32 ms·

If I Were Starting a Software Engineering Career Today

29 points by jmarchello 3y ago

Waterluvian 3y ago
How to accomplish those things is the interesting and challenging part. I’d love to hear how people succeeded in developing any of these habits early in their career.
FranzFerdiNaN 3y ago
Sounds like a list of things to do if you don't have a family, friends, pets, hobbies, chores or a job.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  For a lot of people starting their careers, this is probably close to the truth. For people like me (I’ve got all of those besides the pets, unless you consider fish), well… Yeah, you might want to consider a different path.
  - voxl 3y ago
    Rich kids, you mean. The rest are working through college, if they're even bothering to go to college at this point.
- all_the_silly 3y ago
  People who make $200k+ annually commonly continue working to build their skills outside of work. Medical, Legal, Accounting, and other professions including various categories of engineer. This is part of a knowledge work career-- staying up to date with new knowledge and incorporating it. 5-15 hours per month really ain't so bad.
- jmarchello 3y ago
  Please see my response to pipes above
sonicanatidae 3y ago
Not trying to hijack here. Just showing a bit of the other side of the coin, to those that may be interested. It's symbiotic. Without us, their ecosystem is shit, without them, our pretty hardware just wastes clock cycles. To anyone considering a Systems Admin role, be aware, you have a lot of work ahead. SysAdmins are commonly generalists. We don't go super vertical in a lot of things, but we do go wider every day. There comes a point where it's really hard to keep up with the breadth of tech, UIs, concepts, some jackass's better mouse trap that isn't any better but uses a shit UI, etc. Most SysAdmins pick a few things and specialize. Then there are the crazy people like me that try, and I emphasis try, to keep up with it all. smh. Generalists are needed. We're usually the best at integration, since we've likely seen/worked on something with similar concepts or the systems involved, before. We usually sight read (borrowed term from music) UIs better than most and once we have enough time in, we realize that it's really all syntax. Whether its NTFS or CHMOD, we're still determining read, write, execute, modify, etc. Both are rewarding and whichever you choose, remember, without the other half, you're mostly useless. ;) o7 Coders!
- andrewflnr 3y ago
  Where do I find these generalist jobs? Everyone seems to want a specialization I don't have.
  - ChatGTP 3y ago
    The jobs find you once you’ve worked on a huge range of different problems. Elect yourself next time some obscure problems comes up at work or school or whatever and keep doing that.
    - sonicanatidae 3y ago
      Jobs don't fall out of the sky, but generally, agreed. I have 30+ years of IT in my resume. The skillset sheet is a whole 2nd page, by itself. This isn't because I'm Wile E. Coyote, Supre-genius, but after 30+ years, if you're not an moron, you pick up a wide variety of skills. As a simple example of OSes I know or have worked in, to various levels, *nix, all versions of Windows, OS/2 WARP, Novell 3.x-5, Motorola AIX, SCO Unix, VAX VMS (just a touch), Cisco IOS, and many obscure IoT CLIs, like Microtik, Sophos XG, or more obscure stuff like the AT commands to open and close valves on an LCMS (an instrument used to analyze compounds) and I'm likely missing some. As you may be able to tell, I started a long, long time ago, in a world where 110/300 bps access to another computer over phone lines was the internet and Compu-serve is where the chatrooms were. In fact, I still remember my compu-serve ID and password, not because it's useful, but the weirdest shit sticks sometimes.
JohnFen 3y ago
Honestly, if I were starting my career today, I'd choose a different career. I love being a developer, but the industry has changed significantly for the worse over the decades. Enough so that I don't recommend people enter it.
- astura 3y ago
  What is a better career?
  - roflchoppa 3y ago
    Welding, plumbing, electrician… plenty of work for the foreseeable future.
    - steve_adams_86 3y ago
      Work that doesn’t pay particularly well and can be hard on your body. This is a huge departure.
      - JohnFen 3y ago
        Experienced welders, plumbers, and electricians make as much as senior software devs do, at least in my part of the US.
        tharkun__ 3y ago
        Which works or doesn't work depending on where you are. You're not the son of that particular (local) biker gang's members or in favour with them? Sorry, no welding for you! As a software person this sort of thing seldom comes to mind. What we also dismiss is all that professional association and certification stuff that we don't have to deal with. I don't know about you, but so far I still like the freedom and ability to move up and around we have better than being stuck working myself up from entry level through to a high paying job by waiting for someone else to retire or move up and out of the way first. Or you become a business owner, which in the plumbing and electrician business I guess is very common. But not everyone is cut out for that.
pipes 3y ago
So spend life working, building stuff outside of work and then writing about it while I'm asleep?
- jmarchello 3y ago
  Author here, I have 4, soon to be 5 small kids, a full time job, church responsibilities, etc. This exploring and tinkering and learning doesn't have to take up a ton of time. 30 minutes a day can make a huge difference. I get quite a bit done while sitting with my kids while they fall asleep each night. I also play tabletop and board games, watch TV with my wife each night, and even play Mario kart with my kids. There's plenty of time. That said, my advice was primarily targeting recent graduates or young developers who are looking for a job. That implies they have plenty of time and are trying to put the bulk of it towards finding a job. If I were in that position, I'd treat building my resume and finding a job _as_ my full time job.
  - pipes 3y ago
    Yeah, to be fair my tone didn't come across great there, I'm being slightly sarcastic :) I've got two young kids (youngest 4 months) and I spend pretty much all my free time either playing with them, cooking, cleaning and life admin. I've only recently started carving out time again to do plural sight courses etc at home. And to do that I'm having to reduce time lifting weights in the garage (which was only about 1.5 hours a week). In fact I should be doing a plural site course right now!
    - jmarchello 3y ago
      Haha yeah text communication can be dicey. What are you taking courses for?
mnky9800n 3y ago
I feel like this is good advice even if you are not starting out.

