I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…
working on non-version-controlled code, having been expressly forbidden from using ANY VC by the CEO Did the CEO give a reason? I'm a bit curious based on it being billing and HIPPA. Also, are you rolling your own EDI import/export?
CEO doesn't like "the cloud", and VC is obviously that to him. I do use it locally, but that's about all.
Yes, I just wrote an EDI exporter in Ruby for Medicaid services, working on one for MCOs now. Thankfully we don't have to import EDI, or I'd go nuts.
On my last job, a new manager called me for a meeting on Friday 4PM. I spent the whole month on an extremely stressful project. The meeting was about an app that integrates credit card payments, billets and bank account on a terminal that is going to be available to the general public. The deadline? 11PM of the same day. Final version. From 0 to 100% in 6 hours. I said that it was impossible. He said that I was incap…
Absolutely insane you had to go through this, but happy to see that you're happier now.
I didn't know this format was a thing and am so very excited to discover it. I hope you folks enjoy reading horror stories. I got a job as a Software Engineer in my current company 4.5 years ago; friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. The company had an apparently disastrous piece of software that was their main LOB. They had gone through pretty much every local consulting agency - at least once, on a few occasions they h…
I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…
>I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 professionally
I agree with everyone else commenting here. This is a disaster waiting to happen. You are also limiting yourself by not working with people who will mentor you and show you the correct way to do things.
You're experienced. You can find a new job. DO SO IMMEDIATELY. FIND A NEW JOB, NOW.
I don't want to be fired. I absolutely love my job and the people I work with. But I can just smell that we are about to hit a sticking point with how I don't do on call (it was never mentioned in the interviews or part of my contract) and I don't respond to work after 5pm. If it does come to that sticking point I'm trying to figure out how to be the most assertive and diplomatic. I.e. How do I convey that I badly wa…
> I'm trying to figure out how to be the most assertive and diplomatic. Having a job offer in hand does wonders for one's communication skills.
I agree it should be part of the compensation package, but not every place is that progressive (yet?). OP might bring that up, or negotiate some form of compensation (ex: day off after on call, whatever). But I tend to agree with parent -- having an on-call schedule that developers participate in is a normal part of professional software engineering (assuming services of course).
this is so alien to me. are you and GP talking about putting in long days during crunch time, or actual on-call rotations where you're expected to be available in the middle of the night? i agree the former is universally expected, but the latter? not at all, not without discussing it beforehand. that would be obscene. i am so boggled to hear people accepting and defending the practice.
I kind of locked in on my recent experiences when answering that. So I want to clarify -- its not expected in all orgs and is dependent on roles (e.g. if you aren't working on live services, it wouldn't even make sense). I would expect larger shops to have dedicated ops people or site reliability engineers who handle most of the duties. But I think small to medium sized corps that either don't have or cannot afford these would expect developers to handle crashing services, whenever they occur. Having an on-call schedule is a natural next step to prevent everyone from always being on call, or (worse, imo) prevent people from siloing and only fixing "their" stuff. I agree it should ideally be part of the job description, but don't find it unusual to be left out if the job otherwise fits the mold.
That unfortunately depends on people being rational. There are those stupid enough to not want to hire the unemployed because of their own prejudices.
There are plenty of idiots involved in hiring, that's certainly true. But I was recently (for the first time in my life) had to hire a lot of new people for my team, and I noticed I hire people on probably very different traits than some recruiters and managers do. I don't like candidates who just give socially acceptable answers, I do like candidates who give creative answers, who are vocal, opinionated, weird, outs…
With that criteria, I would never be able to get my team complete. Most of the time I get existing employees transferred to me, I have to accept what I get or do the work myself (which is not possible). With new hires it's not easier, I interviewed candidates for 6 months without finding anyone (we don't pay so well, even if we are in top 50 in Fortune 500) and some director simply transferred me someone to fill in the role. I am just a senior manager, I said no but I was overranked and overruled.
The only nightmare i see is a company that values a warm body being in a specific seat for a specific range of hours over actual productivity. Physical presence is not really required most of the time for most engineers.
Presence based management, colloquially known as "Butts in Seats Management", is the opposite of results oriented management, IMO. I hate it when a company says it's "results oriented", but turns out to be mostly "butts in seats" that demands results, too.
It might be an unpopular opinion, but once you are on $250k+ a year like most of the readers here, it is reasonable of the employer to demand both your butt in a seat and results.
I my personal experience the guy who turned up at 8am and started getting shit done, always was far more productive (and indeed ended up a much better coder very quickly) than the “judge me by results not hours” guy turning up at 9:45. Even despite the latter guy being smart and more experienced.
I work at a tech company that just lost 70% of its stock price in under a year, my team was laid off from 15 people down to 3 people, my boss quit, and the app I've been working on for a year is questionable to be shutdown. And I'M going to look like the jerk on my resume for quitting before a year is up. God love capitalism!
"And I'M going to look like the jerk on my resume for quitting before a year is up." - this problem is in your head. Capitalism has nothing to do with that. You can quit at any point, even after a couple weeks. If you can't bubble-wrap an explanation for future interviews then work on that. Soft skills are also important.