171–180 of 296 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Principles are a luxury not afforded the poor masses.
If you are indispensable, then surely you have quite a leverage.
I worked for a european investment bank for a number of years, and they had a policy that every year, every employee (without exception) was required to take 2 weeks holiday as a contiguous block, and during that time, their access to the company was removed, so no email access, no remote login, keycard access to the office removed etc. They basically ran the 'suspend this person from the organisation' script and res…
This worries me, as I'm experiencing it right at this time. No idea how to get unstuck either.
"There was no career path. Sure my title changed, pay went up, but my day-to-day never changed." Sounds like a career to me. At least that's how most of them work.
Agreed. A lot of people seem to think that infinite growth is sustainable, even by a single person. When I was last interviewing, I kept getting asked, "Where do you want to be in 5/10 years?" When I answered that I wanted to be programming (the thing I was applying for) they all asked if I had no ambition. I told them that I've already met my ambition. I've got the job I want, and I intend to keep it. I didn't want…
Including my managers/company. Always pushing for personal improvement in the form of the next level. Of course personal improvement can be continuous excluding the levels, like in learning new programming related stuff (designs, tech, algorithms, etc) or business/product related stuff that you're implementing.
"asked if I had no ambition"
I was (still am) a midlevel dev. I was performing the work of a tech lead for a year, followed by a year of filling a senior dev role. I had a skip level with the department head. When they asked me my 5 year plan I said I just wanted to be a midlevel dev. I mean, that's the best I can hope for if they simply won't promote me after years of performing above my level. Huge mistake. They labeled me as having no ambition. I had to switch to a different team/department so they wouldn't fire me.
In the spirit of the old saying, "the two happiest days of a boat owner's life are the day they buy a boat, and the day they sell it." The best advice I got starting out was, "be indispensable." The best advice I got four years later was, "don't be indispensable." In a growing company, the indispensable people may find themselves being left holding the bag while new initiatives are undertaken. I very quickly learned…
"Being Indispensable" can also mean two years of no physical or mental time off; it was not fun!
I am currently lucky that all my layers of higher management understand that if my team can function effectively without me for a period of time, that means I'm doing my job well . I was able to take 2 months of paternity without things falling completely apart, and it was a proud moment for me and the team (plus great chance to bond with family). Sure there were things to catch up on and new initiatives and some bad habits to work through, but it was overall a success.
(In addition to "be indispensable" vs "don't be indispensable", one of the best pieces of advice I got and share is "The moment you get a new job/role/position, start looking for your replacement". I did not understand the value of that the first few years, but I now 100% do. I know a lot of HN SME/IC's believe "it's my boss's job to replace me / I'm in & out in a year or two", but if you are even remotely looking for a sustainable career in a company or small market/industry, it will speak VOLUMEs to your foresight, care and team&business responsibility if you have a trained, capable backup identified and positioned, for your times off as much as for your eventual ambitions).
I write at a fairly "advanced" level. My code is well-structured, incredibly well-documented, and a blue-assed bitch to grok. It's not "lowest common denominator" code for junior devs. It's usually a hideous bouillabaisse of techniques, ranging from patterns that were around before I started (over 30 years ago), to ones that the language just began supporting, a few months ago. It also works pretty well. I'm putting…
If you’re going to practice coding like some master craftsman, employing techniques that took years to hone and where every carefully selected pattern, though inscrutable to an untrained eye, carries the thumbprint of an artist at the height of his power… Well, number one congratulations to you on finding a patron willing to fund such fine and intricate work. I hope they appreciate their good fortune in having lucked…
I'm a pretty normal chap, and I work very well, on a team. I spent my entire career, doing just that. If you want to assume that I'm a jerk, I guess that's your prerogative; but I'm not. I'm a really decent person. In another world, we might actually find a lot in common, and have a great relationship, but in InternetWorld™, we have to be enemies. Not sure what that buys you, but it's a free country, I guess.
I don't have a "patron." I'm working for free, for a 501(c)(3), doing an app for a nonprofit. It's pretty much my show. I spent thirty years, working on other people's code, and watching them destroy it, so I like working on my own code, and having it done right.
Oh, and that server that I wrote? It took about ten years, to find a team that was capable of managing it properly. When they did, it became a world standard, and I was happy to step away from it; pretty much completely. It's used by thousands of people; every day. That advanced technique that I used is exactly why it lasted so long, and was able to be localized and extended. The core code is still the ancient code that I wrote in 2008. It works great, and folks haven't found a need to change it. The fact that I can hook it into the modern app that I'm writing now, is testament to its Quality.
Also, it's free code, for altruistic purposes. I donated ten years of my life to it. It is not hyperbole to say that it has saved many lives.
If you feel that's not something to be encouraged, then I don't know what to say.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> refused to let me move for a promotion because I was "indispensable" and "critical to the project". So would they rather have you quit? If not they should be willing to give you whatever title, pay bump, time off, etc. is necessary to keep you long enough for a replacement solution to be found. Otherwise if you just quit they’re stuck negotiating from a position of weakness to hire you back as a much higher paid co…
So would they rather have you quit? If not they should be willing to give you whatever title, pay bump, time off, etc. For large enough companies the 'company' is not a single unit making unified decisions. I might be "indispensable" to my boss, perhaps his boss, the project, and my department. However they don't have the power to give me a pay rise or extra time off outside the normal bounds set by their bosses. Me,…
“I was hired by the Director to solve $x problem. I led the project. I put processes in place. I led training for the team and they went public a year later. I met my former director for lunch a year later and most of my processes are still there in a slightly evolved form.”
About the same as above from my job after that. But change “Director” to “CTO” and change “went public” to “got acquired for 10x revenue”.
(Yes I can draw a direct line from the architectural changes that let them pivot to selling access to micro services to their value proposition when acquired)
Way too much specific knowledge about code/processes doesn't translate well across firms. If you view being indispensable as a formula for job security, rather than doing that for code/processes, do it for business knowledge. You'll still be considered very valuable, you'll get a lot more exposure/recognition to/from the decision makers, your deep knowledge will translate across firms and you'll be considered more va…
and this job you describe is the CEO (or CTO, or whatever CxO level people). It is indeed indispensable - a firm shows a poor signal if they have to switch CEOs, or one gets fired, or resigns without a good replacement. The problem is that there's usually only 1 CEO to a firm, and not everybody can get to that level.
Maybe at a tiny startup, but outside of that, I wouldn't expect to see it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a nihilistic view. Not every aspect that’s part of your job needs to be included in your variable compensation in order to be done, does it?
They’re employed to do a specific job, if they’re not rewarded for bringing the company more money, why should they care?