29 points by jmarchello 3y ago

How to accomplish those things is the interesting and challenging part. I’d love to hear how people succeeded in developing any of these habits early in their career.

FranzFerdiNaN 3y ago

Sounds like a list of things to do if you don't have a family, friends, pets, hobbies, chores or a job.

steve_adams_86 3y ago
For a lot of people starting their careers, this is probably close to the truth. For people like me (I’ve got all of those besides the pets, unless you consider fish), well… Yeah, you might want to consider a different path.
- voxl 3y ago
  Rich kids, you mean. The rest are working through college, if they're even bothering to go to college at this point.
all_the_silly 3y ago
People who make $200k+ annually commonly continue working to build their skills outside of work. Medical, Legal, Accounting, and other professions including various categories of engineer. This is part of a knowledge work career-- staying up to date with new knowledge and incorporating it. 5-15 hours per month really ain't so bad.
jmarchello 3y ago
Please see my response to pipes above

sonicanatidae 3y ago

Not trying to hijack here. Just showing a bit of the other side of the coin, to those that may be interested. It's symbiotic. Without us, their ecosystem is shit, without them, our pretty hardware just wastes clock cycles. To anyone considering a Systems Admin role, be aware, you have a lot of work ahead. SysAdmins are commonly generalists. We don't go super vertical in a lot of things, but we do go wider every day. There comes a point where it's really hard to keep up with the breadth of tech, UIs, concepts, some jackass's better mouse trap that isn't any better but uses a shit UI, etc. Most SysAdmins pick a few things and specialize. Then there are the crazy people like me that try, and I emphasis try, to keep up with it all. smh. Generalists are needed. We're usually the best at integration, since we've likely seen/worked on something with similar concepts or the systems involved, before. We usually sight read (borrowed term from music) UIs better than most and once we have enough time in, we realize that it's really all syntax. Whether its NTFS or CHMOD, we're still determining read, write, execute, modify, etc. Both are rewarding and whichever you choose, remember, without the other half, you're mostly useless. ;) o7 Coders!

