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Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

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Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#31

Post by a-priori »

gedrap wrote: post #20
wheaties wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're still a student? The first year at a full time gig is going to feel a bit overwhelming. You'll have so much you have to catch up on, either technology wise, development practices with a larger team-wise, or just design-wise. This type of thing will sink in once you've been somewhere at least 2 years. Then you'll understand.

I know what you mean :) For the last nearly 2 years I make living from doing part-time gigs. At one gig I was lucky to have a rather experienced manager and he taught me about OOP design, a bit on Agile practices and testing. That was an eye opener and put me on the right track for other gigs. When my class mates talk 'oh man that agile thing is such shit, I just wanna write some code' I tried to convince them at fir…

To be fair to your mates, a lot of places that claim to do 'Agile' do a shit job at it. It turns into a cargo cult where they wrap their bad practices in Agile lingo to make them sound good. I've seen that happen a lot at various companies.

If that's the only 'Agile' you've been exposed to, then it's perfectly reasonable to think 'oh man that agile thing is such shit'.

Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#32

Post by ambiate »

rjprins wrote: post #2

For software developers, I feel this career thing works a bit differently. Going up the ladder means managing people or projects, but that is not necessarily more fun than writing code. I don't know where I see myself in 5 years, but it might actually be still just coding, no actual change in title or function. It's fun and challenging and I imagine it can be like that for a long time. Instead, a dead end job for me…

I was with my CIO the other day. He turned on his monitor and said 'look, is this what you want to really do?' Spreadsheets on time management, project management, and convincing his fellow Chiefs that he was on the right track. He had a damn good point. I love coding and math.

Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#34

Post by voltagex_ »

a-priori wrote: post #31
gedrap wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know what you mean :) For the last nearly 2 years I make living from doing part-time gigs. At one gig I was lucky to have a rather experienced manager and he taught me about OOP design, a bit on Agile practices and testing. That was an eye opener and put me on the right track for other gigs. When my class mates talk 'oh man that agile thing is such shit, I just wanna write some code' I tried to convince them at fir…

To be fair to your mates, a lot of places that claim to do 'Agile' do a shit job at it. It turns into a cargo cult where they wrap their bad practices in Agile lingo to make them sound good. I've seen that happen a lot at various companies. If that's the only 'Agile' you've been exposed to, then it's perfectly reasonable to think 'oh man that agile thing is such shit'.

How can I tell the difference between Agile and 'Agile' then?

Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#35

Post by huherto »

ambiate wrote: post #32
rjprins wrote: post #2

For software developers, I feel this career thing works a bit differently. Going up the ladder means managing people or projects, but that is not necessarily more fun than writing code. I don't know where I see myself in 5 years, but it might actually be still just coding, no actual change in title or function. It's fun and challenging and I imagine it can be like that for a long time. Instead, a dead end job for me…

I was with my CIO the other day. He turned on his monitor and said 'look, is this what you want to really do?' Spreadsheets on time management, project management, and convincing his fellow Chiefs that he was on the right track. He had a damn good point. I love coding and math.

I have never understood why many companies have executive and managers doing administrative tasks. They should get administrative assistants tracking time, projects, resources, etc. It is a waste of their executive and technical talents.

There are many great things that a CIO can do without having to spend a lot of their time tracking things.

Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#36

Post by justinhj »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #23
rjprins wrote: post #2

For software developers, I feel this career thing works a bit differently. Going up the ladder means managing people or projects, but that is not necessarily more fun than writing code. I don't know where I see myself in 5 years, but it might actually be still just coding, no actual change in title or function. It's fun and challenging and I imagine it can be like that for a long time. Instead, a dead end job for me…

I moved into management not for career purposes (I could make more money being a programmer elsewhere than being a manager at my current employer), but because after 20+ years or programming I felt I was just repeating myself. There was no more challenge in it. I could still learn new tech, but I wasn't learning anything new about myself an my abilities. Even when it came to doing "new" stuff (which as you discover i…

That's a great reason to go into management. I also was in a position where I felt there was nothing else to learn as I could just build the same thing over and over. I moved into a different technical area instead.

Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#37

Post by changdizzle »

Most of the responses here are from developers but from a more business perspective, I find this article somewhat flawed. Regarding "It Would Take a Big Event for You to Get Promoted," the author says "For example, say your boss has been in her position for five years, and her boss has been in his position for seven—and they both seem very comfortable where they are. That means, in order for you to move up, something would have to entice one of those big wigs out of his or her position. "

A good manager should be able to promote and advance their employee if they're adding significant value even if it doesn't mean taking the manager's position.

Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#39

Post by jbooth »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #27
vonmoltke wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A significant portion of the ML/NLP world runs on Java. Its the worst language for the job, except for all the others.

http://www.scala-lang.org/

A lot of people (myself included) see Scala as being one step forward, two steps back. Some good features, and then a whole bunch of poorly thought out, wankerish features that can only serve to screw up your code base if some developer gets bored and makes the mistake of using them.

Re: Signs You’re in a Dead-End Job

#40

Post by crpatino »

The title says it is about Dead End Jobs, but it is not. It is about People That Cannot Stay Put In a Damned Place. Look at this quote:

> "Yes, unfortunately, even good jobs can be dead-end jobs—or positions with little to no room for advancement."

This is the massive obsession our culture has developed around growth and progress. The whole premise of this article is that if you are not eager to make it big and shoot for the starts in your chosen profession, there's something flawed inside you and you should take immediate action to fix it.

There might be a bit of hyperbole from my part, but the article actually suggest to switch careers and follow your passion if you find yourself unable to keep moving ahead. As if the work of a lifetime can be thrown down the window every other day.

Another petite peeve is that you shouldn't want to "still [be] doing the exact same work today as you did two years ago when you first started with the company." If that is the case, it either took you just a few weeks to master your position, or you have never taken the time to actually master anything. Whichever it is you better keep hopping, because sooner or later someone like me is going to come and automate that job from under your feet.

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