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> Do you want to sit around waiting to be told what to do or engineer your own path? It can be very difficult if not impossible to engineer your own path in mo
by 0x445442 10y ago
> Do you want to sit around waiting to be told what to do or engineer your own path?
It can be very difficult if not impossible to engineer your own path in most environments these days. These days most devs are simply trading time for money. If the backlog board is empty, they're on retainer waiting for it to fill up.
Because of the eternal effort of the enterprise to commoditize developers they're given no decision making power. So even though they continually identify work that could be done to improve product or process, they know it's a crap shoot to follow through on such work as it's more than likely to be rejected for one subjective reason or another.
- mateo411 10y agoIn a healthy organization the engineer can suggest improvements to Product and help them prioritize the improvements.
- 0x445442 10y agoAgreed, and I've worked in such environments. However, its my thesis most "dark matter" engineers in "the enterprise" are in an environment I originally described. And that's not accounting for Government organizations which I imagine are even worse.
- gdulli 10y agoThat's not been my experience over a 20-year career. On a given day I might not have that freedom, and I've had ideas get shot down. But over the long run it's always been true that if I have extra time I can use it to my advantage one way or another. This feels like a pretty universal rule about work. If I worked at Chipotle I'm sure I could still find a way to distinguish myself over my co-workers.
- Chris2048 10y agoIf you take the advantage you gained from being recognized, vs the time spent towards that effort (including things shot down), is it worth it? The recognition must have a high return to make up for all the time wasted on rejected initiatives.
- gdulli 10y agoAre you asking if tens of thousands of dollars in salary, and increased equity, and promotion to roles of greater responsibility, and increased job security, and recognition, and the freedom to design my own role are worth a lot to me? Yes, they are.
- gs_throwaway 10y agoYou claim to have 20 years of experience, yet this reeks of "Just world" naivete. Are you guaranteed those things if you work better than the rest? No, external factors can nullify all your dedicated work. What would you do if all you had to show for your effort was that employee of the month picture on the wall?
- Chris2048 10y agoFirst of all, "greater responsibility" is not an advantage, it is a liability you accept in return for other advantages. If the delta is worth "tens of thousands of dollars in salary", consider what your free time spent on other things is worth. It might not be. But "freedom to design my own role"? Where do you get this?
- Bartweiss 10y ago> First of all, "greater responsibility" is not an advantage, it is a liability you accept in return for other advantages. This is an interesting point. We tend to conflate "greater control" with "greater responsibility", but we shouldn't. The first is a benefit, the second is a risk. They often go together, but having had a job with lots of responsibility and no control, they certainly don't have to.
- bcbrown 10y agoThe personal fulfilment from contributing to a constantly-improving work environment is what makes it worth it.
- Chris2048 10y ago