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Ask HN: Need Advice/Help related to my situation

Hello HN, First and foremost this has been a very valuable forum and I have learned a lot from it. I will be posting from a throwaway account to remain anonymous. So here's my situation I recently switched my job from a reputable company I didn't really needed to but I decided to jump ship before I ended up being laid off so I tried to keep my self safe but now I am in totally different situation where I joined a new company in Fintech industry for a software developer role. Sadly the role says its software development on the paper but in reality its a role where you are mostly doing customer support and dealing with support issues working directly with the customers and I am already few months on the job and I haven't really learned much and things are pretty much disorganized. What should I do in that situation should I start looking else where? I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback

jonahbenton 3y ago
It seems counter intuitive but direct customer facing roles that actually involve solving customer problems- not programming problems- can be very beneficial for personal learning and growth and for a technical person's development in a business. When the business is in a growth space and can bring new customers on board, where it is possible within the context of the business to actually solve customer problems that one is directly interfacing with- sometimes with programming/feature engineering, sometimes with other approaches- and where the environment and culture are at least not negative, and are supportive of creative problem solving and customer-oriented solutions- this can be an opportunity. All successful startups always have technical people interfacing with customers at some stage in their growth- though of course failed startups do as well. The need for specialists comes later. You'll have to make your own mind up about whether the environment is conducive to learning and growth even if it wasn't what you were expecting but the simple fact that you are customer facing is not in itself a problem.
- throwaway45450 3y ago
  I would agree with what you said but there's no way of explaining how things are done or having better training on how to handle certain issues
  - jonahbenton 3y ago
    Sure- unpacking that- there are always problems in startups until there are solutions. Successful startups are just this enormous stack of awkward solutions, many of which work until they don't and then quickly become tech/organizational debt/problems awaiting the next solution. Some people really like that environment and find it engaging and energizing, and some people don't, and various things in between. Should you decide it isn't for you, you should nevertheless be clear and honest with yourself about what this environment is demanding that you are not bringing, and what questions you might have asked to discern. That will help in your conversations with the next opportunity.
    - throwaway45450 3y ago
      I would agree, The opportunity was posed as software development but in reality its pretty much its a support role. But the problem is that you don’t get the right training you are just a firefighter pretty much putting down fires And let me tell you you are changing things in production and it’s very risky I feel like the environment seems toxic but it didn’t seemed when I joined the company
- m463 3y ago
  I would agree, pointing out this is an opportunity to go broad instead of deep. Most dev jobs go the other direction until you're sort of siloed.
helph67 3y ago
Be aware that it's the company's clients who ultimately provide your income. You should (in the short term at least) embrace the opportunity to get to understand the client's views of the company and its products. Confucius may inspire? https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/12-famous-confucius-quotes-on-education-and-learning https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/12-famous-confucius...
he11ow 3y ago
You're like the person who's struck gold and believes it to be tin foil. You're being paid like a developer, but spending your days in direct contact with real customers and their real pains? You say it's a fintech, so odds are this is a specific niche of customers, with specific needs, and you get to learn about what they are? Ask yourself if by "haven't learned much" you mean "coding stuff". As for the "things are pretty much disorganized" - again, it's a mindset thing. If stuff is holding back making customers happy, and you find a way to make it better, that's a direct impact on the bottom line. Whether it's through better documentation, or a set of processes, or writing a bunch of scripts...that's what ownership looks like. And sure, you're not an owner in this company, but assuming you see yourself taking ever more senior roles (with compensation to match), this kind of experience will probably help you more than writing a couple of extra buttons on an app.

jonahbenton 3y ago

It seems counter intuitive but direct customer facing roles that actually involve solving customer problems- not programming problems- can be very beneficial for personal learning and growth and for a technical person's development in a business. When the business is in a growth space and can bring new customers on board, where it is possible within the context of the business to actually solve customer problems that one is directly interfacing with- sometimes with programming/feature engineering, sometimes with other approaches- and where the environment and culture are at least not negative, and are supportive of creative problem solving and customer-oriented solutions- this can be an opportunity. All successful startups always have technical people interfacing with customers at some stage in their growth- though of course failed startups do as well. The need for specialists comes later. You'll have to make your own mind up about whether the environment is conducive to learning and growth even if it wasn't what you were expecting but the simple fact that you are customer facing is not in itself a problem.

throwaway45450 3y ago
I would agree with what you said but there's no way of explaining how things are done or having better training on how to handle certain issues
- jonahbenton 3y ago
  Sure- unpacking that- there are always problems in startups until there are solutions. Successful startups are just this enormous stack of awkward solutions, many of which work until they don't and then quickly become tech/organizational debt/problems awaiting the next solution. Some people really like that environment and find it engaging and energizing, and some people don't, and various things in between. Should you decide it isn't for you, you should nevertheless be clear and honest with yourself about what this environment is demanding that you are not bringing, and what questions you might have asked to discern. That will help in your conversations with the next opportunity.
  - throwaway45450 3y ago
    I would agree, The opportunity was posed as software development but in reality its pretty much its a support role. But the problem is that you don’t get the right training you are just a firefighter pretty much putting down fires And let me tell you you are changing things in production and it’s very risky I feel like the environment seems toxic but it didn’t seemed when I joined the company
m463 3y ago
I would agree, pointing out this is an opportunity to go broad instead of deep. Most dev jobs go the other direction until you're sort of siloed.

helph67 3y ago

Be aware that it's the company's clients who ultimately provide your income. You should (in the short term at least) embrace the opportunity to get to understand the client's views of the company and its products. Confucius may inspire? https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/12-famous-confucius-quotes-on-education-and-learning https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/12-famous-confucius...

he11ow 3y ago

You're like the person who's struck gold and believes it to be tin foil. You're being paid like a developer, but spending your days in direct contact with real customers and their real pains? You say it's a fintech, so odds are this is a specific niche of customers, with specific needs, and you get to learn about what they are? Ask yourself if by "haven't learned much" you mean "coding stuff". As for the "things are pretty much disorganized" - again, it's a mindset thing. If stuff is holding back making customers happy, and you find a way to make it better, that's a direct impact on the bottom line. Whether it's through better documentation, or a set of processes, or writing a bunch of scripts...that's what ownership looks like. And sure, you're not an owner in this company, but assuming you see yourself taking ever more senior roles (with compensation to match), this kind of experience will probably help you more than writing a couple of extra buttons on an app.