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I have the opposite problem. I have zero drive for status & prestige, but rather follow my passions no matter how unfashionable they are. And it hurts my caree

I have the opposite problem. I have zero drive for status & prestige, but rather follow my passions no matter how unfashionable they are. And it hurts my career. I don't have twitter followers who fall over themselves to offer me a job the very second I enter the job market. I can't shame a company or other big entity for behaving badly. I have very little leverage for many important career-improving opportunities because I lack the social clout to take advantage of them. You NEED to attain some status and influence if you want the best control over your destiny. I'm trying to do this now, but it's hard because it doesn't come naturally.

slothtrop 7y ago
Take comfort that extra control and maneuverability from social exposure is mostly moot if you already know and do what you want. It sounds like you're saying that better social media presence can improve job prospects, and that might be true, but a portfolio and experience is still king here. If you're fussing over a blog regularly but hate it, you've included that in the destiny in question. That experience is not divorced from it. Just a question of what you're willing to compromise.
collyw 7y ago
I hate the idea that developers should have blogs. I see the advantage in using it to market yourself, but I write code for a living not blogs. There isn't that much information that I feel the need to share with the world, and for the things I do (that would be career related), I don't usually have the time and motivation to write them up properly.
- criddell 7y ago
  I'm not a good or efficient writer, but I'm sure glad there are programmers who are. I've gotten a lot of value from developer blogs. For example, Raymond Chen's New Old Thing is a wonderful resource for Windows stuff.
- cr0sh 7y ago
  > I hate the idea that developers should have blogs. I hate the reality that developers can't easily develop a portfolio of work because generally their work is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the companies they work for, and can't be legally shared outside of those places. So we have github, but even that is suspect and many potential employers don't look at it, unless you are some well known contributor or founder to one or more open-source projects. Even then it can be a crap shoot; I've read on more than one occasion somewhat famous developers of tools being turned down for positions at companies that use the very tools they developed. It is somewhat maddenning. You can just about forget it if your repositories are for your own personal projects, but that's better than nothing - and that's also where a blog has some influence. Basically, as a place to show something of your coding ability and knowledge, and the value you can bring as a new hire. But honestly, that can get tiring; sometimes when I go home from work, I'll do something interesting - but many times, I just want to relax and not think about coding or other projects too much. I've found myself becoming more this way as I've grown older (currently approaching 50). I've been an SWE for over 25 years now, but every time I find myself looking for a new position, it feels as though my previous experience counts for nothing. I can't show any future employer what I worked on in the past (and in many cases, that work is long gone along with the previous employer), they rarely want to look at my github or (back when it existed - I really need to restart it - sigh) my personal blogging site. It feels like every such interview and encounter I am starting fresh. It sickens me. I don't know of any other kind of career where this kind of thing is the norm, except software development and engineering. If you aren't extremely famous and known, or you don't have a deep and wide network, or whatever - you can't just drop your resume, have a decent conversation about your past work and skills, and be given a chance. Instead, you are more often than not forced to jump thru a variety of ill-conceived hoops (many of them on fire, too!), which in the end might get you the position, or more often than not, you are rejected without any explanation or reasoning that might help you to understand what you need to work on in order to be more successful the next time around. It's fairly absurd when you are on the younger end of the scale; now imagine you are old enough in some cases to be the parent of the person interviewing you, and still being questioned in such a manner, after likely being employed in the past longer than they've been alive. It's almost Kafkaesque.
  - deleted 7y ago
dkh 7y ago
Do your passion projects have some sort of tangible output you could show people or talk about? Have you acquired/mastered skills to do said passion projects? You probably have more to offer employers, or to put on your CV, than you think. Social clout is nice, but not at all a prerequisite for career advancement, nor even the best route there. What sorts of opportunities have you missed?
- kstenerud 7y ago
  Oh yes, I have plenty of good skills and products from my passion projects (all on github, like a good boy). I'm not saying that I'm at a minus there. I'm a craftsman; my technical chops are top notch, and have both breadth and depth. It's only my social capital that is lacking, and that has often left me as the odd-man-out whenever politics happen at work, for example.
asdfman123 7y ago
I hate networking and don't play politics well, but you can take advantage of strong social networks just by being nice to people and showing interest in them. My advice is to not worry so much about status and influence, but just go around making more of an effort to connect to people. It doesn't have to be Machiavellian -- that just sounds exhausting. One caveat -- you DO have to know how to stand your ground, and self advertise a little. If you do well, make sure that everyone knows, and if someone tries to make you look bad, calmly assert the facts. But that's pretty much it. That will get you pretty far unless your goal is to climb to the top of the ladder.
celticmusic 7y ago
I'm the same way, but what I've found is that as I've gotten more experienced I'm good enough that people remember me, and I've grown a network from that as a result. I actually do my best to stay relatively anonymous online. I do things like use fake middle initials everywhere so if someone does google for my name specifically, if something pops up they may not realize it's me. I vastly prefer the relative anonymity of the internet. To the point that I had a direct manager once tell me he couldn't find anything about me online, but I got hired due to the strength of my references. A VP was in the room at the time and she made a comment that was roughly "good, it means we'll keep him". About 1-2 months after that this same VP told my direct manager to write me up over questions I asked to on an email chain to a department that was using the software I was working on. I had work w/i 3 days, put in my 2 week notice, and basically told them in no uncertain terms that they're not going to keep good talent treating them like that. Just be really good at what you do, treat people well, and maintain the relationships you DO create.

