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Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

ludic.mataroa.blog

11–20 of 92 posts

Re: Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

#11

The author of this article seems like an asshole

https://ludic.mataroa.blog/compliments/

His posts show up occasionally on HN. I find his cynical/humorous style great for seeing things from a different point of view - It's a breath of fresh air.

Re: Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

#12
I don't know much about the market in Australia, but I imagine that this person is running into something I ran into myself. That tech jobs agglomerate in a few specific locations and the farther away you are from them the more clueless people are about tech (ie more clueless business people in charge and more faceless megacorps with drone-like employees).

Usually any given country will have one big spot for tech and in some countries even there will be a bit crappy. My guess is that Melbourne is not a very good spot.

Re: Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

#15
Fellow Melbourne (though originally from Asia) IT professional here. I too have struggled with AU IT industry a lot since arriving here 10 years ago. AU is a service-driven economy and IT market reflects it i.e. most companies don’t cares much about inventing, creating or innovating and there’s little incentive to think outside the box in this domain. On the flip side, life is easy and as long as you’re not too aspirational or expect high level of technical aptitude from management or recruiters, adjusting is possible. I guess this may sound like a dream to some and a nightmare to others - it’s all about your perspective, objective and expectations and isn’t that different to the rest of the world (US and perhaps pockets of Asia excepted). I’ve been told it’s all about “playing the game” but have to admit that, just like the author, I find it to be a hard mental work. In addition, looking at my peers who seemingly don’t have these worries as they work in other industries, makes you question your career choices.

If you’re hungry, restless and the IT industry culture status quo shock is too great to stomach, migrating to US (managed to work across both continents for a bit of perspective) is pretty much the only option :(

Re: Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

#17

"It is a cold Anzac day in Melbourne, and I am brooding." I'm in Sydney, and Lest We Forget. "It has become exceedingly clear to me that the average company is not a suitable environment for someone that cares about the craft of programming." I'm not in a position to do this topic justice as it's a too big a subject to cover in a post such as this. Nevertheless, l'd extend that statement to include essentially any cr…

> The worst case comes when the stated objectives of the company or organization (what it does to make money) are very different to those of the employee's skills. For instance, the employee is employed in some technical area of a company that has nothing to do with technology such as banking, finance, the arts and various government bureaucracies. > My worst job was working for a government bureaucracy that had noth…

Trouble is tech services are needed by such organizations, in my case it was IT and electronics.

It's when things go wrong as they sometimes do, and mainly when users screw up using the services—no matter how much has been plowed into training—that it comes unstuck.

Management wants assurances that services will be more reliable but they don't have the interest or understanding to be helpful, this lack of understanding manifests as insufficient budgets and etc.

So what does one do? Well aware of C.P. Snows' two cultures problem, I hire consultants who are at arm's length to (a) check my operation is working efficiently (and it passes AOK), and (b) to explain matters to management (it's more detailed than that but you get the gist).

Did that help? Well, essentially no it didn't, if management isn't really interested in resolving matters and or takes precious little interest in what its technical departments and staff do then one is essentially stymied. One either puts up with matters or gets out. I opted for the latter.

Re: Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

#18

I understand the frustration. But if I were looking for a job, I simply would not publicly announce to the world that I am this much of a dick.

Yeah he sounds completely insufferable. If he came across like this in an interview with me I would be very put off.

Re: Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

#19

I understand the frustration. But if I were looking for a job, I simply would not publicly announce to the world that I am this much of a dick.

I think it’s funny, and I see it more as a stylistic choice to vent the author‘s frustration with the process than an actual reflection of their character. It is just their personal blog overall.

Edit: Gender neutral language

Re: Most Tech Jobs Are Jokes and I Am Not Laughing

#20

The author of this article seems like an asshole

https://ludic.mataroa.blog/compliments/ His posts show up occasionally on HN. I find his cynical/humorous style great for seeing things from a different point of view - It's a breath of fresh air.

"People think I'm an asshole... best not reflect on that, let's just embrace it and double down!"
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