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Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

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Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#1

Post by NullReference »

This account is a throwaway as I wanted to ask this semi-anonymously.

I've been thinking over the past few years about what my minimum requirements are in a working environment and what my ideal would look like, but I honestly have no idea -- not really.

I've got 10+ years of coding experience at a major corporation -- non-tech -- and I'm getting rather bored. I'd like to do something new: it doesn't have to be new subject matter, but I'd like to do something different. But before I embark on my journey I need to define my parameters: what is the minimum I need to leave my current (cushy) position? What is my ideal working environment?

I honestly have no idea how to answer these questions - which is scary. So I open the question up to you, HN: what is your IDEAL utopia for a workplace, as a programmer? It could relate to the physical workplace, source control, programming language, IDE, agile, Goodness and not Evilness, whatever. It's entirely subjective. What is your MINIMUM baseline for a working environment for you to even consider working somewhere? Again: this is entirely open and unstructured. It might be "free snacks," it might be "lets me bring my dog to work" or it might be "doesn't engage in human sacrifice every week."

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#2

Post by ramtatatam »

I know exactly what you mean - I was thinking the same thing when was making decision to start something on my own.

As of physical environment - stup below works perfectly for me: - 27'' double screen - proper headphones with noise cancellation and DVD's stack with my favorite music - proper ergonomic chair - big desk - non-membrane keyboard - big (0.5 liter min.) cup of something to drink (not necessary coffee since it usually makes it harder to focus)

As of tools I use: - operating system depends on work I do, however Linux Arch is my favorite - subversion as version control (old but still has something in it) - working with code - usually simple kwrite is just enough

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#3

Post by steedsofwar »

A few things actually. I only do my day job to pay for my lifestyle and hobbies. I would be happy to take a pay cut if it meant i could do something of significance. For me that is something that would have a positive impact in others lives as cliche as that sounds. It makes me get up in the morning, and makes my body tingle. For instance a recent ted talk on drones aiding aid/medicine drops to remote places off the world. That just excites me! Or i would love to work on games, which is my side project, that my day job pays for.

In terms of physical env, i don't care much. As long as i'm comfortable and i can do my work. Preferably i'd like to work at home, with little to no interaction with anyone. Working in the IT/Banking industry for over 14 years, has made be cynical on human interaction.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#4

Post by NullReference »

steedsofwar wrote: post #3

A few things actually. I only do my day job to pay for my lifestyle and hobbies. I would be happy to take a pay cut if it meant i could do something of significance. For me that is something that would have a positive impact in others lives as cliche as that sounds. It makes me get up in the morning, and makes my body tingle. For instance a recent ted talk on drones aiding aid/medicine drops to remote places off the…

I am in the same industry and am looking for a change. But I have to define what would make me happy in a day job. My hobby is programming. My job is programming. But there's something soul-crushing about programming at a bank.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#5

Post by NullReference »

ramtatatam wrote: post #2

I know exactly what you mean - I was thinking the same thing when was making decision to start something on my own. As of physical environment - stup below works perfectly for me: - 27'' double screen - proper headphones with noise cancellation and DVD's stack with my favorite music - proper ergonomic chair - big desk - non-membrane keyboard - big (0.5 liter min.) cup of something to drink (not necessary coffee since…

I guess I am wondering more: what sort of work would make you say "hey, I want to go work there!"

I guess I'm trying to figure this out in reverse. I know I'd leave whatever I'm doing to work for, say, Google because Google (really: I needn't say more, right?).

But what makes Google so attractive? Some of it is the bragging rights but a lot of is that they work on cool things and give you free reign to do cool things.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#6

Post by ramtatatam »

NullReference wrote: post #5
ramtatatam wrote: post #2

I know exactly what you mean - I was thinking the same thing when was making decision to start something on my own. As of physical environment - stup below works perfectly for me: - 27'' double screen - proper headphones with noise cancellation and DVD's stack with my favorite music - proper ergonomic chair - big desk - non-membrane keyboard - big (0.5 liter min.) cup of something to drink (not necessary coffee since…

I guess I am wondering more: what sort of work would make you say "hey, I want to go work there!" I guess I'm trying to figure this out in reverse. I know I'd leave whatever I'm doing to work for, say, Google because Google (really: I needn't say more, right?). But what makes Google so attractive? Some of it is the bragging rights but a lot of is that they work on cool things and give you free reign to do cool things…

I'm working on custom integrations tailored to specific project so for me each project is like a new job where I'm picking up tools and technologies that will deliver stable and maintainable outcome. New job, new people and new challenges - that keeps me sorta away from burning out. So I guess the main question is how much influence do you want to have? Do you want to craft specific algorithm that is somebody else idea? Or do you want to come up with your own ideas and bring them alive? I'm in second group.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#7

Post by circuitslave »

My last gig and my current one are polar opposites but both filled needs. I code for a very large direct mailer. It is not interesting work, but the pay and benefits are great and it's super stable. My last gig was with a start up that never really got going. Lots of R&D coding, lots of trying new things - the work was very satisfying, getting paid weeks late, months in a row was not.

Ideally my next gig would be in the middle of these - stable but more engaging work.

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#9

Post by ChintanGhate »

I am not going to present my answer as my ideal utopia but rather as a suggestion. You should try one of these things

1. Go Indie

2. Join a startup

These both options have cultural parameters that are weighing in exactly opposite direction to that of a major-corp. Doing this will help you learn about your own definition of an ideal utopia for a workplace. Having experienced both the cultures you'll be able to decide your ideal utopia - what team size you like to work with, at what pace, at what degree of freedom, in a flat hierarchy or well structured one, remotely or inside an office surrounded by colleagues and so on. I hope this helps in finding your ideal workplace. Good Luck :)

Re: Ask HN: Programmers, what are your min requirements? What is your utopia?

#10

Post by dack »

For me, I want the freedom to learn new technologies and try out ideas. A humane work environment, such that work is valued and respected - and everyone pulls their weight. The deadlines are reasonable and the management chain understands the tradeoffs inherent in software development and delivery. If I work on a big existing system, the problems still left to solve should be within my (and the team's) ability to understand but still stretching my current knowledge. Of course, that changes constantly because I am always learning new things.

For a while, I was really into Angular and badly wanted a job where I could just do that full time. I had been mainly doing backend Java stuff at work, but eventually was in charge of a completely green-field project so I wrote it using Angular/Java. However, I've quickly gotten comfortable with those technologies and now Clojure/Haskell/FRP excite me more. Not to say I would write big production apps with them right out the gate - but it would be valuable for me to learn more about them and understand the tradeoffs. I also still haven't written a lot of backend code for massively-distributed systems, so anything involving that would interest me right now (i.e. need for real-time stream processing, mapreduce, sharding, etc).

I also want to work on a team of really smart people - not arrogant programmer-types, but people that know what they're doing. I want to pair with someone and learn a lot from them. I actually like to impart the knowledge that I have while pairing, but I just don't want it to be a one-way street. I also don't want to work in isolation - so a project where I rarely interact with anyone gets boring for me (and especially if the technology doesn't excite me much) will end in me leaving for somewhere else.

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