4 ms·

I've been coding professionally for 20 years, a lot of the comments below are legit, but I figured I'd add one or two more: - As many people point out, the lan

by yonah 9y ago

I've been coding professionally for 20 years, a lot of the comments below are legit, but I figured I'd add one or two more: - As many people point out, the languages don't matter - something better and newer will come along, and you'll need to adapt, but that's not where programmers provide value - they provide value in understanding how to solve the problems that the business side is facing. It's easy to find someone who codes better than you - new grads, offshore devs, but it's harder to find someone who understands your business well and can solve the problems that it's facing. - Always be learning, always be reading, always be innovating. - If you can, contribute to Open Source and/or stack overflow, etc. People who interview you will do their homework, and you want to have a public presence that will help sell you. - To me, the most important thing, is to try to work for an organization where you are the dumbest person in the room. It might sound counter intuitive, but if you are the smartest person there, who are you going to grow from? At the very least, when you look for a job, the people should matter the most. Obviously, pay, technology, commute, etc. all matter, but if you surround yourself with a good group of people, it makes work easier. The jobs where I was by far the most skilled and the most talented wound up being the jobs where the less-qualified people on my team became the biggest drain on my attitude and time. - If you are going to go the management route - make sure that you get training. Can't emphasize this enough. Just because someone is a good engineer, and is able to self-manage and prioritize well, doesn't mean that he or she is good at managing other people. Just like you didn't learn to code overnight, you won't be able to learn to manage overnight. (That advice alone 15 years ago could have put me in a different trajectory).

yonah 9y ago
One more thing... while it is good to switch it up every few years - don't do it too often. When your 5 years out of school, and have 2 jobs of 2.5 years each, it's perfectly acceptable. When you are 15 years out of school, and have been with six different companies, in the same city, and they all have the same responsibilities, it doesn't look that great.
- taway_1212 9y ago
  I'm 12 years out of school, have 9 companies on my CV and am making top money for my country. Granted, Google will probably refuse me based on my job hopping-attitude, but they'd pay much less so I wouldn't want to work there anyway. I wonder if the common wisdom will ever apply to me and I'll be punished for my resume.
BeetleB 9y ago
>To me, the most important thing, is to try to work for an organization where you are the dumbest person in the room. It might sound counter intuitive, but if you are the smartest person there, who are you going to grow from? In my experience, this can go either way. I worked for an organization where our team were the "lowest" in rank. The end result was: 1. Everything boring gets piled onto you because those senior to you have "better things to do to earn their high salaries" 2. You don't learn much from doing boring things. 3. There are enough boring things in an organization that if you want to take on more challenging work, you'll burn out (they expect you to keep doing the boring stuff - it's mission critical). 4. They were really not interested in your growth. When you hire a janitor for your business, you do not really care about his/her career growth. If you're in the bottom rung of an organization, they may view you as the janitor. Occasionally people did rise, after an intense amount of effort. But most learned that the smarter move was to move to a different job. Knowing where you are in the organizational picture is important. In my bottom-of-the-rung job, I solved more challenging problems that required more advanced knowledge than I do now. Yet I get paid more than those in my previous job, and career prospects are better. We often fall into the trap of thinking solving challenging problems equates to better pay/career. But I suspect your position in the organization is as much a factor. When I changed jobs, I was no longer at the bottom, and I got to pass boring tasks to other teams lower than me. My advice: From a career perspective, it's usually a bad idea to be at the bottom of an org (even if you have a PhD) - no matter how interesting the work. Also, no matter how smart you are, if you're on the bottom, people won't listen to you. Simply by being a little higher in the org chart makes people listen to you.
kidproquo 9y ago
I completely agree on every point here. BTW, what training would you recommend for the management route?
- efm 9y ago
  Join a nonprofit in a board level role. The local chamber of commerce has leadership training. Negotiate. Read https://pragprog.com/book/rdbcd/behind-closed-doors https://pragprog.com/book/rdbcd/behind-closed-doors Identify and measure the output of your team. Track your performance by how fast your team creates value. Reduce variance first, then add speed, then more capacity.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

by yonah 9y ago

yonah 9y ago

One more thing... while it is good to switch it up every few years - don't do it too often. When your 5 years out of school, and have 2 jobs of 2.5 years each, it's perfectly acceptable. When you are 15 years out of school, and have been with six different companies, in the same city, and they all have the same responsibilities, it doesn't look that great.

taway_1212 9y ago
I'm 12 years out of school, have 9 companies on my CV and am making top money for my country. Granted, Google will probably refuse me based on my job hopping-attitude, but they'd pay much less so I wouldn't want to work there anyway. I wonder if the common wisdom will ever apply to me and I'll be punished for my resume.

BeetleB 9y ago

>To me, the most important thing, is to try to work for an organization where you are the dumbest person in the room. It might sound counter intuitive, but if you are the smartest person there, who are you going to grow from? In my experience, this can go either way. I worked for an organization where our team were the "lowest" in rank. The end result was: 1. Everything boring gets piled onto you because those senior to you have "better things to do to earn their high salaries" 2. You don't learn much from doing boring things. 3. There are enough boring things in an organization that if you want to take on more challenging work, you'll burn out (they expect you to keep doing the boring stuff - it's mission critical). 4. They were really not interested in your growth. When you hire a janitor for your business, you do not really care about his/her career growth. If you're in the bottom rung of an organization, they may view you as the janitor. Occasionally people did rise, after an intense amount of effort. But most learned that the smarter move was to move to a different job. Knowing where you are in the organizational picture is important. In my bottom-of-the-rung job, I solved more challenging problems that required more advanced knowledge than I do now. Yet I get paid more than those in my previous job, and career prospects are better. We often fall into the trap of thinking solving challenging problems equates to better pay/career. But I suspect your position in the organization is as much a factor. When I changed jobs, I was no longer at the bottom, and I got to pass boring tasks to other teams lower than me. My advice: From a career perspective, it's usually a bad idea to be at the bottom of an org (even if you have a PhD) - no matter how interesting the work. Also, no matter how smart you are, if you're on the bottom, people won't listen to you. Simply by being a little higher in the org chart makes people listen to you.

kidproquo 9y ago

I completely agree on every point here. BTW, what training would you recommend for the management route?

efm 9y ago
Join a nonprofit in a board level role. The local chamber of commerce has leadership training. Negotiate. Read https://pragprog.com/book/rdbcd/behind-closed-doors https://pragprog.com/book/rdbcd/behind-closed-doors Identify and measure the output of your team. Track your performance by how fast your team creates value. Reduce variance first, then add speed, then more capacity.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]