281–290 of 496 posts
It's all I ever really wanted to do, so yeah, regrets. Feels like I got to the party ten or twenty years too late.
I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…
Everything you describe is about capitalism: putting profit before any other priority.
I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…
SRE/ops especially feels like a huge job security grift. Every cloud provider is wrapped in HTTP REST APIs but the cloud era version of a UNIX neckbeard has a DSL or CLI tool to peddle. Sorry, gang. Doing just fine with a monorepo of JS, Python, and Go packages that wrap the APIs for a variety of providers. New infra is just a new language dependency file away, and I don’t have to learn your semantic wank. So glad yo…
I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…
Moralizing that, scumbag vcs this, screwing users that. Unfortunately although everyone else is terrible and I'm a victim, I'm not willing to stop any of it because I love the money!
I've made a few rules for myself regarding working in tech: 1. Do not work for a company where tech is not their primary product. If you are only a cost center, you will be treated like a second-class citizen. 2. Work for a smaller company. Your work is so much more impactful when you are not part of a mega-machine. 3. Work only remotely. The quality of life increase that comes with working remotely is massive, and I…
> 2. Work for a smaller company. Your work is so much more impactful when you are not part of a mega-machine. That depends. If you work for a small company working on a product few use, then what's the impact?
I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…
I fully agree - but the problem is not just in the tech industry. Everything you describe is about capitalism: putting profit before any other priority.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Likely just find a system integrator in your area and apply. The guy who got me my job was a MS CS, my employer sought him out because they needed a guy for internal software projects. I did a hackathon with him and he hired me as his replacement when he moved to the gaming industry. My degree is Software Systems Engineering, most of my coworkers are Electrical Engineers or some form of Electrical Diploma. As long as…
Can you explain what to expect from a "system integrator" company or job? I did a quick google for those in my areas and they seem all over the place, not one mentions "PLC/SCADA"?
So, "systems integration" job involves making systems interoperate as seamlessly as possible, by doing so adding new features, or reducing weaknesses, like for example vendor lock-in (sadly this is not always possible in industrial automation, see below). So the concept applies also to other sectors - and there are indeed non-industrial automation SIs - you might want to add terms like "PLC", "SCADA", "ICS" (industrial control systems), "industrial automation", "controls" to your search.
As for my own experiences in the (industrial automation) system integration industry, in Italy:
As I said before, and said elsewhere by TheCapn, vendor lock-in (in the form of employing equipment by one company, and their tooling, and their services, etc.) is a thing. But at the same time, your job is to make heterogenous systems interoperate! So most certainly you'll have to work not with your usual tools. Personally I have found that the most successful companies rely on some vendor (and their support, and their expertise), but are very open with working with, and know, the others. Obviously the more you can develop autonomously the better; it is a trade-off between freedom of action and access to more credible (branded, battle-tested, supported by big company etc.) solutions.
Knowing when to add one part to the system, or where you can just expand one of the already existing parts in order to accomplish the task is fundamental. Too often I have seen superflous parts added where it would have been enough to extend one of the existing parts a little (This is often due to vendor lock-in, you cannot work on some equipment, so you put another device by your vendor of choice).
Another thing I love about my job is the "Jack-of-all-trades" mindset required. Also human skills are important, especially here where the industry is mostly composed of little shops: sometimes you just have to understand enough to call the right specialist and contract that part of the job to them. I started as more of a computer person than a engineering one, but I managed to gain some expertise over time thanks to this knowledge transfer.
As a kid, I aspired to be a programmer. As an adult, I succeeded, and I stuck around for a good long while. There are a lot of reasons to like working tech, obviously: the salary, the flexible working environment, the prestige, the opportunity to build products that real people use, the chance to play with new technology, and of course working with occasionally brilliant colleagues. I tried to convince myself that th…
I can totally relate to this.
I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…