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Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

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Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#91
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

having typos in variable names doesn't seem related to being smart though

Maybe he means not catching them with some kind of linter, IDE, or test? I'm choosing to believe that, at least.

it could be part of a general attitude of not caring

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#92
post #80

My first job as a junior. I worked with really smart coworkers. I got to build things that were used, and things that made money. Most other jobs after that I ended up building things that were never used, or used to get some kind of grant or impress investors, and wasn't even what the user wanted. A lot of the more senior jobs I get, I end up doing a lot of management and getting little work done. Sometimes when som…

Have you thought about getting into consulting? A lot of companies, to me, have the kinds of problems you describe. Being an employee at one of them is a no-win situation.

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#93
post #26

My work at a coding bootcamp. I found that I find teaching about programming a lot more enjoyable than actual programming. The reason for that is: 1. Much more interaction with people 2. If I didn't sleep too well on a particular day I can still teach but with programming I'm not productive enough 3. Deadlines and pacing is easier 4. Much more free time when students are doing an exercise or don't need you that much…

How was the pay, relative to what you could have got coding fulltime?

More or less the same. It was a standard junior freelance rate that would be acceptable in The Netherlands [1].

[1] The source is in Dutch but Google Translate works good enough to understand the gist, see: https://uurtarief.tips/nl/zzp/ict/uurtarief-ict-zzp-freelanc...

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#94
post #91
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he means not catching them with some kind of linter, IDE, or test? I'm choosing to believe that, at least.

it could be part of a general attitude of not caring

Yeah, this. Like the specifications say that the table name is "Product" and they name it "Products". An error every now and then is acceptable, but multiple errors create chaos among the team, especially when it's related to the API.

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#95
post #80

My first job as a junior. I worked with really smart coworkers. I got to build things that were used, and things that made money. Most other jobs after that I ended up building things that were never used, or used to get some kind of grant or impress investors, and wasn't even what the user wanted. A lot of the more senior jobs I get, I end up doing a lot of management and getting little work done. Sometimes when som…

Have you thought about getting into consulting? A lot of companies, to me, have the kinds of problems you describe. Being an employee at one of them is a no-win situation.

I've been doing that for nearly 3 years. Part of the problem is that usually the client cares more about getting grants or ticking off some buzzword like "machine learning" or "uber for X". But things get better throughout the years as I learn which projects to avoid.

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#96
post #90
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

couldn't agree more.. 10 years ago I was at the Apple store in Manhattan with my wife getting an iphone. There was this guy who's job it was just to sweep the stairs going down to the store. I told my wife.. If I could somehow make a tech salary doing what he does, I'd do it in a second. She questioned me like why? I just said what I said before. I could come home and not worry about anything.

What are some of the worries you bring home?

I do ops work so it was always worrying about i'm on call 24/7 since I mostly worked for startups.

Are the backups working. Is that new HA solution I rolled out working. I have this lingering problem with disk latency I can't get to the bottom. List goes on and on.

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#97
Right now: self-employed as a software consultant. Flexible hours, working on average 20 hours per week. As a single parent I'm there for my kids when they need me. When I'm working it's very intense and focused. I'm more productive with my time than I have ever been in my career.

I went through a period 15 years ago where I would work 60-80 hour weeks and be on call 24/7. I learned a lot from that experience and it helped get me where I am now--but it was difficult.

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#99
First four years of my career I worked in seismic oil exploration. I worked in Sudan for about 18 months, then Nigeria for about the same. Also worked in Tanzania. In Nigeria we lived on house boats. In Sudan aircon trailers. In Tanzania we slept in tents besides crocodile infested rivers and lakes.

Mostly I drove a LandCruiser through all kinds of conditions, checking cables and geophones and swapping out telemetry boxes. Occasionally I would get a week or two in the "Veribo" - which was an air-conditioned room full of automated test equipment. There were long sessions of component level troubleshooting, swapping out components like voltage regulators and power transistors and so on. I became a Senior Observer and moved to the "DogBox" where the main telemtry system was and operated and troubleshot from there - it was much less fun than "running line".

In the rainy season in Sudan we were flown to work every day (and returned home) by an Vietnam Vet who I'm pretty convinced thought the war was still on - attack take offs, landing in clearings with only a few inches between rotors and trees.

It was my first job out of Polytechnic, back in 1984. It was a HELL of a lot of fun. Some great friends made, and sadly lost, in those years.

Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

#100
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make 200k as a developer?

Senior developer with experience as a former director of engineering, but yeah, $199k last year, tracking for $205k this year.

Nice job! Good to know it's atleast possible to break the 120k-ish mark.
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