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TooMuchAbstraction posted:What, do the managers use the royal we or something? What makes them more than one person? The way I've used it and heard it used is from a responsibility (as in "you're on the line if X is hosed up") perspective. A single coder / recruiter / salesperson / whatever is responsible for their individual contribution and no one else's. A manager is generally assumed to be responsible for the individual contributions of multiple people.
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Sep 14, 2016 20:44
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The managers don't contribute anything, obviously 
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Sep 14, 2016 20:52
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Necc0 posted:After appealing the decision to not promote me twice a few months ago and putting in my resignation last week my employer just now called to ask if there were any financial considerations that we could talk over to keep me on board. What a dick move. On the bright side, you've seen their true colors and are moving on. If one of your employees/reports starts asking for a promotion -- considering how difficult this is for most people -- they're clearly feeling undervalued and/or have figured out they can make more elsewhere. *That* would be the time to decide what they are worth to the business, and make as fair of an offer as possible given budgets, etc. If you can't do anything, even a small merit increase, prepare for that employee to bounce as quickly as they can find another job (not very long for computer people.)
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Sep 14, 2016 21:01
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Munkeymon posted:The managers don't contribute anything, obviously
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Sep 14, 2016 22:12
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necrobobsledder posted:It's a bit telling at a point when "execute" at high levels doesn't mean to actual perform a task as much as to decide on the task (Chief Executive Officer). There's typically myriad politics and relationships to maintain, complex quid pro quo handshake non-agreements and plotting, backstabbing, moaning, groaning, wailing, and of course gnashing of teeth. You might make the right decision, but if you're not managing all of that other stuff really well at the executive level, your corporate lifespan is measured in months if not weeks or days because you'll get thrown under the bus by a full quorum of your peers upset that you don't want to play the game. That's before you start talking the shareholder-first necessities of public companies.
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Sep 14, 2016 22:25
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JawnV6 posted:I've generally left places because of a compelling option that I just couldn't turn down. But I don't think "bad manager" is a problem specific to company size. I appreciate the insight that that smaller companies make one more sensitive to those higher concerns, I had my doubts about one place starting to creep up before they resolved them by laying me off Yeah, I don't think "bad manager" is specific to company size either; rather my point was that I think quitting a *company* is perhaps much more common in smaller companies than larger companies, since they are much more likely to change (or perhaps not change enough) over a relatively short period of time.
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Sep 15, 2016 03:06
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Steve French posted:Yeah, I don't think "bad manager" is specific to company size either; rather my point was that I think quitting a *company* is perhaps much more common in smaller companies than larger companies, since they are much more likely to change (or perhaps not change enough) over a relatively short period of time. Small companies also don't have a bunch of other teams to transfer into.
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Sep 15, 2016 04:04
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Steve French posted:Yeah, I don't think "bad manager" is specific to company size either; rather my point was that I think quitting a *company* is perhaps much more common in smaller companies than larger companies, since they are much more likely to change (or perhaps not change enough) over a relatively short period of time. Also, in a small company there's a higher chance that your bad (crazy, megalomaniacal, pay-cutting) manager is also the CEO of the company, and there's no HR department to boot. Not that that's ever happened to me or anything. In that situation you have no choice but to suck it up or 
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Sep 15, 2016 11:07
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"We're going to have you do pair programming exercises, we hate the whiteboard!" Proceeds to ask me an hour of SQL questions even after telling them I haven't used SQL in years and a whiteboard problem. This industry is a loving joke.
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Sep 15, 2016 19:42
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Ah I hate interviews. I always feel kinda good about them but then the day after I realize I should have elaborated a lot more on things. They asked a question about what the most challenging thing I've done was and I talked a bit about that but didn't really go into any details; but I should have talked a bit about design/architectural decisions I made and stuff like that to show I actually know things  This together with some other stuff like not really being able to answer much when they asked a bit about databases makes me feel I've lost this chance
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Sep 16, 2016 07:45
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I find that adopting a "what's done is done" attitude is the best thing to do after an interview. Sure take notes for next interview but dwelling on it is just pure stress. Hard to do though, I know.
