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>>> But I never actually wrote up a "complete" project in my own time, not a single one, I couldn't stick to anything. And I kept worrying that it would make me

by gedrap 10y ago

>>> But I never actually wrote up a "complete" project in my own time, not a single one, I couldn't stick to anything. And I kept worrying that it would make me less employable. Same here, and I know a bunch of other people like this as well. It's just a matter of perspective. When you read such forums and similar, you often read opinions and insights of people who are the top of the field. So it's easy to lose the perspective of where you stand compared with the rest of your class or some other cohort. >>> He's just smart, puts out good projects, and is productive when he needs to be. Smart is the key word here. More hours of work does not necessarily mean better work. It shouldn't be about working longer, it should be about working smarter. At the same time, writing good code is only small part of his success, I guess. Managing to ship top quality products without hand holding, making sure you are productive without anyone breathing down your neck, are all important and not something articles will teach you (usually).

jcadam 10y ago
I don't know about you, but I become less productive the more I'm micromanaged. The company I work for now has problems managing customer expectations and controlling scope creep, so naturally rather than address the real issues the PMs have decided it's easier to stick their noses in the CMMI manual and send the software development team straight to process improvement hell. I've reached the point where my motivation is so low it takes me a week to complete a task I know I could have done in a couple of hours if I could just reach down and muster up a little bit of give-a-shiat. I need to get out of this place, but I rather doubt any of the other major employers around here would be any better (I just interviewed at one that looked like it would be an even worse situation. They declined to make me an offer - the interviewer must have picked up on my shock/disgust when he described their development processes to me). Now, my side projects are seeing more love than ever before, probably because I need an outlet for my creativity (which my employer is most definitely not providing). One thing age and experience has given me is the ability to see my own projects through to some level of completion (as complete as software can be). My younger years were full of half-completed projects :) I'm working on something I hope to turn into a SaaS product, maybe that's the escape plan (If I'm really lucky).
- gedrap 10y ago
  Micromanagement is usually on the extreme end and is usually bad. However, hand holding, when the developer needs a variable level of managing and overseeing, is quite normal and usually reduces the variance of the produced work. You could say that micromanagement is the extreme form of hand holding. And the truth is that most of the developers need that. Some can be assigned a relatively abstract problem and they find the solution (by finding who to talk to, etc). While some needs a fair share of requirements gathering etc done for them, or they struggle to convert a large milestone to reasonable small tasks. That's ok, you just need to recognize it handle accordingly. >>> any of the other major employers around here would be any better major as in employing a large number of employees? Sometimes you can find happiness in a company of a dozen employees :)

by gedrap 10y ago

jcadam 10y ago

I don't know about you, but I become less productive the more I'm micromanaged. The company I work for now has problems managing customer expectations and controlling scope creep, so naturally rather than address the real issues the PMs have decided it's easier to stick their noses in the CMMI manual and send the software development team straight to process improvement hell. I've reached the point where my motivation is so low it takes me a week to complete a task I know I could have done in a couple of hours if I could just reach down and muster up a little bit of give-a-shiat. I need to get out of this place, but I rather doubt any of the other major employers around here would be any better (I just interviewed at one that looked like it would be an even worse situation. They declined to make me an offer - the interviewer must have picked up on my shock/disgust when he described their development processes to me). Now, my side projects are seeing more love than ever before, probably because I need an outlet for my creativity (which my employer is most definitely not providing). One thing age and experience has given me is the ability to see my own projects through to some level of completion (as complete as software can be). My younger years were full of half-completed projects :) I'm working on something I hope to turn into a SaaS product, maybe that's the escape plan (If I'm really lucky).

gedrap 10y ago
Micromanagement is usually on the extreme end and is usually bad. However, hand holding, when the developer needs a variable level of managing and overseeing, is quite normal and usually reduces the variance of the produced work. You could say that micromanagement is the extreme form of hand holding. And the truth is that most of the developers need that. Some can be assigned a relatively abstract problem and they find the solution (by finding who to talk to, etc). While some needs a fair share of requirements gathering etc done for them, or they struggle to convert a large milestone to reasonable small tasks. That's ok, you just need to recognize it handle accordingly. >>> any of the other major employers around here would be any better major as in employing a large number of employees? Sometimes you can find happiness in a company of a dozen employees :)