by cdcarter »

I work for a B-Corp consultancy that works exclusively with non-profits. We implement databases and the general motto is "help you take control of your data". My portfolio is currently all supportive housing organizations in San Francisco (though we are a Seattle firm). We work primarily on the Salesforce platform, thanks to their deep deep discounts and grants to non-profits.

I love my job, because it's a great blend between strategic work and technical work. Since our clients are often running shoe-string operations that have evolved instead of been designed, a lot of my job is convincing the client that they could change their process instead of paying me to build a feature.

I also get a lot of time to work on open source projects. There's a quickly growing open source community for non-profit software on the Salesforce platform.

I used to work as a professional union stagehand, programming and operating projection and media systems for musicals. I loved that job, but the work wasn't stable and the hours sucked.

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#53

Post by cdcarter »

pen2l wrote: post #32
davisr wrote: post #3

I currently work at an ad agency (we call ourselves a "boutique data-driven marketing company") in Milwaukee. My official title is Developer, but I do a lot of things: I manage servers, code applications (HTML/CSS/Javascript, but also C, R, and loads of shell scripting), research new concepts, automate existing workflows, and so much more. Before I did this, I worked as a freelancer doing one-off website jobs for sma…

How will the non-profit be funded? Do you think you'll be able to sustain yourself working at a non-profit? (serious question. A lot of us want to work at non-profits, but find it to be not a realistic choice since it doesn't pay enough to survive, wondering how others are able to do it)

Many non-profits pay perfectly fine living wages.

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#54

Post by davisr »

markism wrote: post #40
davisr wrote: post #3

I currently work at an ad agency (we call ourselves a "boutique data-driven marketing company") in Milwaukee. My official title is Developer, but I do a lot of things: I manage servers, code applications (HTML/CSS/Javascript, but also C, R, and loads of shell scripting), research new concepts, automate existing workflows, and so much more. Before I did this, I worked as a freelancer doing one-off website jobs for sma…

I've spent some time thinking about what education should look like and how technology fits into that, I'd love to chat and bounce some ideas around.

Sure, I love to chat. What's the best way to get in touch?

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#55

Post by davisr »

pen2l wrote: post #32
davisr wrote: post #3

I currently work at an ad agency (we call ourselves a "boutique data-driven marketing company") in Milwaukee. My official title is Developer, but I do a lot of things: I manage servers, code applications (HTML/CSS/Javascript, but also C, R, and loads of shell scripting), research new concepts, automate existing workflows, and so much more. Before I did this, I worked as a freelancer doing one-off website jobs for sma…

How will the non-profit be funded? Do you think you'll be able to sustain yourself working at a non-profit? (serious question. A lot of us want to work at non-profits, but find it to be not a realistic choice since it doesn't pay enough to survive, wondering how others are able to do it)

I haven't really figured that part out, which is why it'll happen in "a while." Getting Grants and private investment from the demos I can build after work are the most likely scenario.

Even if I can't do it full time, I can do it when I can. Right now, I'm working on these ideas about one night per week.

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#57

Post by eldavido »

pinkunicorn wrote: post #49
eldavido wrote: post #8

Current job: leading four-person, client-focused software development/design company. I'm the "managing partner" and spend ~80% of my time writing code/technical architecture and 20% on personnel/payroll/admin/marketing/etc. I'm trying to take the best parts of a law firm (explicit focus on mentorship, got-your-back partnership mentality, treating people like skilled, autonomous professionals, good pay) and apply it…

Curious, what % of time do you spend for admin/payroll/personnel? Would something like Zenefits/Gusto reduce the time?

I spend approximately 5 minutes per month on payroll - Gusto user (former Microsoft officemate/friend is eng hire #2 there). There may be better tools than Gusto, but it's good enough that I don't think about it.

Another point: running any kind of client service business, to a first approximation, is 100% about getting the right kind of clients. I spent a while a few years ago doing "contracting" for bottom-of-the-barrel Craigslist wannabes and other jokers and it was horrible. Going from being a pure dev employee to contracting because you 'hate office politics' is a route to failure; it requires a lot more planning, especially over cashflow, and client relationships.

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#58

Post by a3n »

staticautomatic wrote: post #4
jo909 wrote: post #2

I sit in a chair, in front of a panel with many lights, and another panel with many buttons. And I press the buttons rapidly in some specific order to make certain lights go on or off.

You work on the USS Enterprise?

I actually did used to work on the USS Enterprise, the one that floats in the water on Earth. I was a sailor, it was in the shipyards for overhaul, and there weren't a lot of operational blinking lights at the time. But there was a hell of a lot of grinding away old paint and putting on new paint.

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#59

Post by eldavido »

rudenoise wrote: post #20

I'm a software engineer. I work on a contract basis, contracts last 3 months to a year. I've recently made CI pipelines, Win 8.1 apps, IOS apps but mostly web-apps. The pay is good and the people I work with are cool. I don't love it though. It's OK. It'd be better to code 20% of the time and observe, talk, think the other 80%. I think that this might make me more efficient and more productive. My best job was my fir…

Have also experienced this. More of a "blue collar" feel of "it's just a job", rather than all this loaded mission/passion/vision BS that seems to accompany many white-collar jobs. I also find it refreshing.

Anecdotally, I've found this "honesty" more frequently in owner-operated companies, family businesses, etc. than in "white collar" "professional" settings. I like when people have the honesty to say, "we're doing it this way because I want to" rather than having to dress it up in some quasi-rational, quasi-scientific "we've evaluated the costs and benefits, and concluded that this way is superior" when the decision was 100% emotion/preference/it's my friend's company/we did it this way before/other silly reason.

Re: Ask HN: What is your job? Do you like it? What was your favorite job?

#60

Post by drakonka »

I work as a build engineer at a game development company. I do like it because I have a great opportunity to learn and grow, which is possibly the most important thing to me in a job. I'm encouraged to think about what I want to be doing long term and move in that direction. Right now I deal mostly with build tools and automated testing.
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