4 ms·

It gets even more frustrating when they find out you are more skilled than they are. They won't improve their skills to try and match your ability, they'll jus

by umjames 16y ago

It gets even more frustrating when they find out you are more skilled than they are. They won't improve their skills to try and match your ability, they'll just ask you to do it for them every time from now on until you leave. What's even sadder is that your boss will likely condone and encourage this behavior.

Tamerlin 16y ago
I couldn't agree more. What's worse still is that a lot of these people have figured out how to game the system. At my previous job (big company -- 175,000 people), we had a lot of "senior" staff floating around, and the common thread among them was an inability to learn anything new. They were doing things the same way that they had for years -- and most of the software that they'd had a hand in was very brittle (loads of tightly coupled "components") and inefficient. Their approach was to do basically nothing until the project went to crunch mode, then bust their butts in Hero (tm) mode, and the management loved it -- especially as the company foolishly brought more and more managers over from amazon, where heroism + round-the-clock babysitting are standard operating procedure.
- peregrine 16y ago
  What are the signs that A) A company has this problem B) A company is good. I know of a few good examples such as GOOG, MSFT(depending), Netflix, some startups etc but I know the Midwest(my location) is chock full of these IT houses that don't care.
  - Tamerlin 16y ago
    I really with I knew. Even here in Seattle, surrounded by the likes of Amazon (probably the most technologically backward sweatshop in Washington), Google (who knows, the guy that did my phone interview was a dolt), Microsoft (probably the most technologically advanced shop in Washington), and even Adobe (now run by clueless marketers) and Disney (which is turning into an amazon clone), it's tough to find worthwhile work. So far the only decent job I've had in a decade is with a small company developing software for libraries. I think that to have a good job you either need to be very lucky or create it yourself. This job is paying the bills while I do just that.

by umjames 16y ago

Tamerlin 16y ago

I couldn't agree more. What's worse still is that a lot of these people have figured out how to game the system. At my previous job (big company -- 175,000 people), we had a lot of "senior" staff floating around, and the common thread among them was an inability to learn anything new. They were doing things the same way that they had for years -- and most of the software that they'd had a hand in was very brittle (loads of tightly coupled "components") and inefficient. Their approach was to do basically nothing until the project went to crunch mode, then bust their butts in Hero (tm) mode, and the management loved it -- especially as the company foolishly brought more and more managers over from amazon, where heroism + round-the-clock babysitting are standard operating procedure.

peregrine 16y ago
What are the signs that A) A company has this problem B) A company is good. I know of a few good examples such as GOOG, MSFT(depending), Netflix, some startups etc but I know the Midwest(my location) is chock full of these IT houses that don't care.
- Tamerlin 16y ago
  I really with I knew. Even here in Seattle, surrounded by the likes of Amazon (probably the most technologically backward sweatshop in Washington), Google (who knows, the guy that did my phone interview was a dolt), Microsoft (probably the most technologically advanced shop in Washington), and even Adobe (now run by clueless marketers) and Disney (which is turning into an amazon clone), it's tough to find worthwhile work. So far the only decent job I've had in a decade is with a small company developing software for libraries. I think that to have a good job you either need to be very lucky or create it yourself. This job is paying the bills while I do just that.