4 ms·

Please tell me you found better pastures! A place where you were compensated and appreciated. :) I've been at the current job for 10 years, receiving the highe

Please tell me you found better pastures! A place where you were compensated and appreciated. :) I've been at the current job for 10 years, receiving the highest level of performance review for all but the last year (the global pandemic was one of four life upheavals... I'm glad I pulled off a 'great' review vs. 'exceptional'), doing similar style work of solving problems people can't seem to comprehend... yet I just can't get seem to break into the next job title tier because "We don't need a principal." ... I just found out my lead was just promoted to principal. Once the divorce is off my plate, I plan on taking more risk and jumping ship.

g051051 5y ago
I didn't mind so much, as I was well compensated in general. It was only in the last few years that Agile cultists took over and managed to ruin the place completely. After a long, painful decline, my entire group was laid off, from senior managers down to new hires. Fortunately, I immediately found a better job. Oh, and I had been there for 22 years.
- geodel 5y ago
  What amazing stories you have shared!. Glad you changed the job. Totally agree on Agile cultists. I am seeing similar decline here at work. Obsession with hour tracking takes priority over any other thing. Things that one good engineer would do in 4-6 weeks on a single ticket is now broken into 100 little JIRA shitlets for 6 person months divided in to 5 developers. At the end of it no one really has clue what was really been achieved. But since 100 JIRA stories have been completed, it must be a great milestone.
  - g051051 5y ago
    The obsession with Agile, Scrum, sprints, and points ground our entire organization to a halt.
  - nraford 5y ago
    Just chiming in to share my disdain and rancor against JIRA. "JIRA shitlets" is the best term I've heard in weeks. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot: "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but with a storm of whimpering JIRA shitlets."
ghoward 5y ago
> yet I just can't get seem to break into the next job title tier because "We don't need a principal." > I just found out my lead was just promoted to principal. Brutal. Good luck. Got a plan?
- Darkphibre 5y ago
  Yup! I'd told them last year as the divorce was starting that I'd need to be promoted within 18 months, or I'd start to become bitter and perform less well... and I'd leave before that happened. Just put in for a GDC talk, hopefully that gets approved. Otherwise I'll stick around to give a talk at the Game Analytics Summit (big networking event for my niche of a field), and spin up some conversations. Also have contacts in most major studios... or I may just strike out and start doing consulting work. It was always a dream of mine to get back into global consulting work once the kids were grown up. They have been, but the ex was wanting to stick around for the grandkids. Me, I'll be a free woman to make her mark on the world (once I can extract myself from the leech).
gknoy 5y ago
I wonder if that's a situation where the bosses above your boss think that there should be a proper "shape" to a team's rankings (e.g., can't havea team with too many principals, or all SWE 3s, etc). Even when one's manager is willing to go to bat for you, sometimes they get told they can only promote one person.
- Darkphibre 5y ago
  Oh, I'm sure that's the case. That, and they know I love the product and would (usually) be willing to put up with lower pay to keep working on it. But, losing assets in the divorce, I'm going to need to take more risk to get back on my feet. Only have a few decades to retirement, and need to rebuild that nest egg. So my priorities are changing, and I'm less willing to put up with people that don't appreciate me.

g051051 5y ago

I didn't mind so much, as I was well compensated in general. It was only in the last few years that Agile cultists took over and managed to ruin the place completely. After a long, painful decline, my entire group was laid off, from senior managers down to new hires. Fortunately, I immediately found a better job. Oh, and I had been there for 22 years.

geodel 5y ago
What amazing stories you have shared!. Glad you changed the job. Totally agree on Agile cultists. I am seeing similar decline here at work. Obsession with hour tracking takes priority over any other thing. Things that one good engineer would do in 4-6 weeks on a single ticket is now broken into 100 little JIRA shitlets for 6 person months divided in to 5 developers. At the end of it no one really has clue what was really been achieved. But since 100 JIRA stories have been completed, it must be a great milestone.
- g051051 5y ago
  The obsession with Agile, Scrum, sprints, and points ground our entire organization to a halt.
- nraford 5y ago
  Just chiming in to share my disdain and rancor against JIRA. "JIRA shitlets" is the best term I've heard in weeks. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot: "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but with a storm of whimpering JIRA shitlets."

ghoward 5y ago

> yet I just can't get seem to break into the next job title tier because "We don't need a principal." > I just found out my lead was just promoted to principal. Brutal. Good luck. Got a plan?

Darkphibre 5y ago
Yup! I'd told them last year as the divorce was starting that I'd need to be promoted within 18 months, or I'd start to become bitter and perform less well... and I'd leave before that happened. Just put in for a GDC talk, hopefully that gets approved. Otherwise I'll stick around to give a talk at the Game Analytics Summit (big networking event for my niche of a field), and spin up some conversations. Also have contacts in most major studios... or I may just strike out and start doing consulting work. It was always a dream of mine to get back into global consulting work once the kids were grown up. They have been, but the ex was wanting to stick around for the grandkids. Me, I'll be a free woman to make her mark on the world (once I can extract myself from the leech).

gknoy 5y ago

I wonder if that's a situation where the bosses above your boss think that there should be a proper "shape" to a team's rankings (e.g., can't havea team with too many principals, or all SWE 3s, etc). Even when one's manager is willing to go to bat for you, sometimes they get told they can only promote one person.

Darkphibre 5y ago
Oh, I'm sure that's the case. That, and they know I love the product and would (usually) be willing to put up with lower pay to keep working on it. But, losing assets in the divorce, I'm going to need to take more risk to get back on my feet. Only have a few decades to retirement, and need to rebuild that nest egg. So my priorities are changing, and I'm less willing to put up with people that don't appreciate me.