71–80 of 491 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When did you learn rails? Would you recommend learning it today?
learn machine learning and AI instead of rails now. Rails is 2008-2012.
Getting a job in a major metro area. I was very resistant to moving away from the smallish city/metro area I lived in until my late 20's. When I did, my career just took off. I'm not even talking about Silicon Valley. I worked in Boston, Seattle, and Sydney, Australia. Never set foot in the valley as an employee of a local company. Made insane salaries, one company I worked for got acquired, another one went public,…
Changing careers. Left software to become a doctor. I'll graduate in 7 months.
I have a relative who did the same thing. She is now a doctor.
I'm actually unsure if I've ever made any particularly good career decisions aside from switching into computer science. Aside from that I have largely been reliant on the combination of being reasonably competent and the generally high demand for developers to make up for lack of good career decisions. On multiple occasions I have resigned from jobs after 2-3 years with no clear plan for the future, let alone anothe…
Teaching myself to program. Nothing caused such a hockey stick in opportuinities. I was able to make way more money in a very short time period and work in much more interesting companies. I never took anything so seriously in my life as when I decided to become a programmer. I bought dozens of used textbooks, read and meticulously underlined them, relentlessly wrote code and read all the programming interview books,…
Given that, what is your opinion of where is the puck going/gone for programming languages?
ReasonML? Go?
Taking a chance and joining a very large corporation. Previously I was all about startups or small companies and was very much against the mega-corp environment. Over several months a colleague "recruited" me to join their team and I don't regret it. I've been able to climb pretty high within this corp and it has been a wild ride. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd have any sort of influence over techn…
Were you able to remain technical as your rank and responsibilities expanded? Or did you need to move into a management-only role to reach a turning point in the "influence" you mentioned?
Turns out I am not cut out to lead from such an abstract level, directing other directors and barely knowing how stuff is being shipped.
However this is where I was most surprised. My senior leadership recognizes where my skills are and have let me “manage myself” out of my role and move into a senior (think fellow/principal/staff) individual contributor role where I manage peers and work hands-on with whatever interests me (as long as i can align it to some product).
I have influence in a couple major tech areas for this Corp. influence in a type that I develop strategy and report on a semi regular basis to the C suite and am actively brought into other silos to contribute or kickoff ideas.
Long story short. I’ve spent years as “lead developer” at startups with no where to go except perhaps CTO. Here I am able to carve out an influential space that can maximize whatever talents I have while working closely with others who can augment skills I lack.
I had such a negative view of this corporate world prior to joining that I am ashamed of myself now that I know what the reality is, at least for my own experience.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since this is mostly a place where those in the software industry spend time, your story is generally going to veer off the path most people here took in their career. Can I ask for more detail about why it was that software was not the proper path for you?
Absolutely! I found that I was spending an inordinate amount of time in front of a computer and not interacting with anyone. I also was extremely disappointed with a general lack of self-improvement; I think part of that was that I just graduated, where I was used to everyone constantly studying and working to improve themselves. These experiences may have also been in the minority in the industry, but they were my e…
I remember one doctor playing his gameboy while waiting for the next patient in his very small examination room.
That looked to me very uninteresting. What do you think?
Edit: My Dad however long ago, a GP, had his own clinic in our remote town. Went to medical missions to an even more remote island riding on a speedboat. That should be interesting.