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Don't Get Stuck

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Re: Don't Get Stuck

#61

Post by gumby »

jaden wrote: post #60
gumby wrote: post #45

Brings to mind a famous quote attributed to Thomas J Watson (the real creator of IBM): Watson: we should be investing in ongoing training in new skills for our staff. VP: But what if we train them and they leave? Watson: What if we don’t and they don’t?

Thanks for sharing the source of this quote. I've heard it numerous times but never knew it was from Thomas J. Watson.

Thanks, though I must admit I wasn’t there myself so can’t testify as to the veracity of my attribution! But it does sound like something he might have said.

I didn’t look it up on quote investigator though. https://quoteinvestigator.com/

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#62

Post by xaedes »

TacoSteemers wrote: post #10

It would be helpful to the reader if the text was easier to see. A story displayed in light gray on white is difficult to read.

"It works for me, looks good to me" is why we have so many sites with low contrast text. Very annoying indeed.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#63

Post by brundolf »

pknerd wrote: post #9

I tell you one thing. If you think that a company will be offering you new tech after every X months or Y years then you are wrong. Tech world does not like that. Think of the investment a company does to bring in a tech stack. It is not all about downloading a new tech, it is about finding and hiring resources. If they all start changing tech based on wish list then they never can progress. I remember something my e…

I don't think this is necessarily an indictment of the company, though. It's reasonable for a company to keep the same stack for five years, and it's also reasonable for a developer to want to move on at that point so they can learn something different. If you stay in the same bubble for too long you do stagnate; not because you always need to be learning the very newest thing, but because you always need to be learning: diversifying your skillset and broadening your understanding of your field.

Hobby projects are well and good, but there's nothing like having to solve full-scale problems that you don't get to pick and choose. When a hobby project gets too hard in a way that isn't fun, I drop it, because I'm doing it for fun. But some of the best lessons I've learned have come from things I was forced to solve.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#64

Post by ryanprosser »

Minor49er wrote: post #44

This echoes a sentiment I saw recently on a career review site: One thing that is pretty common across companies is the possibility of being pigeonholed. If you take responsibility for some aspect of the job and do it well, your contributions and successes can go unnoticed. It reminds me of the scene from Futurama where Bender meets God, who tells him, "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anyth…

Hey Guys, I'm one of the founders of PathViz. We saw your post on google alerts. If either of you have feedback for our site, we'd love to hear about it :) - ryan@pathviz.com

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#65

Post by Viliam1234 »

vorpalhex wrote: post #37
_davebennett wrote: post #34

Hmmm....but what if you are "stuck" in a job that pays decently (enough to cover needs) extremely flexible hours and unlimited vacation and awesome work life balance (sometimes less than 40 per week). But the actual work is pointless and boring. Is that time for a change? Some people say yes, but often these are the people who are the "high achieving" tech workaholics who love to go home and code for fun. Other peopl…

Only you know the right balance for you. That might be a dream job, or it might be miserable. I would say if you are in that situation and enjoy it, you should still be learning and investing in yourself outside of work whether that's learning code or practicing your baking. Learning and struggling with new material is basically a muscle and needs to be an ongoing practice, even if it's not directly related to your d…

Some people prefer to learn at work. Some people prefer to learn in their free time.

If you are the type that learns at work, then having nothing to learn at your work means you have nothing to learn. If you are the type that learns at home, not coming home exhausted from your work means you can learn more.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#66

Post by rehman »

Staying abreast with tech stack is one thing and staying abreast with practices is one thing. Stacks will come and go, all it matters is your fundamentals, skills, practices that you work on day in and out. If that's good then stacks are just a matter of tools. If you keep on changing just for the matter of stacks, then you might be left behind on growing vertically on a particular niche.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#67

Post by dentemple »

pknerd wrote: post #36
dentemple wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company can provide educational reimbursements (and set aside some learning time each month) for their employees, as well as provide a stipend for them attend relevant conferences. A company does not necessarily need to keep pushing new tech to production to ensure that their employees stay up-to-date. They just need to actually invest in their employees.

Probably 1 in 100 companies offer such offers? Why depend on a company when you can learn on your own? I am self-taught programmer. I learnt Pascal and C back in Uni. After that I never tool formal education for learning new tech. Youtube rocks.

The idea is that if more companies offer educational benefits, there'd be less need for employees to bounce jobs just to stay up-to-date on technologies.

(Obviously, this doesn't account for job-hopping for straight salary reasons)

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#68

Post by anonymous_dev »

Last year I realized I was stuck and underpaid after 4 years the same agency. I found a new agency with a better salary but then my agency offered me a significant raise and I've decided to remain. Now after about a year I still feel stuck, but at least I have a decent salary. It's hard to decide to move again with a wife and a son depending on me.
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