61–70 of 72 posts
There is nothing wrong with maintenance work, it is valuable and gives the company the ability to service its clients. However, if you are no longer able to improve the process and that is what you were doing before, move along.
Maintenance work is a big signal, don't ignore it.
I just encountered this 2 days ago. When the company decides to adopt a new (to them) technology stack that is not part of where I see my future self.
New tech stacks can be learned. If it fits the development and product, why not? Even if you have a personal dislike for it, you could still learn from it. I find in-fighting, interpersonal quibbles and ridiculing of co-workers far more insufferable.
I put off learning Rails years ago because post after post talked about how hard it was to get it right, how the person behind CDBaby totally failed to make Rails work for him, etc., etc. Then I sat down to learn it, imagining it would be a long month, but I learned the basics in 2 days. The exact same thing happened with React. I put it off for so long, thinking it was so hard after reading so many posts. It turns out that it's pretty straightforward.
There's still an element of fear before approaching anything new. A voice in my head says "maybe I'm not smart enough anymore to understand this new tech, which looks like it was engineered by aliens." I need to remind myself that I have been able to understand and master everything I have attempted. But the posts out there make it seem learning something new is very hard.
When your co-workers start getting routinely carted out by emergency workers for cardiac distress, seizures, and other problems developed since they started the job. A job can grind you down and I'm watching my current one eat some co-workers alive. There are limits to how much stress you can put a person through routinely.
- I can't benefit the company I work for anymore,
- I feel I have stopped learning/advancing in my current position,
- I have stopped feeling satisfaction from my accomplishments.
I just encountered this 2 days ago. When the company decides to adopt a new (to them) technology stack that is not part of where I see my future self.
New tech stacks can be learned. If it fits the development and product, why not? Even if you have a personal dislike for it, you could still learn from it. I find in-fighting, interpersonal quibbles and ridiculing of co-workers far more insufferable.
I have a simple rule. If you're already seriously contemplating leaving, then it's time to leave. Because typically, it's only going to get worse from there. Chris Dixon once posted something along the lines of this: "If you think you're going to fire someone six months from now, you should fire them now." I believe that if you think things will get worse 6 months from now, then leave now.
I just encountered this 2 days ago. When the company decides to adopt a new (to them) technology stack that is not part of where I see my future self.
May I ask what the stack is?
*: all the original engineers have left.
I just encountered this 2 days ago. When the company decides to adopt a new (to them) technology stack that is not part of where I see my future self.
I might be worth giving it a chance. Being paid to learn new technology is a pretty good deal. If you still find you don't like it, then move.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
May I ask what the stack is?
We've just spent half a year moving a legacy* Java app to nodeJS and now some of them want to redo everything in Rails. *: all the original engineers have left.
Generally, someone at the company should be saying no to these rewrites unless they have a very clear business motivation. Total rewrites easily spiral into being costly disasters, and usually don't solve a customer's problems. If nobody is at least trying to say no to these things, that means your company may have other problems with defining business objectives and fulfilling them.
Even if nobody understood the Java app, that itself is not a good enough reason to rewrite it in another stack. Actually, not understanding the current implementation is probably the worst reason to do a rewrite, because the team likely doesn't understand the problem well enough to successfully reimplement the solution.
The fact that they did this in nodeJS and now someone is talking about doing it in Rails makes it sound like there weren't strong reasons for choosing nodeJS established up front. It sounds like people are deciding these things based on hype and not actual technical merit, because the "sweet spots" of the three stacks you've mentioned are all quite different. There are good reasons to choose Java, nodeJS, or Rails for any given project, but there are generally not good reasons to bounce between them for the same project. The only case I can think of where that would make sense would be to move from Rails to Java due to scaling issues (e.g. if you are Twitter). I don't think there is much compelling reason to go the other way, unless your legacy Java app is super-dooper legacy like the FactoryFactoryFactoryFactoryFactory stuff people used to write in the early 2000s. Which itself might indicate an entirely different set of problems.
I'd bail out if I were you and try to work at a company with better engineers working for it. Even if this job is stable you will become a better engineer by being around better engineers who aren't going to be proposing giant rewrites.
The first few job changes I've made were, in large part, due to two things:
1. me trying to find a job in NYC that would allow for a seamless transition to TX while preserving my compensation and job responsibilities, and
2. Finding a job that will accelerate my transition into a senior management or technical sales role.
It took me a few years to find a job that met goal (1) (I'm actually making more now than I did in NYC by a healthy margin), and I have a strong feeling that my current job will really put the gas on goal (2).
Longer:
There were also minor reasons behind me switching roles:
* Job 1 -> Job 2: Lots of micromanaging and process that made it difficult to do real engineering. Job 2 was much more fun and provided free food and a wear-what-you-want policy. Also, $20k pay increase, which was a deciding factor.
* Job 2 -> Job 3: Potential of moving to Houston at Job 3. Job 2 was amazing but I felt like there was no way of growing my career vertically unless I wanted to become a Linux admin (which I, ironically, became anyway, at least of sorts) or quant (a very high bar to hit, at least at the time). $5k pay increase was not a factor.
* Job 3 -> Job 4: No opportunities in Houston outside of tech support with Job 3. Also, Google was Job 4; no way I was turning that down. They also had an office in Austin. $30k salary cut front loaded by a sign-on bonus and RSUs; opportunity to work at Google outweighed this.
* Job 4 -> Job 5: No relo opportunities available on the short-term (and very unlikely long term). The $35,000 pay cut also hurt over time despite sign-on and peer bonuses. I didn't stay long enough to vest my RSUs, which would have made up for most of the loss. Also didn't feel like I fit with the team well. Very different working/communication style that wasn't for me (it felt very isolated). I kind-of like being in a party atmosphere; open space, lots of noise, events all of the time, etc. My team didn't have any of that; very nice, but quiet, bunch of folks. Also didn't like how far I was from the money and how arguably meaningless the work felt, despite the work being really good engineering overall. (Google makes its money on Ads. I was in Corp Eng maintaining non-prod app servers.) I also ALSO didn't like how you effectively HAD to move to Mountain View or stay in NYC to advance (most of the senior folks are in MTV) and how it took many many years to make it into management at a salary that's slightly below market (even though RSU reloads effectively offset that). Also, Job 5 restored most of my lost salary ($30k pay increase, was a deciding factor).
* Job 5 -> Job 6: LOVED that place, but it was time to move to TX (couldn't take NYC anymore) and Job 5 wouldn't allow it despite having a sales office in Austin. (My boss and I tried to make an extended eng team there; CTO wasn't having it. She was nice, though.) ($10k pay cut but slightly over $10k gained from not having to pay income or state/city taxes. It was a minor factor. I would've seen more of that had I not fucked up my withholding that year!)
* Job 6 -> Job 7 (current): Really enjoyed working there too. Learned that I LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel. Wanted more of a sales-like position. Tried really hard to get myself plugged into sales pursuits; I networked with damn nearly every sales person in the US org and offered to effectively be their PowerPoint person lol. Did a lot of blogging and solo pursuits alongside my engineering work. Was VERY vocal about work that me and my teams have accomplished. Getting to where I wanted wasn't happening quickly enough; also, company outlook was shaky. Also turns out that I was dramatically underpaid (despite it being a lateral salary move). $25k pay increase was a factor.