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I don't see anything wrong with that but I do feel like you can still attain that same role but have it less overloaded. Maybe try a different company or share this with your boss? I think I rarely read about people being burned out at Fortune 500 companies but saw your other comment that you aren't actually at one.
I don't see anything wrong with that but I do feel like you can still attain that same role but have it less overloaded. Maybe try a different company or share this with your boss? I think I rarely read about people being burned out at Fortune 500 companies but saw your other comment that you aren't actually at one.
Thanks for your response. By the way how did you find this thread? I thought it might’ve long been lost to the sea of submissions.
> I’m a senior engineer who is expected to be a tech lead for my team and work on cross functional projects. Shouldn't the title then be "Is it bad that I don't want to be a tech lead?"? I think that there is a distinction between a tech lead and a senior engineer. As a tech lead you have more responsibility for the success of a given project while as a senior engineer you're (mostly) responsible for your own contrib…
I want to be good at my job, but not necessarily a senior dev. At my company, you're required to work extra hours as a senior dev, which really negates any pay raise. Not to mention, I've filled the role of senior dev and even tech lead for a couple years with the politics getting in the way of the official promotions (and management not following HR policies).
I am in the same boat, and cannot wait to return to the job you are doing.
Remember, if you love your work, are you really working?
I think everyone gets to where you are at some point. If they do not, then they are not trying new things. Nothing wrong with deciding you hate the current and want to return to what you enjoy. I am in the same boat, and cannot wait to return to the job you are doing. Remember, if you love your work, are you really working?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want to be good at my job, but not necessarily a senior dev. At my company, you're required to work extra hours as a senior dev, which really negates any pay raise. Not to mention, I've filled the role of senior dev and even tech lead for a couple years with the politics getting in the way of the official promotions (and management not following HR policies).
It sounds like you don't want to be a senior dev at this specific company.
I really detest all the whining and crying that’s in software. I understand junior developers will be slower and need mentorship, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Here is an example on the front-end:
Using DOM methods to interact with a webpage without string parsing, as opposed to querySelectors, provides superior flexibility. You can do all kinds of cool things that querySelectors won’t allow. Also querySelectors are slow at about 450x slower in chrome and around 242,000x slower in Firefox. That’s the difference between 1 foot and 46 miles. People can’t live without stupid shit and will fight tooth and nail for conveniences. It’s not about learning or a tiny bit of extra effort. It’s about insecurity.
That was just one example of many. Worse is the extreme Invented Here syndrome where many developers expect NPM packages to do their job for them.
I would be really hesitant to be a team lead at the wrong organization because tolerance of the childish bullshit petty insecurities could be a career death trap. At the right organization a team lead would be allowed to set high standards to drive a product forward to market with greater durability and performance, but that requires an affirmed commitment from higher management.
I hear ya. I love building products and pushing boundaries. I really detest all the whining and crying that’s in software. I understand junior developers will be slower and need mentorship, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Here is an example on the front-end: Using DOM methods to interact with a webpage without string parsing, as opposed to querySelectors, provides superior flexibility. You can do all kinds of…
But your feelings are worth some introspection. Why are you burned out? Is it because the company is expecting too much of you? Is it the wrong role? Is it because you are holding a pager and don't want to be?
I'd think about less about why you want to return back to just fixing tickets and more about how the current situation isn't working. Then you can make some moves. Examples from my career:
* I was at a small company where only the two senior devs were on call. Not sustainable. I worked with the execs to document things such that everyone in the company did tier1 on call pager duty.
* I was at a company where I was kinda bored in my role. I talked to my manager and did a tour with the database management group (this was years ago). Learned a lot, came back to SWE with more energy.
* I was not happy as an eng mgr for a variety of reasons. I shifted to devrel and have been learning new skills with increased pay.
* devrel (as above)
* product owner (seen that shift happen multiple times)
* technical trainer (I've done this, happy to chat about it with you)
* sales engineer
* support engineer (tier 3 at a bigco can get some interesting tickets, I imagine)
* startup CTO (want to wear all the hats and take a risk, you'll have plenty of co-founders).
No, it is fine if that is the role you enjoy and you do not the expectation of being compensated at a higher level.