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Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

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Re: Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

#31

Post by TurkishPoptart »

hnthroaway1926 wrote: post #27

I know exactly how you feel and have experienced it in two different work environments, first as an intern during college (which only lasted 3 months but felt like eternity) and second as a senior level engineer for about a two year period. Like some other things in life, people that haven't gone through this are not likely to understand the experience. Since you care about increasing your employability I recommend t…

I appreciate the idea. You've definitely got something going there. Did you really deal with it for two years? It's hard to imagine anyone with senior in their title stuck with empty hands. I imagine my situation is linked with me only being exposed to about ~1% of this whole EHR transition project I'm a part of.

Re: Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

#34

Post by quickthrower2 »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #3
elicash wrote: post #2

If you desperately want to learn to code, how can you possibly be upset by having no work responsibilities? This is the opportunity of a lifetime to learn it. If not now, when?

I spend a few hours a day at work and at home on it. I just don't have any confidence that it will actually pay off.

What is it you enjoy? Do you enjoy coding from what you’ve done so far? Is it about the algorithms for you? Or the finished product you can show off? The user experience? Making things pixel perfect? Finding that motivation is important because programming is going to be hard if the motivation is that maybe you’ll get a better job in a year or two. Enjoyment is the mind hack to properly upskill IMO, and if you do properly upskill you’ll probably be able to get a coding job (a lot of persistence is needed to get the first one though!)

Re: Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

#35

Post by deliriousferret »

I've been in this situation and also wanted to learn Ruby on Rails. I did Michael Hartl's tutorial and then built my own side project. This side project was never completely finished and never had any user but it helped me learn and get my next job as a Ruby on rails developer. Learning things on your own is a great way to start but the best way to improve is to work in a team with people you can learn from, on a real live project. So in my opinion, learn as much as you can now, build things that you can mention on your CV, and move ASAP to a better job where you can improve.

Re: Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

#36

Post by franga2000 »

I've been in a similar situation. I worked in a museum ticket office for almost 3 years as a student. We got maybe 3 visitors a day on average (most days it was 0). By the end, I had re-watched all of Stargate and probably spent a week's worth of time just on Reddit.

It's amazing just how badly sitting in a small, tall room with only incandescent light will fuck you up. After a particularly stressful day, having to "work" for the rest of it completely broke me and I spent an hour crying (without anyone noticing).

After that, I knew I had to get my shit together, so I saved up for a decent laptop and started doing web development again. By the time I quit, I was making decent money by freelancing and had gotten some valuable references.

Even the people around me told me I looked happier and "more alive". Ironically enough, doing nothing was the most exhausting thing I've ever done. Web dev in Django was what got my motivation back, but I see no reason why Rails wouldn't work. Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

#37

Post by hnthroaway1926 »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #31
hnthroaway1926 wrote: post #27

I know exactly how you feel and have experienced it in two different work environments, first as an intern during college (which only lasted 3 months but felt like eternity) and second as a senior level engineer for about a two year period. Like some other things in life, people that haven't gone through this are not likely to understand the experience. Since you care about increasing your employability I recommend t…

I appreciate the idea. You've definitely got something going there. Did you really deal with it for two years? It's hard to imagine anyone with senior in their title stuck with empty hands. I imagine my situation is linked with me only being exposed to about ~1% of this whole EHR transition project I'm a part of.

Yes, it was just over two years. I can't share a lot of details but it is one of those places where developers don't have admin rights and aren't allowed to install software on their machines.

I also recommend connecting with some of the people that are more involved in the EHR transition project because if they also want out then they will probably be happy to get you more involved somehow.

Re: Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

#38

Post by sethammons »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #8
saluki wrote: post #4

Well sounds like a great opportunity to do some on the job training at work until you get tasks assigned or things pick up. I would sign up for an online training course Rails is a good choices or Laravel (Laracasts.com) or Wes Boss's javascript courses. Both of those have some free courses. Get learning and enjoy a laid back position while you can. Learn and look busy, enjoy the holidays, good luck.

Is there any hope that trying to learn this stuff on my own will help me get real work to do / a real job? Granted, I have a ton of academic accolades that I've never been able to get a potential employer to even glance at, so maybe the skills will help. I just doubt I'll learn anything well enough on my own...the best devs learn in pairs it seems. I wish I had a mentor here or something.

I got my feet wet in programming in 2001 with help pairing, but there are better tutorials now. I then did my own thing for years on the side. Like build tools and sites I could use. I built a crappy site or tool for a few folks over time. Sometimes for free. Eventually, all this playing around got me to a spot where a recruiter saw me and sent me on interviews and I started becoming a real dev. You have a good opportunity to learn and practice enough to get your foot in the door at an accelerated pace. You can always pair with smarter, more experienced people when you are a "real" dev.

Re: Ask HN: I have nothing to do at work and it's killing me

#39

Post by gtirloni »

I've been in this situation before and it's depressing.

If you're a problem solver and need problems to keep you motivated, my advice is to try and help people on StackOverflow, forums, lists, etc. Research their problem and provide solutions. Maybe blog post about something interesting. That way you're learning, solving problems and have something to show.

You could also start contributing to some open source project with tech support, docs and other administrative work while you learn Rails too.

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