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Sep 18, 2016 21:21
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What is it with Silicon Valley companies? I send a nice message saying basically, "My company wants to maybe give you money because you had the good sense to not BSD license your technology." And I come into work this morning to two of them basically saying, "Yeah, we don't do that." At least give me an outlandish number I can feed the project lead. 
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Sep 19, 2016 14:33
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leper khan posted:What is it with Silicon Valley companies? I send a nice message saying basically, "My company wants to maybe give you money because you had the good sense to not BSD license your technology." And I come into work this morning to two of them basically saying, "Yeah, we don't do that." Easier to coast on VC money if your product is mythical rather than salable.
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Sep 19, 2016 17:12
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Salable? Sellable? Perhaps you just made a new valley term. Better cash in on it right now with a few medium blogposts and make a viral video about it!
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Sep 19, 2016 17:31
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salad edible
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Sep 19, 2016 21:48
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leper khan posted:What is it with Silicon Valley companies? I send a nice message saying basically, "My company wants to maybe give you money because you had the good sense to not BSD license your technology." And I come into work this morning to two of them basically saying, "Yeah, we don't do that." If they start selling, they'll have a number to give their investors, and they don't want that.
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Sep 19, 2016 21:57
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A recruiter for Facebook just
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Sep 20, 2016 03:41
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mrmcd posted:A recruiter for Facebook just Blast that out to 10,000 people and you're guaranteed to catch a few people who just so happen to be in the right place at the right time for you.
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Sep 20, 2016 03:44
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I got InMail (tm) from Linkedin and MS leading with "I'd love to hear about all the great work you've done at <X>." Where at X I am in new hire training, and my profile says sept 2016-present.
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Sep 20, 2016 04:06
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Honestly, if they put something in the message that indicates they've actually read my profile, I'll give them credit. Not enough to actually talk to them, but some.
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Sep 20, 2016 04:30
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Infinotize posted:I got InMail (tm) from Linkedin and MS leading with "I'd love to hear about all the great work you've done at <X>." Where at X I am in new hire training, and my profile says sept 2016-present. "Well, this sprint I logged into my dev machine AND our developer wiki. I'm working on the next sprint item - adjusting my office chair so I can be the non-typing member of the pair-programming pair - is in progress, but the requirements are a little vague. Looking forward to the challenge!"
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Sep 20, 2016 04:45
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Che Delilas posted:"Well, this sprint I logged into my dev machine AND our developer wiki. I'm working on the next sprint item - adjusting my office chair so I can be the non-typing member of the pair-programming pair - is in progress, but the requirements are a little vague. Looking forward to the challenge!" Pairing always felt like a giant waste of time. Even for getting people up to speed, reading a few dozen KLOC and then working through a couple minor bugs seems to familiarize someone faster.
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Sep 20, 2016 13:29
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necrobobsledder posted:Salable? Sellable? Perhaps you just made a new valley term. Better cash in on it right now with a few medium blogposts and make a viral video about it! Nope, just a regular old actual word that's been around for almost 500 years: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salable Huzanko fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Sep 20, 2016 |
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Sep 20, 2016 15:56
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I've been pondering over some stuff for longer than I'd like to admit, and I finally decided I just need to throw it all out here and see if anyone can either point me in the right direction or inform me how lost my cause is. I've been working as a full-time web developer for 6 years. I kind of stumbled my way into the career by starting out as a webmaster but helping out with trivial SQL requests and .NET application bug fixes until somehow it just became what I do and, at least compared to my peers here, I do okay. The problem is I have no formal education and it has become apparent to me that what I can learn on the job here is extremely limited. At first I was satisfied because the pay is good and expectations are low, but now I'm realizing I haven't been doing enough to invest in my skills and open up opportunities elsewhere. Eventually I'd like to move which means I'd need to find a new job. I'm not sure I could do that as I am now, and if I did I'm really not sure I could keep the job. There are so many options in terms of improving my skills or making myself a more attractive hire, but I'm just really not sure what to focus on. Anything I do is going to add a time (and possibly money) cost to my life and I'm prepared to do that to advance my career and guarantee some stability, but I want to be sure I'm doing the right thing when I pay that cost. Obviously there is no shortage of resources out there to learn from, and my work even provides PluralSight access, but I'm not sure if that's what I should be focusing on or if I should be chasing degrees or portfolios or what... It's just weird because I've been working at this long enough that I'm not far from being counted as a viable "senior developer" (hell, I've even been promoted accordingly, which is hosed up), but between my lack of education and the sort of weirdly-stunted team environment I'm in I don't really feel like a real programmer, I just feel like a particularly lucky and expensive intern.
