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A career ending mistake

bitfieldconsulting.com

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Re: A career ending mistake

#231

Post by ghaff »

giantg2 wrote: post #113
zabzonk wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I assume it would be much more difficult to go from programming to medical microbiologist. You are right - it takes you several years of training, whereas you can probably pick up the bits and bobs of programming in a few weeks, if you have any aptitude. But the basic idea remains - if you are doing something you hate, stop doing it, no matter what the price. It isn't going to get any better.

I pretty much agree. Except if I stop doing it, it could get worse. I need to support my family.

There are also many adjacent jobs to development (or whatever) at a medium to large tech company. However, if it's that all the jobs or companies are bad (for you), you're probably going to need something really fundamentally different like some sort of trade. And that has its own set of downsides and is probably going to be a step down in compensation.

Re: A career ending mistake

#232

Post by chefandy »

ebiester wrote: post #65
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…

And it seems to lump tech lead, staff-level individual contributor not leading a team, and architect-level positions that have no direct reports. When I speak about career options to people I lead, I say there is a senior level plateau. At that point, you have to be more intentional about growth. If you want to stay in the field, and you want to progress past senior developer (staying a core contributor is an option!…

Staying a core contributor isn't always an option.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/22/opinion/ibm-e-mails-a...

While it's not true everywhere, age bias— even unintentional— means you've got to be pretty freaking indispensable no matter what our constantly changing tech landscape throws our way. We're not talking about the proverbial behoodied-27-year-old-led startup, here... this is IBM.

Re: A career ending mistake

#233

Post by nostrademons »

gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #209
nostrademons wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to me how many people miss the other big shift that can increase their earning potential: from labor to capitalist. The ceiling is effectively unlimited for this. A good manager might make double what a good IC under them does, but the shareholder makes orders of magnitude more. The essence of capitalism is shifting resources from unproductive uses to productive ones , and they operate on global mark…

Great point. One issue with your last paragraph though, is when trying to select a company to work for from an equity/ownership standpoint, there isn't the option of diversifying a career. You can only work at once place, so you put all your eggs in one basket. In hindsight, sure, you would make better money at coinbase rather than facebook, but it's essentially going long on one stock with your time rather than capi…

There is over time, just not at once. You gain much more information working at a company than you have from the outside. If it sucks, quit and go to a better one.

It's that willingness to cut your losers that many people don't have. Lots of folks are miserable in their jobs (you see a number in this thread) but then perform all sorts of rationalizations on why it has to be that way. It doesn't: if you're miserable, that's your brain telling you that it's the wrong place, and you should go put in some effort to find the right place.

Re: A career ending mistake

#234

Post by asdfman123 »

musicale wrote: post #210
asdfman123 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying a productive IC your whole career is fairly straightforward: I really think it comes down to never "coasting" and always being open to learning new things. The problem is a lot of older people seem to believe that once they get to a certain point, they're entitled a position and respect. Is it a wonder why younger people, who might be more up-to-date than them, don't want to work with them? The trick is to ne…

This doesn't pass the smell test for me, for several reasons: Most of the "new" ideas in computing (neural networks, quantum computing, etc.) aren't new at all. Not to mention that Linux and macOS are basically 1960s-style operating systems. Knowledge of short-term technical details and skills at dealing with brand new systems are much easier to acquire than deep understanding of core principles as well as engineerin…

No, I'm saying that too many experienced devs who don't survive fall into the complacency trap. Not that all of them do.

Re: A career ending mistake

#235

Post by asdfman123 »

hinkley wrote: post #202
Melatonic wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can view mastery as an end goal and still enjoy it - you just have to be willing to do it a bit slower.

I knew a guy who achieved I think a 3 dan status in Go having started somewhere north of 45 yo, which the common wisdom says can’t be done. It’s always a matter of finding internal motivation. We get better at talking ourselves out of it as we get older.

I think you just get less hungry for learning/skill acquisition when you're older. When you're in school it feels vitally important to learn/get good at X. But as an adult it's much easier to take it or leave it.

Re: A career ending mistake

#236

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

afterburner wrote: post #196
danity wrote: post #87

A long time ago, after interviewing for months, I finally landed my first job as a developer. It was VERY hard to get your foot in the door back then. On my first day, I was given someone's old computer that had a bunch of junk on it. While cleaning it up, I accidentally deleted all files on the company's file share. Shortly after, I started hearing murmurs of missing files and then, panicking inside, realized what I…

If you lied, and they found out, you would have been fired for that reason alone. On the other hand if you told the truth right away, it's hard to say if you would have been fired; where I've worked you wouldn't have been fired for telling the truth and doing that (having seen people fess up to much worse failures). Lying on the other hand is a serious problem since it betrays trust (if caught, of course). That said,…

No post body was provided.

Re: A career ending mistake

#237

Post by lvl100 »

I once took a job that I regretted taking on the very first day. I contemplated quitting that same day but stuck it out for many years thereafter. Turns out staying in that job WAS the career ending mistake. It killed my career, family life and even health. It takes a lot of effort to recover from these career mistakes even if you have spectacular resume and background. Number one rule in avoiding this is to never take such a job in the first place.

Re: A career ending mistake

#238

Post by xvector »

asdfman123 wrote: post #154
slfnflctd wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't think I'll ever find the position where I feel I belong [...] now that I know how broken the system really is Some people are chalking this up to depression, which is possibly part of it, but honestly I think this is simply the reality of a former idealist coming to grips with the big picture. You can't help but recognize that passion will come & go and it's all castles made of sand in the end. Whatever is mo…

Well, the difference between someone who is mentally healthy and someone who is depressed is this (and friends, I've been both): Someone who is mentally healthy realizes the world is imperfect and what they're doing is isn't working, but then takes that knowledge and builds upon it. Maybe they change careers, or maybe they lower their expectations for their job and focus on other meaningful things. Someone who is dep…

I agree. For me the solution was to stop thinking about my career as much more than a means to an end ($$$). The system is broken, sure, but fixing it isn't my job.

I'll work on problems I find interesting, and for all I care, the system can crash and burn. All the while, I'll clock out when I want and go home with a smile on my face.

Re: A career ending mistake

#239

Post by throwawaymsft »

noisy_boy wrote: post #125

> I think there are three main kinds of career destination, at least in the tech industry: > Independent > Senior individual contributor (IC) > Management I guess I'll stick my neck out and just admit that I don't want to give any more fucks about any of the above and just wake up, sip my tea, read the news and take a bloody nap whenever I want to. Also volunteering/open source but mostly, not doing things I don't wa…

If you’re in the tech industry, FIRE is an option closer than most. You can build your own tenure to pursue what you like.

Re: A career ending mistake

#240

Post by Barrin92 »

I think a very straight forward cure is just stopping this hamster wheel career attitude altogether. I started to program because I enjoy programming. I enjoyed it at awful companies, I enjoyed it at good companies.

The article's suggestion of steering towards 'career goals' is I think mistaken. If you want to be happy in your job you can be happy right now provided you enjoy your craft. This goal oriented mindset drilled into people is terrible because there's just going to always be the next thing.

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