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There are quite a few places like this out there, typically technology has a muted role in decisions in these organizations, quality takes a backseat for the cr

There are quite a few places like this out there, typically technology has a muted role in decisions in these organizations, quality takes a backseat for the crunch for the next meeting demo, ad infinitum. A smell of these types of places is they always blame the developers that just left, almost like a scapegoat or two minutes of hate rally. Another smell is estimation is rarely respected i.e. if you say it will take a month they should expect it to take that long or even twice as long as the programmer estimate, but at places like this, about halfway through they say it has to be done in a few days for a very important meeting or deal, if it is that important you want a solid product not a one off. As a developer you also need to manage balance and workload. Consistent work discipline and good sleep/health are important. Take on challenges but be sure each project is a focus and you aren't spreading yourself too thin, work quality goes down when you don't have some buffer. A good developer would never design a system that is constantly pegged, don't do the same to your schedule/self as that is a single point of failure.

deleted 9y ago
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internetman55 9y ago
Wow, that exactly describes my company. Our group ignores the ops stuff necessary to keep our product up and running to keep pushing out garbage for the next big demo. Most of our product is not working multiple days out of the month. Some MBA guy with ambition learned enough technical skills to keep things up and running with some help from me. Boss goes to MBA guy to keep things up and running and considers the problem "solved". MBA guy is running himself ragged by logging on after hours and screwing around with data files just to keep things running, then doing the same admin BS all day. After MBA guy is let go, he is badmouthed for coming up with an unsustainable solution. All future admin work is explained as being necessary only because of him. Eventually we had our "launch" and our PM did the "big presentation" to our company leadership. After everyone started to realize our product was garbage and we had boatloads of promises we could never keep, she just jumped ship. I would have considered the whole thing a joke except it ruined my health and relationships for several months.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

internetman55 9y ago

Wow, that exactly describes my company. Our group ignores the ops stuff necessary to keep our product up and running to keep pushing out garbage for the next big demo. Most of our product is not working multiple days out of the month. Some MBA guy with ambition learned enough technical skills to keep things up and running with some help from me. Boss goes to MBA guy to keep things up and running and considers the problem "solved". MBA guy is running himself ragged by logging on after hours and screwing around with data files just to keep things running, then doing the same admin BS all day. After MBA guy is let go, he is badmouthed for coming up with an unsustainable solution. All future admin work is explained as being necessary only because of him. Eventually we had our "launch" and our PM did the "big presentation" to our company leadership. After everyone started to realize our product was garbage and we had boatloads of promises we could never keep, she just jumped ship. I would have considered the whole thing a joke except it ruined my health and relationships for several months.