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You are unlikely to ever figure out an exact answer, though some people apparently do, but at the very least you can make every job search a little better. A m

You are unlikely to ever figure out an exact answer, though some people apparently do, but at the very least you can make every job search a little better. A minimal bar: avoiding bad jobs. Crazy long hours, boring work, harassment... unfortunately jobs can get very bad, so it's worth spending the time to avoid places that will actively make you unhappy. (More here: https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/10/14/job-you-dont-hate/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/10/14/job-you-dont-hate/) Beyond that, you can figure out goals from what's worked for you in the past. Every job I get teaches me something new about my goals, based on how it works or doesn't work for me. And my goals change over time, too. So one thing to do is to start with looking at the past: what parts of your past jobs were wonderful? What parts were bad? What did you feel you were missing? My personal aims at this point are work that I find useful (applying a personal idiosyncratic definition of useful, and to have a sane workweek. I'm working on a book about how to get to a sane workweek, there's a out-of-date but somewhat accurate outline here: https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/16/sane-workweek/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/16/sane-workweek/

rajeshmr 9y ago
Hi, I have read your blog and it's awesome to get a reply from u! I have had a couple of bad jobs in the past - I made poor choices in spite of being an able and talented person. But I am learning my lessons. My gripe is that majority of the big MNCs don't have a clear why and they don't seem to utilise my talents fully. And on top of it, there is utter nonsensical deadlines, repetition of work and harassment and long work hours. At present i am interested in opportunities that would give me better opportunities to refine my skills! I was worried about the long term - as you would have read elsewhere on the internet, there is a bias in hiring towards college grads than people having 30-35 years of age. How is the tech landscape gonna look like ? Would we be able to cope with the stress ? What if automation makes most jobs redundant - how to differentiate ? There are other questions lingering in my mind.. but that's a few of them. The tech landscape is changing so fast that I could clearly notice it within my roughly 8 years of IT experience itself.
- itamarst 9y ago
  It sounds like maybe you do know what your goals are, you just aren't sure how to get there? I am skeptical automation will make all jobs redundant. Someone needs to figure out what to do, for example; there's no way a computer can do requirements gathering, or UI design, or process improvements.
  - rajeshmr 9y ago
    > It sounds like maybe you do know what your goals are, you just aren't sure how to get there? I kinda know the direction in which i want to proceed, but as you said i do not know the how! Actually, i am lost on my next steps - caught up between a craving for mastery and moving to the next phase of my career which might involve handling people. > I am skeptical automation will make all jobs redundant. Someone needs to figure out what to do, for example; there's no way a computer can do requirements gathering, or UI design, or process improvements. Exactly! But at present, in bigger corporations - the "what to do" requirements gathering is done by sales interactions and customer feedback / requests - which makes the techies redundant in the chain. I read elsewhere that some big university is researching on generating code from code by using code snippets from open source - if this successfully gets implemented then tech jobs would become difficult to find - just sharing a thought!

rajeshmr 9y ago

Hi, I have read your blog and it's awesome to get a reply from u! I have had a couple of bad jobs in the past - I made poor choices in spite of being an able and talented person. But I am learning my lessons. My gripe is that majority of the big MNCs don't have a clear why and they don't seem to utilise my talents fully. And on top of it, there is utter nonsensical deadlines, repetition of work and harassment and long work hours. At present i am interested in opportunities that would give me better opportunities to refine my skills! I was worried about the long term - as you would have read elsewhere on the internet, there is a bias in hiring towards college grads than people having 30-35 years of age. How is the tech landscape gonna look like ? Would we be able to cope with the stress ? What if automation makes most jobs redundant - how to differentiate ? There are other questions lingering in my mind.. but that's a few of them. The tech landscape is changing so fast that I could clearly notice it within my roughly 8 years of IT experience itself.

itamarst 9y ago
It sounds like maybe you do know what your goals are, you just aren't sure how to get there? I am skeptical automation will make all jobs redundant. Someone needs to figure out what to do, for example; there's no way a computer can do requirements gathering, or UI design, or process improvements.
- rajeshmr 9y ago
  > It sounds like maybe you do know what your goals are, you just aren't sure how to get there? I kinda know the direction in which i want to proceed, but as you said i do not know the how! Actually, i am lost on my next steps - caught up between a craving for mastery and moving to the next phase of my career which might involve handling people. > I am skeptical automation will make all jobs redundant. Someone needs to figure out what to do, for example; there's no way a computer can do requirements gathering, or UI design, or process improvements. Exactly! But at present, in bigger corporations - the "what to do" requirements gathering is done by sales interactions and customer feedback / requests - which makes the techies redundant in the chain. I read elsewhere that some big university is researching on generating code from code by using code snippets from open source - if this successfully gets implemented then tech jobs would become difficult to find - just sharing a thought!