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I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

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Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#61

> "I have never been good at learning new frameworks for just the purpose of learning" Could not agree more with this statement. When I get into a software project really deeply, my work ethic is insane. Obsessive. As I need new technologies, I learn and assimilate them quickly because I'm so motivated to get to the end point. There's never been a tech I've given up on when plowing through a project -- well, maybe Op…

I think thats where side projects have to be something you care about. Scratch an itch whilst learning pet technology.

Ex: a friend of mine wanted to modify some data on his garmin GPS thing. He also wanted to learn Go and google app engine. A few weeks later he had resume items and the goal accomplished.

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#62
post #56

I was in a similar situation once. Here's the algorithm I came up with to get myself out: 1. Figure out what you want to do. This is the most important step. You currently have a job, so you have time to really think about this and figure out a solid answer. The answer doesn't have to be an emotional epiphany where you find your so-called "passion", but it has to be a concrete goal. For me, it was more of a recovery…

Why was taking the team lead position foolish? Were there no benefits to accompany the drawbacks?

[deleted]

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#63
post #56

I was in a similar situation once. Here's the algorithm I came up with to get myself out: 1. Figure out what you want to do. This is the most important step. You currently have a job, so you have time to really think about this and figure out a solid answer. The answer doesn't have to be an emotional epiphany where you find your so-called "passion", but it has to be a concrete goal. For me, it was more of a recovery…

Why was taking the team lead position foolish? Were there no benefits to accompany the drawbacks?

There rarely are.

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#64
post #57
post #23

Some times I think we are wired to believe we have to beg people's forgiveness for not being miserable. Medium term I'd suggest discarding this belief. Short term: on behalf of geeks everywhere, your local online watering hole hereby grants you permission to not be miserable. Quit. There exist much better jobs out there. The hiring market for people with your skillset is the best it has ever been. Level up. Portfolio…

I have the idea that AngularJS is requested more and more. I thought it was kind of a "must have" skill.

It's the hot technology in the same way that Rails was the hot technology in 2005-2007.

This does not make it a must-have. I did just fine learning Django instead of Rails in 2007, and when I finally got into Google in 2009, I ended up using neither for the bulk of my time there (okay, I think I had about 3-4 Django projects in my tenure, and knowing Python definitely helped).

There is a certain segment of the employer market that is always chasing the latest hot fad: Java applets in 1997, ColdFusion in 1999, J2EE in 2002, Rails in 2005, Angular in 2009, React or Polymer or Go in 2014. Knowing the latest hot fad can be an excellent way to get your first couple jobs in software, because these employers are always looking for people and typically don't know much about technology themselves. However, it often signs you up for a lifetime of retraining, unless you leverage experience at one of these places into domain knowledge with a longer shelf life. Companies that live by the latest fad die by the latest fad; the same ColdFusion or J2EE skills that got me my first jobs in college are basically worthless now.

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#65

Do you have any savings? Are you married or otherwise unable to move? There are many countries in the world where you can live comfortably for $1000/month (or even less). That will give you a few years of time to do anything, web apps or something. Maybe one will turn out to be profitable. Or you could just try to do part-time remote work to cover living expenses.

Which are said sub $1000 countries and link to proof would be nice.

Almost half of Europe [1]. Average wage is better than vast majority of people in these countries earn. That's proof enough. You can optimize for smallest price levels [2], safety [3] or local English level [4].

Other than that, basically most places in the world. I heard Bali is nice.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_a...

[2] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/graph.do?tab=graph&plug...

[3] http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/safety/

[4] http://languageknowledge.eu/languages/english

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#66
post #56

I was in a similar situation once. Here's the algorithm I came up with to get myself out: 1. Figure out what you want to do. This is the most important step. You currently have a job, so you have time to really think about this and figure out a solid answer. The answer doesn't have to be an emotional epiphany where you find your so-called "passion", but it has to be a concrete goal. For me, it was more of a recovery…

Why was taking the team lead position foolish? Were there no benefits to accompany the drawbacks?

It was foolish because I worked at a large company, and team leads were basically impotent eunuchs who ran errands for the higher ups. I also worked in a department that had pathological ideas on how long developers ought to work (including weekends), and how short product schedules should be (unfeasibly short).

