All of a sudden my unsexy junior dev job at shitcorp isn't so bad.
I was gearing up to switch companies Q1.
That plan is definitely getting shelved for now.
I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
171–180 of 322 posts
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#172Why do you guys assume that this crisis will hit software development? As far as I can see software development will be one of the fields least hit, possibly even benifiting, by the fallout of the Corona-virus.
Because it already has? This week has been brutal at nearly every start up I know, 30-50% layoffs have been the norm for most companies I've seen. Granted engineers are probably getting cut at a smaller percent than other roles, but they're in there.
Anyone who has worked in industry awhile can also attest to the fact that more recent years the drive to make every company a "tech" company has lead to a large amount of unnecessary engineering hires. Companies are rushing to build out more and more stuff, but very little of that is really deriving any value.
Tech people were really very lucky in the last recession as Tech started to boom just as everything else started to really feel it.
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Code sucks everywhere. Unless you're working on a library or something personal, then there's no (or very few) organisations that are churning out 'academically pure' code. The UK doesn't software industry doesn't have dibs on that.
Some companies write code that's public, and then, while it might still suck, there is at least some motivation for improving it, and a better chance of it being paletable.
I've worked for a company which had a 100% open-source product and their priority was to keep that boat floating rather than making any improvements.
Probably because the resource requirements to actually be able to do that were way above what they had at their disposal. Especially having such an old codebase.
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Code sucks everywhere. Unless you're working on a library or something personal, then there's no (or very few) organisations that are churning out 'academically pure' code. The UK doesn't software industry doesn't have dibs on that.
Some companies write code that's public, and then, while it might still suck, there is at least some motivation for improving it, and a better chance of it being paletable.
The time it takes to make simple updates should be enough motivation. I just spent the best part of a day adding a simple dialog before submitting a form. Took forever to get the development environment put together to run the code locally then trying to understand the mess of JavaScript in the relevant function with all it's nested callbacks to add a couple of lines of code. I tried refactoring it a bit, hopefully its a bit more readable for the next person. I doubt anyone will actually give a shit though.
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems cruel to say that to a young person who is struggling with a serious issue. Lots of people graduate from college without coping mechanisms tuned to the realities of adult life ... including you perhaps? Maybe it would be better to just say that things are rarely as bad as they seem and the world will continue to need young, enthusiastic programmers despite any economic downturn.
I am the child of a “mixed marriage” from a poor family that faced a lot of real adversity. The worst thing anyone could have done for me was to encourage the idea that I was a victim of circumstances. You don’t develop coping mechanisms without adversity. Adversity is a good thing so long as it’s not perpetual.
You're absolutely right. But you don't need to add anything extra to the adversity by being mean. People are perfectly capable of generating enough suffering for themselves to grow as a person without help from someone else.
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#176Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fields that will be hit: anything that relies on ad revenue, international or trans-national tourism and travel (badly), b&m retail (badly), online retail [1], entertainment [also 1], web support services, corporate web dev, real estate, fintech. Fields that may grow: medical services and support, small-scale short-distance tourism (after 6-12 months), small scale web dev, military spending, government support and co…
Tourism and travel will resurge in 2021, when people who missed this year's vacation (i.e. everyone) will book for the next summer.
Unemployed people typically don't take vacations. People that are nervous about their financial future also don't take vacations. The people that do are going to take less extravagant ones. I have a lot of friends in the travel industry, and no one there expects travel to return to what is was a few months ago for many years.
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#178You graduated in one of the most well paid, expanding industry of the last 40 years and made it. Excellent.
Survivorship bias. Our system is broken, humanity needs a way to encourage success without punishing failure. Failure shouln't be hunger and homelessness...This will be another generation of hopeless dreamers lost in the looming financial depression. Why is our antidote hope against the adversity of going against all the odds?. Congrats to those who made it but more recognition to those who failed and managed to over…
That's exactly the kind of best intentions that the road to hell is paved with.
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Survivorship bias. Our system is broken, humanity needs a way to encourage success without punishing failure. Failure shouln't be hunger and homelessness...This will be another generation of hopeless dreamers lost in the looming financial depression. Why is our antidote hope against the adversity of going against all the odds?. Congrats to those who made it but more recognition to those who failed and managed to over…
> to encourage success Scammers, arbitrage stock-traders, and opioid drug marketers can also achieve success... On the other hand, some endeavors "succeed" by not-failing and being out of sight and out of mind, e.g. a plumbing installation. You don't think of your "daily plumbing success". So, I'd say not success which should be encouraged, it is well-directed and well-applied effort. PS - The plumbing example can we…
> You don't think of your "daily plumbing success".
Initially I had to laugh at this one, but why not?
Robustness is something that seems to be very hard to measure, communicate and sell until something bad happens.
I think one of the IT fields that is struggling with this is security, because the problem is most apparent there.
Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too
#180Financial crisis is nothing new to the current working generation. We're getting kind of good at it I think..
I graduated in 2009; what you say is true. We appear to be experiencing major crises pretty much every 7-8 years now. Remember that just after the dotcom crash, there was the collapse of Enron, MCI Worldcom, Nortel Networks and others. These had a ripple effect across financial markets and devastated communities that relied on the jobs and spending those companies generated.