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A career ending mistake

bitfieldconsulting.com

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Re: A career ending mistake

#71

Post by svnt »

eulerian wrote: post #40

Curious if there's anyone who's made a plan for this sort of a thing. I'm never able to plan even the rest of my week and follow through with it. What does a plan for your career look like and how do you get the discipline to stick to it?

For me it was more about identifying the archetype I was after so I knew who to emulate. It only lasted a year or two in most cases until I moved on to someone else.

You can’t, and I don’t think it is smart to try to, line up a progression like this because in the process both you and the environment will change.

Re: A career ending mistake

#72

Post by giantg2 »

ghaff wrote: post #33
giantg2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like your HR is doing a decent job then, unlike mine. I recently applied to a business analyst role. I was told in the informational that I would spend only about 25% of my time researching/reporting, and that the other 75% would be project/stakeholder management. Ridiculous. No wonder we have trouble finding people when position titles are basically lies.

It sounds like they were very upfront with you about what the job would entail. How is that lying? And the reality at a large company is that many people spend a lot of time coordinating, sharing information, gathering requirements, etc. even if their nominal job is market research or whatever.

I would expect that there would be presentations and meetings to share the products of the research. It's an entirely different thing be primarily performing project and stakeholder management.

The only way I found out about the true nature of the position is from an informal informational with a member of that team. The job posting itself mentioned nothing about project management and glossed over the stake holder management part. This is very misleading. Plus, if the majority of the position is project management, then they should probably title it as such.

Re: A career ending mistake

#73

Post by hinkley »

duxup wrote: post #42

I changed careers at 40+ years old. I'm very happy that I did it. People have all sorts of constructs / ideas about how careers work (based on experience) or how they think it works, or how they want it to work. I talk to some college graduates who tell me what they're planning for and have ZERO clue what industry they're talking about, their description is unrecognizable to me ... even tho I know it is the one I wor…

The conclusion I think is missing from the 10k hours theory of mastery is that there is more than enough time in a full lifespan to master 4-6 things, depending on how good you are at managing your time. People who are only good at one thing may find that they aren't good at anything because of it. Don't neglect your passions, even if you don't see how you could ever make money from it, experience in other verticals may give you cross-domain knowledge that makes the leap easier.

And even if you don't change, the skills from the other domain may translate to your day job. The history of big innovations is littered with people who put the proverbial domain A peanut butter together with the chocolate from domain B. Lots of people have solved problems that you are dealing with, but you don't work with them and you may never have any reason to even be in the same building with them.

Re: A career ending mistake

#74

Post by dhairya »

A couple things that come to mind with this article. My own journey has been quite nonlinear both in terms of roles (business systems analyst -> data analyst -> technical project manager -> data scientist -> AI research scientist) and environments (F100 -> academia -> startups). My undergrad (creative writing and social sciences) would not have predicted my current role (Senior AI researcher focusing on deep learning and NLP) and I still have no idea where I want to end up.

It can be hard to imagine and project your potential. Often our journeys are not linear and we have hard time factoring who we will be in future as sum of our experiences. Often that growth in knowledge and life experiences will be exponential even though to us it may feel linear in the present.

I also find it useful to think about problems instead roles. I've had roles that didn't exist 10 years ago and likewise new problem spaces are always emerging. Problems don't necessarily have to be domain specific or role specific but generally describe the types of challenges you find interesting. Once I identify a problem space I start to think about how I would like to make an impact and how I can currently make an impact. Sometimes the two are the same and other times they are different and require a journey to get there.

But I find the metaphor of problems interesting because it helps align the type of work I do with the things I find interesting at any given point. It also helps narrow the search space for opportunities and ensure what type of career growth is meaningful for you.

Re: A career ending mistake

#75

Post by dvtrn »

alonsonic wrote: post #63
dvtrn wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point you cannot become more productive as an individual and you need to start coordinating the work of many people if you want to increase your productivity. Neat. Another manifestation of the attitude regarding productivity of "more, more, and more still" as the default trajectory in the name of 'growth'. Calling it "inescapable" even. Sheesh. What's the point at which we realize "enough" productivity is ex…

This is something I ask myself constantly. I believe what the commenter means is that if you want to "grow" or get a higher salary then you will be expected to do more, and at a certain point the definition of more can only mean stepping into a leadership role of some sort where you have to interface with more people. If you're happy with your current responsibilities as an IC then you should be able to stay at that…

If you're happy with your current responsibilities as an IC then you should be able to stay at that top level (Principal engineer) and continue doing what you're doing today, just don't expect a higher pay.

