41–50 of 74 posts
- When young, it's ok to take bigger chances. It's more interesting that way.
- Try not to quit a job unless you have something else to keep you busy (and pay your rent).
- When you have a significant other, kids, and ailing parents, these jobs are great. You will know when the time comes.
- Politics are in every job.
- Above all, learn patience!
My rules of thumb: - When young, it's ok to take bigger chances. It's more interesting that way. - Try not to quit a job unless you have something else to keep you busy (and pay your rent). - When you have a significant other, kids, and ailing parents, these jobs are great. You will know when the time comes. - Politics are in every job. - Above all, learn patience!
But there's another hidden message in there. Monopolies with old tech, and no vision are industries potentially ripe for disruption. I bet if you look hard enough, you might find a need that translates into a start up.
Compared to running your own business, having a corporate job is nothing. I can easily do the same work I used to do in a day and spread it out over a week. Make use of the fact that you can make lots of $$$ to save a lot and spend mental energy on side projects or hobbies. My side project for the last 2 years has been mostly raising kids but it may be an app or something else you work on the side. Instead of trying to 'climb up the corporate ladder' just try and leech as much money as possible while keeping your well being. Now that last part is important because if the job is stressful and you don't have the mental energy to do anything else than it's a no go.
But if it's chill, you get a long with your coworkers and the hours are normal and allow you for working on side projects, why not ride it out and maximize the $$$ return for that one day you decide to start a company/buy a house/start a family/whatever.
Care to level-set on the tech stack? How "old" is the old tech stack? Is it "old" like Rails 4? J2EE? COBOL? Mainframes?
Not that "old" but shitty. Lots of spaghetti connections to a different systems. No documentation and none seems to know how it should really work.
Create a vision, get the team to buy into it. Convince senior managers to buy in. Present and execute a plan to fulfill the vision. Be the change you want to see. Edit: I can see that I need to explain in more depth. Too many technically-oriented folks take the cultural and political landscape of a company as a given. It is not. You can change it. Even as a relatively junior employee, your attitude, communications an…
It might not be a popular statement, but money to a degree can buy happiness, comfort, and freedom. Unfortunately, it can be very addicting -- especially if you've adjusted your lifestyle to grow with an increasing income.
I did the whole golden-handcuffs thing for four years after I started disliking my job, but as soon as I "could" I quit to do my own thing. I gave up a very lucrative position, but my sanity and ability to work on interesting projects was worth far more to me. With my wife working we can cover expenses for us and our child without me needing to pull a lot out of savings each of month. It's been an adjustment spending less, more akin to a detox than anything, but we are both happier now that I moved on.
If you're early in your career, leave immeadiately. You are missing out on opportunity to learn from the best people and use that knowledge for decades to come. You will get severely damaged by the culture if you stay too long.
I'm in mid-career, and I work at exactly this type of company. I'm staying for a little while because I'm wise enough to avoid the nonsense and know when people are dead wrong and ignore their bad ideas. I'll bank some money and be in a good position to do a startup.
For someone late in their career who just wants to retire as soon as possible, it might be a good choice to stay.
You're not trapped by anything but the paycheck. You might ask yourself how much money it would be worth giving up to work in a better environment. Then see if you can find a job that pays at least that much, with an environment that is considerably better than where you are.
The problem is you never know if it is going to be better or worse. My experience is that it is mostly the same everywhere. What changes is the paycheck, company logo and the faces
I may have gotten lucky at avoiding jobs that turn out to be stinkers. Hasn't happened to me in the last three job switches. (One turned into a stinker after I'd been there a few years, due to management changes. I left.) But I don't think that the odds are as bad as you seem to think they are.
But really, you have only three options. You can put up with it, you can fix it, or you can leave. You don't want to put up with it. You sound like you're asking for how to fix it, but I'm not sure that you realistically can. (Certainly I've never been able to.) That leaves only one option.