The state of burnout in tech, 2022 edition [pdf]

Post by wpietri » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:40 PM UTC

lupire wrote: post #44

wpietri wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure that even if I worked for a non-profit doing work I thought was important that it would translate to my own job being something I wanted to do. Hi! I've worked for a few non-profits over the years. They are no panacea! Many businesses at least have a clear success mode: do good things for people and they'll pay you so you can do more good things for them. But the business model of many non-profits is s…

If you don't need money (permanently or temporarily) as a techie, don't work a job for a nonprofit. If you want to help people, take time off your high paying corporate job to contribute to free software, or run a forum website, or do citizen data journalism.

Post by unicornhose » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 12:29 AM UTC

CalRobert wrote: post #82

Maximus9000 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are companies that you could work for that would be win-win. Companies that are making the world better and still require talented software developers.

There are! I've been interviewing with them the last couple weeks. I also have a personal project that I hope helps (meant to help get walking and bike infra built)

Post by AlwaysRock » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 1:53 AM UTC

unicornhose wrote: post #102

AlwaysRock wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to work at a company that does something great for the world. Like work on climate change or longevity. It feels so hard to find those roles though.

The parent commentator posted some links: culdesac.com, planet.com, cervest.earth. And some job sites: climatebase.org, naturetech.io. Could you talk a bit about why this kind of information is not enough? (I was in a similar situation as you a few months ago, and it took some time to figure out how to find work that was clearly good for the world. But the specific problems for each of us may be different.)

Post by redisman » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 3:02 AM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #12

dougmccune wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is probably just grass is greener stuff, but I've seen the opposite. Now, that said, this was post acquisition, but my anecdote is that in our case the ICs were shielded from all the office politics shenanigans and were able to just focus on delivering work. Meanwhile, those in management positions were repeatedly pulled into agenda-less meetings, were "voluntold" for tasks unrelated to their jobs, and were gene…

I think you have a different definition of bullshit than me. Sitting in a pointless meeting so I can daydream or work on something while half paying attention? That sounds like a vacation where I don't get bugged by drive bys. Voluntold work is the norm for ICs, my condolences that you have to deal with it. I think your list is a a best case scenario of the bullshit ICs might have to deal with, and it's a good exampl…

Post by wpietri » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 5:08 AM UTC

camjohnson26 wrote: post #27

wpietri wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agreed. I'm not sure how big a problem this is, but it's been huge for me personally. I write software because I like solving problems for people. It's gratifying to build clever things, but for me it has to end in making the world better somehow. Even if it's just one person, which has happened when I'm building in-house tools. But there's so much out there that isn't about actually getting things done. E.g., t…

When you see the politics behind tech leadership it can be hard to unsee it. Everything is always the previous leadership’s fault, and whatever hot new methodology or design pattern is the current buzzword will solve all the problems that could possibly come up in the future. Everyone knows reality will be much more complicated than implied, but then whoever is working on that code when it happens to fall apart will…