Anecdote isn't data, but it's funny to read this given it's exactly what happened the moment I decided I wasn't happy in management and wanted to be an IC again: a 25% increase in TC pay. And I was very happy with, content with and able to provide for mine on the previous, lower TC (which was still well into six-figures) even though I wanted nothing to do with the work anymore.

Re: A career ending mistake

#76

Post by jacobr1 »

Supernaut wrote: post #41
crrndngmstk wrote: post #21

To me, this reveals an uncomfortable truth: - I know I'm not technically skilled enough to make it to the higher levels of IC - I know I lack the people skills & charisma to make it to the higher levels of management I'm aware I can improve in both and I accept that, to some extent, it's a laziness and confidence issue. But to some people it seems to come naturally and it's hard not to assume I'm in the majority that…

Agreed, and I hope that the three options presented by this author do not in fact constitute ineluctable destiny, because frankly, none of them appeal to me. I don't want to hustle for business and I'm not sufficiently obsessed with my work to become a "senior individual contributor". I've done some management in the past and I don't want to do it again, because humans are a pain in the ass. I'd like to simply contin…

> Can that not be arranged?

It can, and some companies are fine with that. The challenge is that even with companies that find that arrangement acceptable, many of them aren't willing to pay more for the relevant experience. They want you to be in some kind of higher leverage role. So either you take less pay, get pushed into more responsibility, or you get lucky with a really good company (and that company manages to stay in business without a major management/culture shift).

Re: A career ending mistake

#77

Post by toomuchtodo »

BadCookie wrote: post #52
toomuchtodo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could be a technical PM. Bit of a “day walker” with a foot in both the tech and people worlds.

It seems like all the technical PM jobs require that you’ve already held that title for several years. Or maybe I take job descriptions too literally.

Apply, apply, apply. Let them make the decision if you’re qualified or not.

Re: A career ending mistake

#78

Post by ido »

nonameiguess wrote: post #66
znq wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we're completely open to having partners and kids around at our events. We actually encourage it. I myself have a child now and am looking forward to taking her to our next event. We're also looking into options of having a nanny. Depending on where we go and what we do.

What about employees with physical disabilities? I've got ten screws in my spine and never thought when deciding to work in computing that I'd be expected to be able to ski and surf.

I’ve not personally thought about that specific case but it’s similar to a lot of other issues with well meaning benefits (e.g. company outing focusing on activities like Laser Tag).

The best solution I’ve come up with so far is simply paying well & giving a lot of time off (and making sure people actually feel comfortable using their vacation days, which is an issue with “unlimited vacation” sometimes). Then each person can just afford to take the activities they want to.

Re: A career ending mistake

#79

Post by wussboy »

giantg2 wrote: post #22
GekkePrutser wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is totally different. The company I've worked for for the last 20 years has always done the right thing by me. They allowed me to work from my home country for half a year when I needed to be with my family, they paid to move me to yet another country when my team was made redundant so I could do the job I really wanted. And I really love learning obscure tech :) always have. Some companies really are b…

I would like obscure tech if it had a future - like when I thought the company would do the right thing. I do think some companies are better than others, but I don't think any company is really good. They all lie. My company has a reputation for being great and caring. On paper it's true. For over 90% of people, that might be true. But they don't follow their own policies, screwing over a small percentage. So I thin…

I feel like your perspective is very narrow. You’ve had a bad experience at one company that you admit has done well for almost all their employees, therefore all companies are evil and your chance of happiness is zero? That doesn’t seem reasonable or even likely. May I recommend “Feeling Good” by David Burns? It has helped many people in situations like yours.

Re: A career ending mistake

#80

Post by qzw »

treis wrote: post #61
isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a title. Means about as much as VP in banks.

Also, only the 2nd or 3rd step on the ladder. Most places with 3-5 YOE seniors have Staffs & Principles above them.

Which have also been watered down in order to give the seniors somewhere to move up to. So the rungs get relabeled, but the ladder doesn’t actually reach any higher.
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