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Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

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Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#121

Post by stueynz »

I’m in my mid 50s. In 1988 when I graduated from uni my dad said “Congratulations you’ve just spent 4 years learning to be a software dev... you won’t be doing that in 8 years time”

The message was “expect to retrain and switch careers every 8-10 years”

BTW: Dad was wrong - 34 years later I still write code at work... But I’m a Solution Architect - technical leader in a $50m govt IT project.

If the only option for ‘advancement’ is project Mgmt and you’re sure you’re a died in the wool tech-type then it’s time to find an employer that has a technical career track that goes right to Principal Architect Developer

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#122

Post by sloaken »

I am in a similar situation. I am doing everything but coding. Like you I loved SW development. Unlike you, PM would be a happier place than where I am now.

That said, I am planning, when I can (Sept 2022), to go back to SW development. It might be a bit of a pay cut, but the job satisfaction will be worth it.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#123

Post by sloaken »

tilolebo wrote: post #42

There are companies out there who value the experience of senior software engineers (and I mean real seniority, not the job title that you update to senior after 3 years in the field). Such companies will have a career ladder up to Principal or Distinguished engineer. You will have to share your knowledge, of course, but without having to give up coding and do people management, if you don't want that. I'm 39, happy…

I love the article 'if management isn't a promotion....'

Wish I had read this years ago. Of course it was not out years ago ...

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#124

Post by giantg2 »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #107
giantg2 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He could stay below senior level too. I'm intermediate and almost 9 years in.

9 years feels like a long time, but it's important to remember that it's not even a quarter of the way through your career.

That's assuming one retires at 65. It seems most people in this industry retire closer to 50. I'd say I'm a third of the way in. Many people seem to make senior developer in 5 years. It's all politics though.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#125

Post by ElectricMind »

rammy1234 wrote: post #104

Life is a long term game. Don't box yourself with status and compare yourself with others. Take a step back and assess what you want out of life and what you like to do. Go behind experience rather than money. Money will follow you when you have gained experience. There is no end to learning in this life. Think Long term always. 35 is an age where we are no junior or seniors. You have lot of options to chose from, so…

Sounds like lot of self help book. lot of ambiguous words but noting useful to OP

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#126

Post by giantg2 »

mmmm2 wrote: post #114
giantg2 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice. I've been in the industry and in the same company for 9 years. I'm a midlevel dev. They've had me switch stacks 4 times. Every time it becomes much more difficult to learn the new stack. I think part of it is lack of motivation - why try my hardest if the knowledge will be thrown away in a year or two? (And they don't follow their own policies, to my detriment)

I used to be more worried about aging out. This was about 10 years ago when I was in my 30's, but my fears haven't been realized so far. It does take a certain amount of agility to keep up with what's popular, but sometimes you get lucky with the skills you pick. Python, for me, has lasted quite a while. I picked that up later in my career after starting out with C and Perl. Perhaps you're just burned out? 9 years at…

My problem is that I believed the company when it told me things. I ended up working on things the company needed which only hurt my career- basically doing the jobs nobody else wanted. They said they don't outsource and that they don't layoff. They do both now. I spent years on FileNet and Neoxam. There's no market for them.

I'm about a year into working with AWS stacks, so maybe I can switch when I get more familiar with that. But there aren't many good IT jobs in the area and my wife won't move.

Basically, I can't even imagine a future. I can't see myself tolerating this job for 9 more years. I don't see any jobs in the area that I would be interested in, or would pay as much (I support my family).

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#127

Post by tubularhells »

Lapsa wrote: post #120
recursivedoubts wrote: post #12

This is my experience, and your mileage may vary: Multiple times in my coding career I have felt stalled and/or like I was regressing. Early on, I worked on a programming language, gosu ( https://gosu-lang.github.io/ ) which ended up not really going anywhere. Once the work on it was done, I returned to more mundane web programming for a while (over half a decade.) A long while after that, and unexpectedly, I turned…

can't tell if this is an ad from the get go or not

Yeah, it's a webdev posturing on how he reinvented the wheel three times in a decade. Look at the code he linked, and weep.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#128

Post by tubularhells »

giantg2 wrote: post #126
mmmm2 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be more worried about aging out. This was about 10 years ago when I was in my 30's, but my fears haven't been realized so far. It does take a certain amount of agility to keep up with what's popular, but sometimes you get lucky with the skills you pick. Python, for me, has lasted quite a while. I picked that up later in my career after starting out with C and Perl. Perhaps you're just burned out? 9 years at…

My problem is that I believed the company when it told me things. I ended up working on things the company needed which only hurt my career- basically doing the jobs nobody else wanted. They said they don't outsource and that they don't layoff. They do both now. I spent years on FileNet and Neoxam. There's no market for them. I'm about a year into working with AWS stacks, so maybe I can switch when I get more familia…

Ask your wife if she wants a miserable or a happy husband. I moved for my wife and I didn't regret it. She is willing to move for me too, if it ever comes to that.

But most IT jobs are remote now anyway. Look for those opportunities. Don't be scare.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#129

Post by brysonreece »

tubularhells wrote: post #127
Lapsa wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can't tell if this is an ad from the get go or not

Yeah, it's a webdev posturing on how he reinvented the wheel three times in a decade. Look at the code he linked, and weep.

Or consider it a viable solution to the itch OP was trying to scratch with their own development.

It's easy to brush aside a monumental amount of effort and thought that gets poured into projects like these, marking them internally as fruitless, when

1) we're not the ones that spent the long nights and weekends obsessing over the nuances of the specific problem OP was trying to solve.

2) any of us on HN are usually here shit posting because we're avoiding putting in the same effort for our own projects.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my career is at a dead end. Any advice on what could I do?

#130

Post by recursivedoubts »

tubularhells wrote: post #127
Lapsa wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can't tell if this is an ad from the get go or not

Yeah, it's a webdev posturing on how he reinvented the wheel three times in a decade. Look at the code he linked, and weep.

that's true to an extent (it was nearly two decades :) and adds to my answer for the parent question: there has been a lot of mockery along the way during the interesting parts, as well as depression when things I was very passionate about (e.g. gosu) were ignored or failed

hyperscript will most likely meet a similar fate

that's life

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