4 ms·

i am in my early 20s and after 6 years as engineer i am starting to dislike the industry and move into product or engineering management. looking at some engine

i am in my early 20s and after 6 years as engineer i am starting to dislike the industry and move into product or engineering management. looking at some engineering veterans makes me depressed on the prospects on being another decade into the industry. people seem exhausted and the job now increasingly looks like a low grade clerk job. not sure if this resonates with anybody. happy to be challenged.

jitl 6y ago
Where are you working? What are you working on? Who are you working with?
- hankchinaski 6y ago
  backend/infra from startups to big corps. especially in product driven startups, where engineers are 2nd/3rd class citizens. in consultancy, is somewhat better as it's engineering driven, but dull in the long run.
  - ed_balls 6y ago
    > n product driven startups, where engineers are 2nd/3rd class citizens. in consultancy, is somewhat bette The the exact opposite of my experience.
  - bluedevilzn 6y ago
    Maybe you should try FAAN where engineers are 1st class citizens.
    - butt_hugger 6y ago
      Unfortunately, GP might have morals.
    - itsyaboi 6y ago
      Not sure if a typo or an intentional omission. Isn't G a "engineers-first" company?
  - dasil003 6y ago
    First thing is engineers are not second class citizens in any startup worth their salt. To the contrary, engineers are absolutely the most important thing, and if you can put on a bit of a product hat it's a super power that will drive not only your career success but actually impact the trajectory of the company as well. The problem though, is anyone can start a startup, and so you need to be sure you don't fall in with bozos. If you have a 5-person startup, and someone is "Head of Product" and full of their own ideas and talking down to engineers (or otherwise making them feel as you describe) then most likely you have a bozo on your hands, perhaps due to ego inflation during years of successful hoop jumping promoted by our education system & corporate culture. The bottom line is that product management is one of the hardest disciplines, and within tech it's filled with wannabes who schmoozed their way in but don't actually have the chops. This is not the end of the world if they are humble and willing to take input from engineering. The flip side though, is that as an engineer you need to be customer and business-centric in your thinking—not all engineers can/want to do this, but with the structured thinking the discipline requires you at least have a head start. Good luck.
tsimionescu 6y ago
I am in my early 30s and after 10 years I still mostly love the job. I've dipped my toes towards management at one point and quickly felt overwhelmed and out of my depth, and realized I'm much happier when coding or discussing technical problems, explaining solutions and so on. It just feels like more useful, fulffiling work to me than updating reports, discussing timelines, people allocation etc. Just giving my own perspective, not claiming anyone else's is wrong.
- mywittyname 6y ago
  I'll code until I retire.
saheb37 6y ago
It does resonate to some extent, but I still like software. If you dislike the industry, you might still not like product/engineering-management roles. It seems to me like myself, you need to find out what kind of work you like, what you'd explore for your own curiosity even if you are not paid. Trying out OS/networks/compilers/data-science/research roles might be worth your while. But, if core CS is not your thing, it's possible you will find management roles (product/engineers) more satisfying.
tj0 6y ago
This definitely resonates with me as well to an extent. However, I've identified the core issue being related to where I'm working, and not so much the career itself. I'm in my early 30s, been in full stack development for the entirety of my six year career. As another poster said, startups are tricky. I've worked for two, and the first was a poster child hostile work environment, doing subpar work for angry clients with ridiculous expectations. The second was an incredibly positive experience though the pay was junk. Now I'm at an enterprise, and burned out like I was at the first startup, but have identified a different path forward (heading into SRE now) as I know the root cause of this mentality now. At the end of the day, if you're not interested or passionate about what you're working on, and you don't have clear upward mobility within your org, it's time to move on. Otherwise, it feels like your career stagnates and you think the career itself is the problem, not the current employment situation.

jitl 6y ago

Where are you working? What are you working on? Who are you working with?

hankchinaski 6y ago
backend/infra from startups to big corps. especially in product driven startups, where engineers are 2nd/3rd class citizens. in consultancy, is somewhat better as it's engineering driven, but dull in the long run.
- ed_balls 6y ago
  > n product driven startups, where engineers are 2nd/3rd class citizens. in consultancy, is somewhat bette The the exact opposite of my experience.
- bluedevilzn 6y ago
  Maybe you should try FAAN where engineers are 1st class citizens.
  - butt_hugger 6y ago
    Unfortunately, GP might have morals.
  - itsyaboi 6y ago
    Not sure if a typo or an intentional omission. Isn't G a "engineers-first" company?
- dasil003 6y ago
  First thing is engineers are not second class citizens in any startup worth their salt. To the contrary, engineers are absolutely the most important thing, and if you can put on a bit of a product hat it's a super power that will drive not only your career success but actually impact the trajectory of the company as well. The problem though, is anyone can start a startup, and so you need to be sure you don't fall in with bozos. If you have a 5-person startup, and someone is "Head of Product" and full of their own ideas and talking down to engineers (or otherwise making them feel as you describe) then most likely you have a bozo on your hands, perhaps due to ego inflation during years of successful hoop jumping promoted by our education system & corporate culture. The bottom line is that product management is one of the hardest disciplines, and within tech it's filled with wannabes who schmoozed their way in but don't actually have the chops. This is not the end of the world if they are humble and willing to take input from engineering. The flip side though, is that as an engineer you need to be customer and business-centric in your thinking—not all engineers can/want to do this, but with the structured thinking the discipline requires you at least have a head start. Good luck.

tsimionescu 6y ago

I am in my early 30s and after 10 years I still mostly love the job. I've dipped my toes towards management at one point and quickly felt overwhelmed and out of my depth, and realized I'm much happier when coding or discussing technical problems, explaining solutions and so on. It just feels like more useful, fulffiling work to me than updating reports, discussing timelines, people allocation etc. Just giving my own perspective, not claiming anyone else's is wrong.

mywittyname 6y ago
I'll code until I retire.

saheb37 6y ago

It does resonate to some extent, but I still like software. If you dislike the industry, you might still not like product/engineering-management roles. It seems to me like myself, you need to find out what kind of work you like, what you'd explore for your own curiosity even if you are not paid. Trying out OS/networks/compilers/data-science/research roles might be worth your while. But, if core CS is not your thing, it's possible you will find management roles (product/engineers) more satisfying.

tj0 6y ago

This definitely resonates with me as well to an extent. However, I've identified the core issue being related to where I'm working, and not so much the career itself. I'm in my early 30s, been in full stack development for the entirety of my six year career. As another poster said, startups are tricky. I've worked for two, and the first was a poster child hostile work environment, doing subpar work for angry clients with ridiculous expectations. The second was an incredibly positive experience though the pay was junk. Now I'm at an enterprise, and burned out like I was at the first startup, but have identified a different path forward (heading into SRE now) as I know the root cause of this mentality now. At the end of the day, if you're not interested or passionate about what you're working on, and you don't have clear upward mobility within your org, it's time to move on. Otherwise, it feels like your career stagnates and you think the career itself is the problem, not the current employment situation.