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Sep 20, 2016 21:41
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GlitchThief posted:It's just weird because I've been working at this long enough that I'm not far from being counted as a viable "senior developer" (hell, I've even been promoted accordingly, which is hosed up), but between my lack of education and the sort of weirdly-stunted team environment I'm in I don't really feel like a real programmer, I just feel like a particularly lucky and expensive intern. Congratulations, you're one of something like 98% of programmers.
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Sep 21, 2016 00:19
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GlitchThief posted:I've been pondering over some stuff for longer than I'd like to admit, and I finally decided I just need to throw it all out here and see if anyone can either point me in the right direction or inform me how lost my cause is. Congratulations, you're a real developer. Edit: ^^^ See? SEE??? Usually I have to make a post like this in the Newbie thread once every couple of months, because someone always makes a post just like yours (minus the "I've been working in the industry for 6 years" part). It's always some variation on "I don't feel like I learned enough, or learned the right things" and "I don't feel READY" or "I don't feel like a REAL developer yet." What you're doing is looking at all the stuff that everybody knows, and thinking, "I don't know everything that EVERYBODY ELSE KNOWS." Think about that. You feel inadequate because you don't know ALL THE THINGS. How silly is that? You'll never know all the things! Stay with me, I'm using hyperbole to make a point. You've spent 6 years in development and in that time you've been exposed to more technical knowledge, frameworks, languages, and techniques than you even dreamed existed 6 years ago. You feel like you're falling behind because in the course of learning one thing, you uncover 5 more things that you weren't aware of. Pay attention because this is important: this never stops. It never stops because there is already so much in our industry to learn and know, and technology moves so goddamn fast that there's more on that pile every week. You need to accept this as an ironclad fact, so you can focus on what's important. What's important is that you've been a developer for six years. You've presumably created things, written code, done a shitload of problem solving, and learned how to do a lot of things. You're also obviously hungry to learn more things. It's certainly possible that your environment is holding you back and causing you to stagnate; it happens, but that's no reason to think you can't get a better position. Also, realize that most places are going to have some deficiencies in terms of your career. Is another job going to have some major challenges and areas of unfamiliarity for you? Yep! But that's going to happen no matter what job you had before, because again, there's just so drat much to know. The most important thing is, can you adapt to the new environment and learn what you need to to contribute? (The answer for you is yes, you became a developer organically which should tell you something about your ability to learn). Start enumerating all the stuff you've created and all the bugs you've fixed in 6 years. Make a list. Don't loving compare it to people who blog about code or the 25-year veteran developer in your company or whatever, just look at it on its own; I'll bet you've done a lot. Did you write some crap code? Did you take down a live server once or twice? Sure! Who cares! Take the more impressive stuff (and stuff that expands the variety of technologies and processes you used) and put bullet points in front of it: now you have a resume. Now send that poo poo out to recruiters and companies who posted jobs, and don't waste your time with "3 years of experience" neither. You've got 6 years, go for the positions that have "7 years with all these languages and obscure frameworks nobody's heard of REQUIRED" or more. Let them filter you out, don't do it for them. And yeah some places will reject you because you don't have 5 years with THEIR version of Floof.IO Web Framework NEO, but many will be looking for smart people who can fit in. Everyone worth their salt feels the way you do, you just have to accept the feeling as a part of the industry and kind of person you are, and move forward. Also I always link this video when I make this post, it may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G3kQyqMFpQ Che Delilas fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Sep 21, 2016 |
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Sep 21, 2016 00:43
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Occasionally I wish I had a twee title like: princeps technicus Then I remember that I probably wouldn't want to work at the kind of place that would let me have such a title. Titles don't matter. You're fine if you can demonstrate an ability to perform work, nothing else really matters at least through mid level. In this exercise, mid level generally includes "senior" unless your org somehow evaded title inflation. Maybe pedigree matters at principal/executive level; no experience there. At junior/mid level if you haven't hopped jobs in ~3 years you can very likely get more by getting out. If you're worried about being terrible, you're (probably) not that terrible. If you think you're the best that ever was, you very certainly aren't. Eat well, sleep, and exercise.
