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A career-ending mistake

bitfieldconsulting.com

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Re: A career-ending mistake

#131

Post by K0HAX »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #108
hcrean wrote: post #6

This article assumes a lot more self-determinism than is available in practice to most people. Beyond that many of us have been running on fumes for years, I can't lose ten extra hours every week away from seeing my family, so I can up-skill for a new variation on the same career with ultimately the same bull.

If your goal is to get a cushy high paying job you will need to make sacrifices, otherwise that job would no longer be cushy and high paying. Some sacrifice their 20s and grind an education, career, and have no kids or spouse. Others put a large burden on their spouse to retrain, you have to weigh the short term toil versus the amortized improvements over your career. And it is important to remember that luck plays a…

I have sacrificed my relationships with my friends and family for two decades and it hasn't helped advance my career beyond a normal, lowly IC.

I don't want to manage people. I would be the exact kind of manager that destroys my own will to live. A senior role would be nice, but because I don't have any social skills (all that time I spent learning all of the technical knowledge I have now had unforeseen consequences, specifically, my social skills and emotional restraint are significantly stunted.)

Stop using the argument that people need to make sacrifices. It's not true.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#132

Post by joshuamcginnis »

dfedbeef wrote: post #96

The mistake I see people make it _not_ ending their career out of narcissism, pride, ego, etc. I am not a religious person but it is good to remember you will die. You should have some better stuff to put on your tombstone than your job title. People aren't going to care who you were in 100 years and people aren't going to remember you in 1000 years. Your tombstone will crumble in the dirt. Spend time with people you…

I highly recommend folks read Ecclesiastes, which opens with "Everything Is Meaningless". It's a philosophical book on what matters in life (and what doesn't).

  What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?
  Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.
  No one remembers the former generations,
    and even those yet to come
  will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#133

Post by suzzer99 »

toast0 wrote: post #51
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…

> but for most techies, the most useful goal is to make money fast in a way that doesn't drain your life energy. And most of the time, this means responding to opportunities, not sticking to your guns. For example, a lifetime IC job may be ultimately worth less than a management job that gets you to VP level in a decade. If you can switch to management without draining your life energy, go for it? I hope you're a goo…

There's also a risk going to into management that you don't have as a much more indispensable developer. My friend is great developer who transitioned to management, then got laid off 2 years later when the company hired a bunch of Amazon layoff casualties who pushed out all the other management. All the developers under her were retained.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#134

Post by mrbombastic »

“Managing people is hard; much harder than programming. Computers just do what you tell them, whether that’s right or wrong (usually wrong). Anyone can get good at programming, if they’re willing to put in enough time and effort. I’m not sure anyone can get good at managing, and most don’t. Most managers are terrible.

That’s quite a sweeping statement, I know. (Prove me wrong, managers, prove me wrong.) But, really, would a car mechanic last long in the job if they couldn’t fit a tyre, or change a spark plug? Would a doctor succeed if they regularly amputated the wrong leg? We would hope not. But many managers are just as incompetent, in their own field, and yet they seem to get away with it.”

The fact that most managers are terrible doesn’t really prove managing is hard. in fact you could make a case it proves the opposite, the fact that most managers are terrible shows that management is easy, at least if we are talking about what it takes to keep your job.

FWIW I would agree with the point that being a good manager is hard but I don’t think this argument holds water.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#135

Post by dqh »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #97
Attummm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to disagree with your premise. The goal of many software engineers is to build software / systems they can be proud of. They love software and the machines it runs on. Many people here have Arduino projects, 3D printers, home servers, and similar hobbies. A few weeks ago, I was looking for compression algorithms for a particular use case and came across Brotli[0]. I was surprised to learn it was developed by G…

> The goal of many software engineers is to build software / systems they can be proud of. Maybe for people <30. Priorities change very fast, as you age. I’ve met a good chunk of very talented engineers through work and other venues who acknowledged that they stopped caring after some point.

45 here, happily married with kids and yet I love writing software more than ever.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#136

Post by CooCooCaCha »

ghaff wrote: post #114
CooCooCaCha wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 accelera…

>you don't have to wait until your 60s to live the life you want But, at least at some point in your life, doing work within a company may provide that life. At some point, you're done. And that point may vary. But many people wouldn't really love (or at least benefit from) a bunch of money dropped in their lap when they graduated from college.

I can 100% tell you it will not provide that life to a lot of people. I'm happy for you if it does but others like myself would rather kill themselves than work a 9-5 until they're 60.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#137

Post by suzzer99 »

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 best of all worlds is when you can work with real friends with on cool new stuff. I had a job like that for seven years. I also had enough experience by that point to know I was in a rare situation, and to cherish it while it lasted.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#138

Post by macNchz »

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 most useful goal is to make money fast in a way that doesn't drain your life energy. And most of the time, this means responding to opportunities, not sticking to your guns

This is a tightrope I think many people wind up struggling with—it’s easy to slip into doing something that pays well but does drain your energy, then struggle to wind things back once you’re used to the increased income.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#139

Post by dbish »

K0HAX wrote: post #113
dbish wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I’ve known many an engineer who thinks their manager is bad because they don’t do what this IC (who has never been a manager or knows that is happening at the company above them) would do. The kind of people who think Elon is a bad CEO. Results are what matters first and foremost in tech

An employee not knowing what's happening at the company above them is a fault of the manager. There are some things that need to be kept secret, but if it's not one of those things, secrets are not a good thing.

It’s not that straight forward. It’s not the ICs job to know everything that is happening nor is it their job to make decisions based on pass through data, especially not a junior/mid career engineer.

Transparency and keeping people informed, yes. Sharing a bunch of info and letting every IC make their own strategy and prioritization decisions, no.

Re: A career-ending mistake

#140

Post by dclowd9901 »

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…

Yep -- this is something I wish I understood earlier on: burn hard, make as much as you can, then do what you _really_ want once you have enough money.
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