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A career-ending mistake

bitfieldconsulting.com

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Re: A career-ending mistake

#41

Post by noirbot »

BurningFrog wrote: post #38
fallinditch wrote: post #16

> Most managers are terrible. A sweeping statement indeed, but it does reflect my experience too. Perhaps it's my ingrained deference to authority - when I start a new position I tend to believe that my manager has my best interests at heart. This is a mistake and I now believe it's better to maintain a kind of defensive attitude and to always be assertive in establishing, and if necessary negotiating, the responsibi…

OTOH, this can be a case of the "if everyone around you is a jerk, the jerk is really you" rule. If you can't work well with any manager the common denominator is you. It's also the only thing you can change.

The difficulty is the small sample size. Most people won't have a ton of different managers in their career and you'll change over time and your role will change over time and want/need different things from your manager.

There's also a lot of selection bias. What many people point out in these threads is that the sort of people who desire to be in management, and the sort of skills selected for in managers often don't align to what more ICs would actually want out of their managers. Managers are often hired by other managers and not by the managed, so the skills that get you the job often aren't aligned to what would make them good to work for.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#42

Post by tonyedgecombe »

inglor_cz wrote: post #8
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #5

I have found that I can't actually plan with much certainty, and, quite often, the very worst thing that can happen, is that Everything Goes As Planned. I have found utility in "overengineering" my life. Not just the tech I do, but in most things, and creating small, robust, high-Quality, and adaptable structures. Things that can be rearranged, and repurposed, when (not "if") the context/paradigm changes. I started m…

In a similar fashion, I try to address all sorts of corner cases in my code, to the point of being called obsessive by some colleagues - but it definitely helped a few times with really stubborn and obscure bugs. An extra log line here or there, or an e-mail sent to the admin in weird situations, goes a long way - provided that you don't generate many false positives, because no one pays attention to a program that c…

It's always surprised me how many people are happy with somewhat sloppy work, doing just enough to solve a particular issue. Most of the time it doesn't even come from management pressure, it's just the way people work.

Perhaps there is something wrong with me but I always want to dot all the i's and cross all the t's.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#43

Post by boredtofears »

equestria wrote: post #20

Here's the thing about the average career in big tech: five years after you leave, almost no one will remember you were there . Most of your old team mates will leave for other other jobs. Your code will get refactored or rewritten. Docs will be superseded, then lost in some CMS migration. Before long, it will be as if you have never worked there. I know it sounds preposterous, but ask anyone over the age of 55 or 60…

There's no guarantee your code will be rewritten or refactored. I have code written over 15 years ago that I know is still in production because it is stable and core to the application. I suppose one day it probably will be replaced but I'm pretty satisfied with that piece of work and found it to be, if anything, more life affirming than draining.

You can have your cake and eat it, too: if your work is satisfying and seeing people use the things you built gives you joy, you can make good money doing something you life without optimizing your entire life solely around ladder climbing or bigger paychecks.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#44

Post by ponector »

mjr00 wrote: post #37
paganel wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that is that it drains away your life energy in your late 20s and throughout your 30s, and in fact it's not only about draining one's energy, let's say that would be fine up to a point, but it drains away your purpose in life, and, in the end, your will to live. I refuse to believe that there are people whose purpose in life is to be a manager/VP, and, if they are, they might as well be walking corps…

> I refuse to believe that there are people whose purpose in life is to be be a manager/VP, and, if they are, they might as well be walking corpses for all I know. You could say the same thing about ICs though -- "I refuse to believe there are people whose purpose in life is to spend 5 days a week for 3 years building an enterprise line-of-business app to automate an obscure legacy business process that will be used…

And as VP you can make a ton of money and spend it wisely, make a difference to your extended family or even a community you live.

That is a real meaning and sense of purpose for your earned money!

Re: A career-ending mistake

#45

Post by CooCooCaCha »

paganel wrote: post #31
equestria wrote: post #20

Here's the thing about the average career in big tech: five years after you leave, almost no one will remember you were there . Most of your old team mates will leave for other other jobs. Your code will get refactored or rewritten. Docs will be superseded, then lost in some CMS migration. Before long, it will be as if you have never worked there. I know it sounds preposterous, but ask anyone over the age of 55 or 60…

The problem with that is that it drains away your life energy in your late 20s and throughout your 30s, and in fact it's not only about draining one's energy, let's say that would be fine up to a point, but it drains away your purpose in life, and, in the end, your will to live. I refuse to believe that there are people whose purpose in life is to be a manager/VP, and, if they are, they might as well be walking corps…

The only way I know how to deal with this is FIRE. Investing as much as possible and working towards early retirement or semi-retirement so that you can at least live a good chunk of your life.

The world we live in still sucks away the best years of your life but at least you don't have to wait until your 60s to live the life you want. You can also work on side projects in your spare time that will hopefully accelerate this process.

This should be doable on a tech salary.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#47

Post by analog31 »

paganel wrote: post #31
equestria wrote: post #20

Here's the thing about the average career in big tech: five years after you leave, almost no one will remember you were there . Most of your old team mates will leave for other other jobs. Your code will get refactored or rewritten. Docs will be superseded, then lost in some CMS migration. Before long, it will be as if you have never worked there. I know it sounds preposterous, but ask anyone over the age of 55 or 60…

The problem with that is that it drains away your life energy in your late 20s and throughout your 30s, and in fact it's not only about draining one's energy, let's say that would be fine up to a point, but it drains away your purpose in life, and, in the end, your will to live. I refuse to believe that there are people whose purpose in life is to be a manager/VP, and, if they are, they might as well be walking corps…

I've noticed that the successful ones have exceptional self discipline, part of which is not letting it affect your life as a person. Also, from their body language as observed through office windows and meeting rooms, they're spending a lot of their time socializing.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#48

Post by AnimalMuppet »

yawnxyz wrote: post #19

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. It's not entirely clear that much of this field will look the same in five years, but still, I think doing the thinking and the planning for the sake of mapping out the route is important. If only to inform you that no, you don't want any of those routes. (I did this planning and ended up in academia/microbiology, as a product designer, for better or worse but it's bee…

My wife asks me from time to time: "What do you need to learn now for the next five years of your career?"

It's a great question. It is also, I think, the right time frame, though one could argue for three years instead of five. Given the terrain I see now, I can plan for the next five years, and have those plans be mostly reasonable most of the time. Past that is harder.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#49

Post by analog31 »

paxys wrote: post #17

"What do you want to be?" is a question we have all constantly been asked since middle school by parents, teachers, career counsellors, professors, recruiters, mentors, managers, HR and lots of other well meaning souls. My answer is the same at 40 as it was at 14 – I don't know. And you know what? I've been fine. I have worked at some great companies, and some not so great ones. A couple FAANGs as well as a 20-person…

A friend of mine, who is quite successful in his occupation, told me that his motto is: "Always do the next thing."

Our culture possesses this weird belief, that people always need to be transformed. This cuts across all ideologies, ranging from religion to Marxism and corporate culture. I think simply declaring "bullshit" to that belief can lead to a much happier life.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#50

Post by tdeck »

equestria wrote: post #20

Here's the thing about the average career in big tech: five years after you leave, almost no one will remember you were there . Most of your old team mates will leave for other other jobs. Your code will get refactored or rewritten. Docs will be superseded, then lost in some CMS migration. Before long, it will be as if you have never worked there. I know it sounds preposterous, but ask anyone over the age of 55 or 60…

To me this seems to make a strong case for focusing more on relationships at work with people and less on work products. I still remember people I worked with 10+ years ago though I have no idea if the code they wrote then is still in production.
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