3 ms·

15 years as a web dev here. 1. Learn to sell. The single biggest hindrance to my career to date has been not learning how to sell myself and my work to managem

by lj3 10y ago

15 years as a web dev here. 1. Learn to sell. The single biggest hindrance to my career to date has been not learning how to sell myself and my work to management. My entire life I was always told that if I did good work I would be recognized for it. That's a big fat lie, especially in a field where your manager doesn't necessarily understand what it is you do. Sales is also applicable to everything from finding a new job to freelance to consulting to selling side projects. It's probably your most important skill, bar none, even programming. 2. Pick an industry to specialize in, not a technology. Basically, be an X who can program instead of yet another JS programmer. 3. Stay away from the video game industry. 4. Always take care of your mental and physical health first. Burning out blows.

xxxmaster 10y ago
Can you elaborate on 3? That sounds interesting and I believe time-consuming for specific generations.
- lj3 10y ago
  A lot of ink has been spilled here on HN about the dysfunction of the video game industry. I won't rehash that here, but I will speak about my specific experience. I worked in the video game industry for three years before burning out. I let the company I worked for work me 80 hours a week for 2 years straight[0]. I let them because the work is addicting and I was having fun. When the project I was working on was finally canceled (we never launched), I was given the opportunity to move on to other teams, but to my surprise I just couldn't bring myself to make the transition. I basically spent two weeks browsing the internet instead of looking for a new game team. When I hadn't transitioned to a new team, I was laid off. I looked around at other companies (inside and outside the game industry) and once again, to my surprise, found I couldn't progress past the phone conversation stage of the interview process. I would schedule technical interviews and cancel them at the last second or simply not show up. This went on for a few months before I simply stopped looking for work. I didn't work for a year after that. Then I took on short web dev contracts and, between the contracts and my side projects, over the course of another year finally worked back up to a full time 40 hour a week work schedule. At this point, I'm sure there are people here that would say what happened is entirely my fault and they would be right. I would have been better off had I refused to work more than 40 hours a week and then been fired. [0]: Fun fact: during that time, I did the math and found what I was making as an hourly rate. My brother works manual labor for the DOT and made more per hour than I did during those two years.

by lj3 10y ago

xxxmaster 10y ago

Can you elaborate on 3? That sounds interesting and I believe time-consuming for specific generations.

lj3 10y ago
A lot of ink has been spilled here on HN about the dysfunction of the video game industry. I won't rehash that here, but I will speak about my specific experience. I worked in the video game industry for three years before burning out. I let the company I worked for work me 80 hours a week for 2 years straight[0]. I let them because the work is addicting and I was having fun. When the project I was working on was finally canceled (we never launched), I was given the opportunity to move on to other teams, but to my surprise I just couldn't bring myself to make the transition. I basically spent two weeks browsing the internet instead of looking for a new game team. When I hadn't transitioned to a new team, I was laid off. I looked around at other companies (inside and outside the game industry) and once again, to my surprise, found I couldn't progress past the phone conversation stage of the interview process. I would schedule technical interviews and cancel them at the last second or simply not show up. This went on for a few months before I simply stopped looking for work. I didn't work for a year after that. Then I took on short web dev contracts and, between the contracts and my side projects, over the course of another year finally worked back up to a full time 40 hour a week work schedule. At this point, I'm sure there are people here that would say what happened is entirely my fault and they would be right. I would have been better off had I refused to work more than 40 hours a week and then been fired. [0]: Fun fact: during that time, I did the math and found what I was making as an hourly rate. My brother works manual labor for the DOT and made more per hour than I did during those two years.