There were some benefits. I loved being able to help the guys on my team. I did my best to promote their achievements, and argue for them at project schedule meetings. I was very happy to get one of my guys a really good placement on the "technical career path" system when it reared its ugly head at the company.

Ultimately, my strengths are in technical problem solving, not in managing the psychopaths who seem to ascend to the upper echelons of large companies.

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which are said sub $1000 countries and link to proof would be nice.

Almost half of Europe [1]. Average wage is better than vast majority of people in these countries earn. That's proof enough. You can optimize for smallest price levels [2], safety [3] or local English level [4]. Other than that, basically most places in the world. I heard Bali is nice. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_a... [2] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/graph.do?tab=graph&plug.…

Awesome, thanks! I may use this to choose my new home :D

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#68

Apart from learning, try these: 1. Put yourself in situations where you can meet more tech people Most (not some, most ) of the work I've gotten came from a chance conversation with someone who was working at a place that needed the skills I have. So try to have more of those conversations. I live in suburban Ohio in the heart of the rust belt, so this can be done anywhere. 2. Try consulting instead of full time work…

Wow thanks for all the tips! Can you explain 1. A bit more. What kind of situations are they? How do you mention what you do or find out what they need?

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#69
post #23

Some times I think we are wired to believe we have to beg people's forgiveness for not being miserable. Medium term I'd suggest discarding this belief. Short term: on behalf of geeks everywhere, your local online watering hole hereby grants you permission to not be miserable. Quit. There exist much better jobs out there. The hiring market for people with your skillset is the best it has ever been. Level up. Portfolio…

I second what patio11 said about the low prevalence of modern frameworks. Even at the most advanced startups I've seen up close, more of the software is built using custom frameworks than using "cutting-edge" modern frameworks. Adopting each new modern framework has a cost, and if a startup's problems are largely orthogonal to the problems the framework solves, adopting the framework is unjustified. I can remember only one job interview where extensive Rails experience was a hard requirement, but it was probably because the company's founding team wanted help learning Rails. You should be able to find many jobs where experience with modern frameworks is not a hard requirement.

If I were in your situation, I'd do two things. First, I'd write a list of 10 ideas to make my career really fun. This list would probably describe companies to interview at and projects to pursue. Second, I'd write a list of 10 ideas to make my current job really fun. This might require some extreme creativity, but it might be better to make a possibly futile attempt to enjoy the current job while working on finding the next one than continue to waste away in misery.

Here are a few crazy ideas that come to mind. Your ideas will be better:

1. Make a bingo board where each square is a common annoyance you encounter in the code. Share combinations of the bingo board with your co-workers. Give a candy bar to whomever gets bingo first.

2. When faced with an annoying task, set a countdown timer and do everything you can to finish the task before the time runs out. Don't let the bomb explode.

3. Stand up and do a fist pump every time you make an especially clever commit.

4. Listen to music that is fun.

5. Periodically listen to comedy that makes you laugh.

6. Think of the people you admire or respect in your workplace. Try to meet with them and learn from them. Give back to them too - perhaps by giving them ideas that you think could possibly help them in their projects, or introduce them to people you know who could help them.

7. Bring in snacks or some particularly tasty treats to share with your co-workers. It might help build some emotional connection and friendship.

8. Bring a bag of M&Ms and eat one every time you save a file.

9. Try working for an hour using only one hand.

10. If you're in an office setting where talking out loud won't bother other people, try narrating everything you do during the work day like how YouTube stars narrate playing video games. An immensely talented engineer I knew at an internship would sing rap lyrics all morning and swear vigorously at his machine when things went badly wrong. It was ridiculously entertaining.

Best of luck making your career more enjoyable!

Re: I have a soul-crushing job and I don't know what to do

#70

Apart from learning, try these: 1. Put yourself in situations where you can meet more tech people Most (not some, most ) of the work I've gotten came from a chance conversation with someone who was working at a place that needed the skills I have. So try to have more of those conversations. I live in suburban Ohio in the heart of the rust belt, so this can be done anywhere. 2. Try consulting instead of full time work…

> I've found that music without lyrics is best for coding

Definitely. IMO it's likely that any intelligible words in songs will automatically interrupt/compete-with the parts of your brain you need available for reading and writing code.

If you really like vocals anyway, consider songs sung in languages that you don't know :p

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