5 ms·

This did strike a chord. I'm 37. I've been programming since leaving university. I had a stint of about 6 years in the middle of my career where I stagnated. Wh

This did strike a chord. I'm 37. I've been programming since leaving university. I had a stint of about 6 years in the middle of my career where I stagnated. While it was fun (I did a lot of climbing, biking, caving etc.), it was hard getting out of that hole, and I'm glad to be out. Anyway, I'm now travelling for a year (my partner made me quit my job ;) which has been lots of fun. I've caught up on a lot of books, playing with elixir, sharpening tools. But, I'm wondering what to do when I go back home, and finding it hard to decide. I already have an offer, and I'm not particularly worried about having work, but more about having the _right_ work. I'm not sure how many more options to change I'll have. Coupled to that, I'd like to work on projects which I feel are doing something useful for society. Options: 1. Work remotely for a company I've worked for before. Should be decent cash. Codebase is horrible legacy stuff (but improving). Just me and another (more junior) developer. 2. Work for a pretty professional company in town. Excellent excellent team, I'd learn heaps, but it'd be just straight business work (not ticking the "useful to society" box. I have a couple of options in both of those categories (I think ;). I've been stung before being a solo developer and I'm not that excited about being the most senior on the team. I'm an OK developer, but I know there are lots smarter, and I like learning from others. So decisions decisions. It feels to me the older I get the fewer of these types of decisions I want to mess up.

beachstartup 10y ago
go with the job that offers a better working environment and/or work life balance. the technical work itself is what you make of it, even learning by replacing legacy stuff with newer better stuff is always a possibility. choose to use technology that is interesting to you. spend personal time catching up on it if it's impossible to do 'on the clock'. "garbage in, garbage out", basically. however, the conditions in which you do the work in are not under your control and carry the heaviest personal cost.
- littlethrowaway 10y ago
  Thanks for the reply. This is the thing, the remote environment would be entirely under my control and I think the work-life balance would be fine. The non-remote job would be more challenging work, probably a bit more corporate & rigid, but have a killer team to work with and learn from. I'm with you on the "learning by replacingn legacy stuff with newer stuff" ... that train is already in motion and there's certainly a lot you can learn by doing that properly. Thanks for the thoughts, I'll add them to the melting pot.

beachstartup 10y ago

go with the job that offers a better working environment and/or work life balance. the technical work itself is what you make of it, even learning by replacing legacy stuff with newer better stuff is always a possibility. choose to use technology that is interesting to you. spend personal time catching up on it if it's impossible to do 'on the clock'. "garbage in, garbage out", basically. however, the conditions in which you do the work in are not under your control and carry the heaviest personal cost.

littlethrowaway 10y ago
Thanks for the reply. This is the thing, the remote environment would be entirely under my control and I think the work-life balance would be fine. The non-remote job would be more challenging work, probably a bit more corporate & rigid, but have a killer team to work with and learn from. I'm with you on the "learning by replacingn legacy stuff with newer stuff" ... that train is already in motion and there's certainly a lot you can learn by doing that properly. Thanks for the thoughts, I'll add them to the melting pot.