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Why do you suck at juggling now?

pgadey.ca

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Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#61

Post by ludston »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #60
ludston wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of talking about skills, or personal efficiency, talk about technologies that you're going to introduce to your product, or some specific difficult problem that you're intending to solve. Another next career step is to take ownership of things without needing to be asked or told, to create and execute plans, to raise and address problems pro-actively etc. And if your workspace doesn't give you opportunities t…

You're offering the very common advice This only works if your managers are actually invested and interested in having you grow. If you start trying to take ownership of things without being asked you might also just be told to stay in your lane. If you start raising problems pro-actively you may be told to pipe down. Yes, there's always "go somewhere else" except bad managers are more common than you think.

It's fine to prefer the comfort of familiar problems and obstacles, but you shouldn't pretend to yourself that you haven't chosen to embrace them over fear of the unknown.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#62

Post by ludston »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #41
ludston wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of talking about skills, or personal efficiency, talk about technologies that you're going to introduce to your product, or some specific difficult problem that you're intending to solve. Another next career step is to take ownership of things without needing to be asked or told, to create and execute plans, to raise and address problems pro-actively etc. And if your workspace doesn't give you opportunities t…

Talk about technologies you want to introduce can go more than one way. It can make you sound informed or it can make you sound like someone, who is performing CV-driven development. I know the type. Like for example needlessly wanting to push GraphQL into things that are simple REST APIs.

And that demonstrates the difference between a developer that is ready for promotion vs one that isn't. You need to be able to make the correct choices for your employer (even if they are not the best choices, or most interesting choices), and being able to recognize these is a skill.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#63

Post by chadcmulligan »

laszlojamf wrote: post #2

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not lik…

My side project so that I can get out of here

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#65

Post by fendy3002 »

geodel wrote: post #52
fendy3002 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that people who like to stay on their job dislikes this kind of questions, and I also sympathize on why tech sector now doesn't have places for them and asking people to keep improving. However for those who are superstar / plan maker, this discussion is actually beneficial. This is the moment where among all of things available, prioritized items will be officially registered, rather than your manager m…

> However for those who are superstar / plan maker, this discussion is actually beneficial. ... I hear all this and it seem useful also. But from what I have seen in last 5-8 years is that immediate supervisor/manager have hardly any power or resources to anything meaningful for employees beyond filling basic HR templates that go nowhere. This could be different for very early career employees or startups where one's…

Oh true, the smaller the org is the better the benefit

Still this is a good CYA move from both you and your supervisor, since any concerns are already officially registered, action is just not taken by management

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#66

Post by marginalia_nu »

laszlojamf wrote: post #2

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not lik…

I've been programming professionally for 15 years and even before that I've been coding since I was barely a teenager, and I still learn new things all the time. I'm a much better programmer now than I was 5 years ago.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#67

Post by eventualcomp »

ludston wrote: post #11
laszlojamf wrote: post #2

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not lik…

Instead of talking about skills, or personal efficiency, talk about technologies that you're going to introduce to your product, or some specific difficult problem that you're intending to solve. Another next career step is to take ownership of things without needing to be asked or told, to create and execute plans, to raise and address problems pro-actively etc. And if your workspace doesn't give you opportunities t…

That way, you can get promoted from Loser to Clueless. [1]

[1] https://ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-t...

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#68

Post by QuantumGood »

ludston wrote: post #11
laszlojamf wrote: post #2

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not lik…

Instead of talking about skills, or personal efficiency, talk about technologies that you're going to introduce to your product, or some specific difficult problem that you're intending to solve. Another next career step is to take ownership of things without needing to be asked or told, to create and execute plans, to raise and address problems pro-actively etc. And if your workspace doesn't give you opportunities t…

Treat the answer like a game instead of treating the question like a logic puzzle. Optimizing the answer framing instead of the question framing opens up a lot of possibilities. This also works in personality conflicts affecting communication (like marriage).

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#70

Post by bsoles »

ChrisSD wrote: post #7
laszlojamf wrote: post #2

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not lik…

Like all such metrics, the specifics don't really matter. All that matters is that you can tell a story, over the course of the year, on how you've "improved". The goal is to use the story to highlight the work you've been doing while passing it off as evidence. This kind of story telling is something people in management positions tend to be very good at but it's also a skill people not in management should have som…

It is going to be easy this year. I'll make up some bullshit story about how I used Claude to improve my productivity, and how learned and used AI tools to speed up the feature delivery process. It doesn't have to be true...
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