andrewflnr 3y ago
Where do I find these generalist jobs? Everyone seems to want a specialization I don't have.
- ChatGTP 3y ago
  The jobs find you once you’ve worked on a huge range of different problems. Elect yourself next time some obscure problems comes up at work or school or whatever and keep doing that.
  - sonicanatidae 3y ago
    Jobs don't fall out of the sky, but generally, agreed. I have 30+ years of IT in my resume. The skillset sheet is a whole 2nd page, by itself. This isn't because I'm Wile E. Coyote, Supre-genius, but after 30+ years, if you're not an moron, you pick up a wide variety of skills. As a simple example of OSes I know or have worked in, to various levels, *nix, all versions of Windows, OS/2 WARP, Novell 3.x-5, Motorola AIX, SCO Unix, VAX VMS (just a touch), Cisco IOS, and many obscure IoT CLIs, like Microtik, Sophos XG, or more obscure stuff like the AT commands to open and close valves on an LCMS (an instrument used to analyze compounds) and I'm likely missing some. As you may be able to tell, I started a long, long time ago, in a world where 110/300 bps access to another computer over phone lines was the internet and Compu-serve is where the chatrooms were. In fact, I still remember my compu-serve ID and password, not because it's useful, but the weirdest shit sticks sometimes.

JohnFen 3y ago

Honestly, if I were starting my career today, I'd choose a different career. I love being a developer, but the industry has changed significantly for the worse over the decades. Enough so that I don't recommend people enter it.

astura 3y ago
What is a better career?
- roflchoppa 3y ago
  Welding, plumbing, electrician… plenty of work for the foreseeable future.
  - steve_adams_86 3y ago
    Work that doesn’t pay particularly well and can be hard on your body. This is a huge departure.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      Experienced welders, plumbers, and electricians make as much as senior software devs do, at least in my part of the US.
      - tharkun__ 3y ago
        Which works or doesn't work depending on where you are. You're not the son of that particular (local) biker gang's members or in favour with them? Sorry, no welding for you! As a software person this sort of thing seldom comes to mind. What we also dismiss is all that professional association and certification stuff that we don't have to deal with. I don't know about you, but so far I still like the freedom and ability to move up and around we have better than being stuck working myself up from entry level through to a high paying job by waiting for someone else to retire or move up and out of the way first. Or you become a business owner, which in the plumbing and electrician business I guess is very common. But not everyone is cut out for that.

pipes 3y ago

So spend life working, building stuff outside of work and then writing about it while I'm asleep?

jmarchello 3y ago
Author here, I have 4, soon to be 5 small kids, a full time job, church responsibilities, etc. This exploring and tinkering and learning doesn't have to take up a ton of time. 30 minutes a day can make a huge difference. I get quite a bit done while sitting with my kids while they fall asleep each night. I also play tabletop and board games, watch TV with my wife each night, and even play Mario kart with my kids. There's plenty of time. That said, my advice was primarily targeting recent graduates or young developers who are looking for a job. That implies they have plenty of time and are trying to put the bulk of it towards finding a job. If I were in that position, I'd treat building my resume and finding a job _as_ my full time job.
- pipes 3y ago
  Yeah, to be fair my tone didn't come across great there, I'm being slightly sarcastic :) I've got two young kids (youngest 4 months) and I spend pretty much all my free time either playing with them, cooking, cleaning and life admin. I've only recently started carving out time again to do plural sight courses etc at home. And to do that I'm having to reduce time lifting weights in the garage (which was only about 1.5 hours a week). In fact I should be doing a plural site course right now!
  - jmarchello 3y ago
    Haha yeah text communication can be dicey. What are you taking courses for?

mnky9800n 3y ago

I feel like this is good advice even if you are not starting out.