Careen != Career
A career ending mistake
241–250 of 332 posts
Re: A career ending mistake
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
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!…
For those of us who are semi-good at all three paths, our long-haul choices depend quite heavily on how the wider world either opens unexpected opportunities for us, or gradually chokes them off. In my own (non-technical) case, I had a great 15-year run as a top-of-the-heap IC -- and then my outfit got bought by people whose business model had no use for what I did. Time to do something different, and with it being 2…
> Sometimes the key to staying warm and happy is to be willing to move when the temperature changes.
Thank you for this. It really landed close to home for me.
Re: A career ending mistake
#243> 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…
On the off chance you haven't read it yet and might be inspired: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
It's not an exciting way where you get to be in the newspapers as the latest billionaire, but it does work and has very low variance.
Re: A career ending mistake
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry to hear that. I've had many positions where I felt like I belonged including my current. The ones where I didn't were very depressing and stressful. I hope you will find more fulfillment in the future! By the way I never planned anything. I don't think more than a week ahead. Somehow I have fallen into the right places anyhow. I tend to get really bored once I've totally mastered a job so I change a lot. I…
It felt great at first. Once you realize that the company - respected/known as a place that does the right thing - doesn't follow its own policies and screws people over, you realize that every company/job sucks. It won't be better anywhere else. And you wasted your youth on obscure and obsolete tech because the company needed it and you wrongly believed their promises that they would take care of you (retraining, ca…
"Companies" are made up of individuals. If a company has a culture where they make an attempt to care and put on a public face of caring then that is an awesome start, but actually making that work comes down to you and your managers.
> you wrongly believed their promises that they would take care of you (retraining, career growth, not laying off, not outsourcing, etc).
None of these things _ever_ just happen, even when promised. People who want them have to actively make them happen. The promise is just a "the company won't get in the way" thing, which is the best you can hope for.
Your comments make it sound a bit like your career is something that has happened to you. Careers atrophy unless you take steps to force the direction.
For example, if retraining was mentioned, then find an online course at Udacity or something, get the annual review or whatever where retraining was mentioned, and send en email to your manager saying "hey my review said I need to do retraining. I need $450 for this course and then go from there".
Even in the best companies it's pretty rare someone will actually organise something like this for you.
Re: A career ending mistake
#245I stopped reading at this point:
“If you love what you're doing now and don't ever want to change jobs, great: you've reached the end of your career, even if it plays out over many decades.”
That is so wrong if your job is dynamic and creative, and if you have ambitious goals.
Re: A career ending mistake
#246> 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…
Sadly unless there is some kind of universal ABI or born to rich parents, doing what we want especially in the way we want is not an option. Its wage slavery all across the world and no end in sight for any number of future generations.
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Re: A career ending mistake
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well it goes both ways. Young people are cocky and dismiss older peoples' experience as irrelevant, and more senior people think they've seen it all already and that there is nothing new that hasn't been around since 60s. Neural networks are a good example. If you skipped the last decade (/two) and you think you know about ANN because you mastered them in 60s... boy do I have news for you. :) Another paradigm shift f…
>One of the biggest pitfalls of an experienced person can be lack of curiosity, and it is really easy to fall for it, because let's face it, most of the new things are crap and will be forgotten in a few years. However, there are nuggets to be found in the mud, one just needs to keep looking. It's easy to reflexively dismiss reimaginings of things that have been tried and failed half a dozen times over the years. But…
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Re: A career ending mistake
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Well it goes both ways. Young people are cocky and dismiss older peoples' experience as irrelevant, and more senior people think they've seen it all already and that there is nothing new that hasn't been around since 60s. Neural networks are a good example. If you skipped the last decade (/two) and you think you know about ANN because you mastered them in 60s... boy do I have news for you. :) Another paradigm shift f…
NNs sure, React and Rust ... uhm no.
Re: A career ending mistake
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
The irony is that you're nitpicking on the mistakes, while being literally the person who ended one career and started a new one. Do you know if your new career is a career to your retirement, post retirement or only for a few years?
What is the irony?
The irony is that his situation is literally described in the post.
And that person doesn't realise it...
Re: A career ending mistake
#250Another oldie but goodie in the career planning vein: https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_career_planning_part0.html This is Marc Andreessen's guide to career planning, and I've found it exceptionally useful. In particular, he backs off from the narrow "decide what track you want to be on" approach to frame the problem as developing a set of skills that will make you more valuable to any enterprise you choose to be a part…
Marc Andreessen who according to wikipedia has had a single employee job in his entire adult life, after which he went on to found a string of companies and then became a VC? Why would I want to take their advice on skills that make me more valuable to an enterprise?
I'd 100% take advice from him on founding companies and on investing btw, but advice on how to build your career as an employee seems wildly irrelevant coming from him.