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The problem I am having is exactly my whole career I am taking "whatever is available right now", and now I am getting not only very unhappy with this, but gett

The problem I am having is exactly my whole career I am taking "whatever is available right now", and now I am getting not only very unhappy with this, but getting further and further from the careers paths that I would want. People assume I want to "switch to C", thing is, I learned C first, coded C at home for years, and use C whenever I can on my jobs... But because of the constant urgency I keep having to accept whatever jobs I find, and learn whatever they want me to learn. Because of this I know C, C++, C#, Java, ASM, a little of Kotlin, Obj-C, a little of Python, a little of JS, etc... but what I love to do is systems design and programming, and I strongly dislike mobile. Yet, every single job in my career is mobile. People now assume I am a mobile person and keep offering me more of these jobs, but I am not even particularly good at them, because in my free time I don't want to learn more about iOS or Android, I want to learn more about other things and end learning the other things. I know how C++ RTTI work intimately, know how it looks in ASM, practiced how to make C code that fits in the L1 cache, I know the story of RDTSC and why it causes crashes in many older games... Yet, all my job interviews involved Mobile, or Web. I don't care for those, specially web. My dream job involves figuring out if I can make some formula when doing a math operation that can be executed with SIMD and fit the cache, not figuring out how much I have to convince Java GC to cooperate and not pause during user interaction or figuring out why a web page is rendering 3 pixels off.

brundolf 4y ago
I understand the frustration, I guess I'm just wondering why it's not an option to shop around while already employed, even if it's (temporarily) at a job you don't really like? I've had jobs I really hated- I quit one once without anything lined up because it was dragging my whole life down. I get that. But in my experience the things that make a job intolerable are uncommon. It wasn't too hard to leave a job that was intolerable and find an adjacent one that was at least tolerable. Maybe your experience has been different I'm just wondering if it has to be all-or-nothing in the short term; whether you could find a tolerable one that pays the bills and leaves you time to really hunt for that dream job
- speeder 4y ago
  The company I used to work decided that my position wasn't appropriate for remote anymore. I am still working and will still get some more money, but need while still working find fast a new job... (moving is not possible, since I am in Brazil, and the office where my former job will be done from, is in Asia, they will just hire someone local to them).
  - brundolf 4y ago
    Gotcha, I see. My perspective may not have been sensitive to the geographical constraints. Wishing you the best of luck
rramadass 4y ago
If i may offer a few suggestions; * Given your current family obligations, Take any job you get in any field you are offered. Putting Food on the table and taking care of your Family are the primary non-negotiable needs. * You wanting to work in C/C++ are wants which you pursue on the side to develop expertise in and then make a switch to when you get the right opportunity. This thread already has a lot of actionable good suggestions for you. * Since you already are a "Mobile/Web App" person, go down the Software Stack in the same domain to scratch your C/C++ itch and become an "Expert". As an example for Android go through Roger Ye's books; 1) Embedded Programming with Android: Bringing Up an Android System from Scratch and 2) Android System Programming: Porting, customizing, and debugging Android HAL.

brundolf 4y ago

I understand the frustration, I guess I'm just wondering why it's not an option to shop around while already employed, even if it's (temporarily) at a job you don't really like? I've had jobs I really hated- I quit one once without anything lined up because it was dragging my whole life down. I get that. But in my experience the things that make a job intolerable are uncommon. It wasn't too hard to leave a job that was intolerable and find an adjacent one that was at least tolerable. Maybe your experience has been different I'm just wondering if it has to be all-or-nothing in the short term; whether you could find a tolerable one that pays the bills and leaves you time to really hunt for that dream job

speeder 4y ago
The company I used to work decided that my position wasn't appropriate for remote anymore. I am still working and will still get some more money, but need while still working find fast a new job... (moving is not possible, since I am in Brazil, and the office where my former job will be done from, is in Asia, they will just hire someone local to them).
- brundolf 4y ago
  Gotcha, I see. My perspective may not have been sensitive to the geographical constraints. Wishing you the best of luck

rramadass 4y ago

If i may offer a few suggestions; * Given your current family obligations, Take any job you get in any field you are offered. Putting Food on the table and taking care of your Family are the primary non-negotiable needs. * You wanting to work in C/C++ are wants which you pursue on the side to develop expertise in and then make a switch to when you get the right opportunity. This thread already has a lot of actionable good suggestions for you. * Since you already are a "Mobile/Web App" person, go down the Software Stack in the same domain to scratch your C/C++ itch and become an "Expert". As an example for Android go through Roger Ye's books; 1) Embedded Programming with Android: Bringing Up an Android System from Scratch and 2) Android System Programming: Porting, customizing, and debugging Android HAL.