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Don't Get Stuck

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Re: Don't Get Stuck

#31

Post by dentemple »

pknerd wrote: post #9

I tell you one thing. If you think that a company will be offering you new tech after every X months or Y years then you are wrong. Tech world does not like that. Think of the investment a company does to bring in a tech stack. It is not all about downloading a new tech, it is about finding and hiring resources. If they all start changing tech based on wish list then they never can progress. I remember something my e…

The company can provide educational reimbursements (and set aside some learning time each month) for their employees, as well as provide a stipend for them attend relevant conferences.

A company does not necessarily need to keep pushing new tech to production to ensure that their employees stay up-to-date. They just need to actually invest in their employees.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#32

Post by golergka »

pknerd wrote: post #9

I tell you one thing. If you think that a company will be offering you new tech after every X months or Y years then you are wrong. Tech world does not like that. Think of the investment a company does to bring in a tech stack. It is not all about downloading a new tech, it is about finding and hiring resources. If they all start changing tech based on wish list then they never can progress. I remember something my e…

Rewriting existing code in a new shiny language just to keep employees happy is a pretty stupid thing, sure. But when you're just solving problems and maintaining old software, there's a lot to be gained from thoughtful, measured inclusion of new tech, transition to new libraries and such. This is technical investment in the company's future: improving developer's velocity and code's performance, reduce bug rate and overall quality of the software.

At least in my personal experience: moving from SVN to git, moving development from C++ to JS (and company was making simple mobile games that are never CPU-bound) and then gradually adopting Typescript, migrating a commercial application from MSSQL to Postgres (saving a significant amount of $$ in license while actually improving performance), and many, many smaller refactorings, improvements and new shiny libraries — all resulted in direct positive consequences for the business.

If the company never adopts any new tech ever, it's a sign that it's lost its way.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#33

Post by karmakaze »

grumple wrote: post #24
TacoSteemers wrote: post #10

It would be helpful to the reader if the text was easier to see. A story displayed in light gray on white is difficult to read.

Looks black to me. Could you have a settings issue?

It's a lightish medium grey for me--probably one one of those greys that can look too light or just fine depending on display gamma and ambient lighting.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#34

Post by _davebennett »

Hmmm....but what if you are "stuck" in a job that pays decently (enough to cover needs) extremely flexible hours and unlimited vacation and awesome work life balance (sometimes less than 40 per week). But the actual work is pointless and boring. Is that time for a change?

Some people say yes, but often these are the people who are the "high achieving" tech workaholics who love to go home and code for fun.

Other people say no, and these are often the people who don't really care much about work and just look at it to a means to an end.

How would you know?

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#35

Post by incog_nit0 »

This resonates.

I spent 8 years at the same startup - it graduated from chaotic and exciting to staid and dysfunctional.

I moved pretty high up so was in a position where I could introduce modern practises like agile, but I could never get management to mandate dev staff to do simple things like have a daily standup. The meetings would invariably drift onto other topics and go from a 15 minute standup to an hour long discussion about everything going on in the company where the CEO would get involved and try and hash things out.

As you can imagine we'd end up doing these at most once a week which became incredibly frustrating trying to get everyone on the same page.

On top of that the code base was stuck on XML, JSP/JSTLs, XMPP, Java 7 and Adobe Flex based APIs and libraries. The whole world was moving onto mobile apps, ES5/6, REST-JSON, Websockets, WebRTC and we were stuck using archaic stuff like XMLPullParsers, Flash Remoting and SOAP.

Those first 4 years were valuable lessons on what to do and I grew as an engineer, but those last 4 years were definitely lessons on what not to do. But you grow comfortable.

I think being comfortable is a dangerous place to be.

To quote Jim Rohn I think you have to embrace discomfort and ask yourself 'What am I becoming?' rather than 'What am I getting?' and ensure that you're growing. You don't want one year's experience times 8 - you want 8 years of growth.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#36

Post by pknerd »

dentemple wrote: post #31
pknerd wrote: post #9

I tell you one thing. If you think that a company will be offering you new tech after every X months or Y years then you are wrong. Tech world does not like that. Think of the investment a company does to bring in a tech stack. It is not all about downloading a new tech, it is about finding and hiring resources. If they all start changing tech based on wish list then they never can progress. I remember something my e…

The company can provide educational reimbursements (and set aside some learning time each month) for their employees, as well as provide a stipend for them attend relevant conferences. A company does not necessarily need to keep pushing new tech to production to ensure that their employees stay up-to-date. They just need to actually invest in their employees.

Probably 1 in 100 companies offer such offers? Why depend on a company when you can learn on your own?

I am self-taught programmer. I learnt Pascal and C back in Uni. After that I never tool formal education for learning new tech. Youtube rocks.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#37

Post by vorpalhex »

_davebennett wrote: post #34

Hmmm....but what if you are "stuck" in a job that pays decently (enough to cover needs) extremely flexible hours and unlimited vacation and awesome work life balance (sometimes less than 40 per week). But the actual work is pointless and boring. Is that time for a change? Some people say yes, but often these are the people who are the "high achieving" tech workaholics who love to go home and code for fun. Other peopl…

Only you know the right balance for you. That might be a dream job, or it might be miserable.

I would say if you are in that situation and enjoy it, you should still be learning and investing in yourself outside of work whether that's learning code or practicing your baking. Learning and struggling with new material is basically a muscle and needs to be an ongoing practice, even if it's not directly related to your day to day.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#38

Post by brendt_gd »

blitz_skull wrote: post #30

Fuck, man. I felt like I just read my own blog post. I've been contemplating leaving for a long time, but I feel like somehow I'm the problem—like I can do something to fix this. I've got this chronic resistance to believe it's anyone else's problem which USUALLY serves me well and keeps me honest. Sometimes though it just makes me stay longer than I should. I feel so stagnant. My company has been bug-fixing non-stop…

Is it really a question of whose responsibility it is though? If you're feeling stuck, it's your right to find ways getting unstuck. If that means changing jobs, who can blame you?

Unless you're a manager at your company it's not your responsibility to fix it.

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#39

Post by brendt_gd »

incog_nit0 wrote: post #35

This resonates. I spent 8 years at the same startup - it graduated from chaotic and exciting to staid and dysfunctional. I moved pretty high up so was in a position where I could introduce modern practises like agile, but I could never get management to mandate dev staff to do simple things like have a daily standup. The meetings would invariably drift onto other topics and go from a 15 minute standup to an hour long…

> 'What am I becoming?' rather than 'What am I getting?'

That's a great insight. Thanks for sharing!

Hope you're in a better place now!

Re: Don't Get Stuck

#40

Post by chiyc »

_davebennett wrote: post #34

Hmmm....but what if you are "stuck" in a job that pays decently (enough to cover needs) extremely flexible hours and unlimited vacation and awesome work life balance (sometimes less than 40 per week). But the actual work is pointless and boring. Is that time for a change? Some people say yes, but often these are the people who are the "high achieving" tech workaholics who love to go home and code for fun. Other peopl…

I think it depends. Will staying in the position mean I will be ready to face the job market with a possible job loss years down the road?

Personally, I would judge whether I still have opportunities to learn. If not with the projects I'm directly involved, do I have the autonomy to pursue workplace improvements and ways to keep learning at work?

Caveat is that I'm also very early in my career and while I highly value work life balance, which was part of what led me to change careers from semiconductors into software, I probably skew more towards achieving than not.

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