slothtrop 7y ago

Take comfort that extra control and maneuverability from social exposure is mostly moot if you already know and do what you want. It sounds like you're saying that better social media presence can improve job prospects, and that might be true, but a portfolio and experience is still king here. If you're fussing over a blog regularly but hate it, you've included that in the destiny in question. That experience is not divorced from it. Just a question of what you're willing to compromise.

collyw 7y ago

I hate the idea that developers should have blogs. I see the advantage in using it to market yourself, but I write code for a living not blogs. There isn't that much information that I feel the need to share with the world, and for the things I do (that would be career related), I don't usually have the time and motivation to write them up properly.

criddell 7y ago
I'm not a good or efficient writer, but I'm sure glad there are programmers who are. I've gotten a lot of value from developer blogs. For example, Raymond Chen's New Old Thing is a wonderful resource for Windows stuff.
cr0sh 7y ago
> I hate the idea that developers should have blogs. I hate the reality that developers can't easily develop a portfolio of work because generally their work is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the companies they work for, and can't be legally shared outside of those places. So we have github, but even that is suspect and many potential employers don't look at it, unless you are some well known contributor or founder to one or more open-source projects. Even then it can be a crap shoot; I've read on more than one occasion somewhat famous developers of tools being turned down for positions at companies that use the very tools they developed. It is somewhat maddenning. You can just about forget it if your repositories are for your own personal projects, but that's better than nothing - and that's also where a blog has some influence. Basically, as a place to show something of your coding ability and knowledge, and the value you can bring as a new hire. But honestly, that can get tiring; sometimes when I go home from work, I'll do something interesting - but many times, I just want to relax and not think about coding or other projects too much. I've found myself becoming more this way as I've grown older (currently approaching 50). I've been an SWE for over 25 years now, but every time I find myself looking for a new position, it feels as though my previous experience counts for nothing. I can't show any future employer what I worked on in the past (and in many cases, that work is long gone along with the previous employer), they rarely want to look at my github or (back when it existed - I really need to restart it - sigh) my personal blogging site. It feels like every such interview and encounter I am starting fresh. It sickens me. I don't know of any other kind of career where this kind of thing is the norm, except software development and engineering. If you aren't extremely famous and known, or you don't have a deep and wide network, or whatever - you can't just drop your resume, have a decent conversation about your past work and skills, and be given a chance. Instead, you are more often than not forced to jump thru a variety of ill-conceived hoops (many of them on fire, too!), which in the end might get you the position, or more often than not, you are rejected without any explanation or reasoning that might help you to understand what you need to work on in order to be more successful the next time around. It's fairly absurd when you are on the younger end of the scale; now imagine you are old enough in some cases to be the parent of the person interviewing you, and still being questioned in such a manner, after likely being employed in the past longer than they've been alive. It's almost Kafkaesque.
- deleted 7y ago

dkh 7y ago

Do your passion projects have some sort of tangible output you could show people or talk about? Have you acquired/mastered skills to do said passion projects? You probably have more to offer employers, or to put on your CV, than you think. Social clout is nice, but not at all a prerequisite for career advancement, nor even the best route there. What sorts of opportunities have you missed?

kstenerud 7y ago
Oh yes, I have plenty of good skills and products from my passion projects (all on github, like a good boy). I'm not saying that I'm at a minus there. I'm a craftsman; my technical chops are top notch, and have both breadth and depth. It's only my social capital that is lacking, and that has often left me as the odd-man-out whenever politics happen at work, for example.

asdfman123 7y ago

I hate networking and don't play politics well, but you can take advantage of strong social networks just by being nice to people and showing interest in them. My advice is to not worry so much about status and influence, but just go around making more of an effort to connect to people. It doesn't have to be Machiavellian -- that just sounds exhausting. One caveat -- you DO have to know how to stand your ground, and self advertise a little. If you do well, make sure that everyone knows, and if someone tries to make you look bad, calmly assert the facts. But that's pretty much it. That will get you pretty far unless your goal is to climb to the top of the ladder.

celticmusic 7y ago

I'm the same way, but what I've found is that as I've gotten more experienced I'm good enough that people remember me, and I've grown a network from that as a result. I actually do my best to stay relatively anonymous online. I do things like use fake middle initials everywhere so if someone does google for my name specifically, if something pops up they may not realize it's me. I vastly prefer the relative anonymity of the internet. To the point that I had a direct manager once tell me he couldn't find anything about me online, but I got hired due to the strength of my references. A VP was in the room at the time and she made a comment that was roughly "good, it means we'll keep him". About 1-2 months after that this same VP told my direct manager to write me up over questions I asked to on an email chain to a department that was using the software I was working on. I had work w/i 3 days, put in my 2 week notice, and basically told them in no uncertain terms that they're not going to keep good talent treating them like that. Just be really good at what you do, treat people well, and maintain the relationships you DO create.