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Sep 21, 2016 00:44
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Good freaking god, I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't something that thorough and like... compassionate? I really appreciate the logical breakdown. I still have a lot to learn, but I feel like I can focus on pursuing skills and projects that interest me instead of sweating my employability. I have a trip in a couple months that I have to take, but when I get back I'm going to start looking for work aggressively. You both, and that video, have some great points. I can definitely find something and it's not like there's any particular hurry. No need to sell myself short or waste time and energy trying to prove to myself that I can do the job when I'm already doing it every day. I'll probably be back in the near future with resume and interview questions, but in the meantime leper khan posted:Eat well, sleep, and exercise. I'm gonna focus on this.
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Sep 21, 2016 03:35
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Is Palantir bad? I've heard horror stories but a recruiter contacted me today. Also I never heard from Facebook which makes me sad.
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Sep 21, 2016 21:14
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Their employees were pretty proud about the crazy work hours they were subjected to when I interviewed there in 2013. Notorious for paying low as well. Whatever good reputations they had I think they maybe squandered them? dunno.
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Sep 21, 2016 21:23
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Good Will Hrunting posted:Is Palantir bad? I've heard horror stories but a recruiter contacted me today. Also I never heard from Facebook which makes me sad. Most of the horror stores are from the Sauron days.
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Sep 21, 2016 22:26
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Compared to other defense contractors, Palantir is probably in the top 10% for engineering, and there's no way they pay as low as the bulk of contractors like Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, and SAIC. However, it's still fundamentally a defense contractor and their non-standard titles don't change that fact. When they tried to recruit me before they noted they'll pay a housing stipend of another $1k / mo for you to live within 3 miles of an office. That's certainly a creative way to demonstrate that they're concerned about employees having long commutes.
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Sep 22, 2016 01:10
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That's a really good idea for maximizing retention.
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Sep 22, 2016 02:28
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sarehu posted:That's a really good idea for maximizing retention. Retention and a willingness to put in a bit more than 9-5. If I was 5 minutes from home, I probably wouldn't think twice about staying for an extra 30-45 minutes or so, knowing that I wasn't looking at 30+ minutes of rush-hour commute. They're easily getting 10% more out of me for 10% more in salary.
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Sep 22, 2016 03:46
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You'd also be living in Palo Alto
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Sep 22, 2016 03:49
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Palantir has an NYC office, but yeah, they're not in cheap places.
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Sep 22, 2016 03:54
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We used to share a building with them in Tysons Corner, VA but they've disappeared. I was pretty jealous of all the catered food I had to share an elevator with.
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Sep 22, 2016 03:55
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Necc0 posted:We used to share a building with them in Tysons Corner, VA but they've disappeared. I was pretty jealous of all the catered food I had to share an elevator with. They moved to Georgetown.
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Sep 22, 2016 12:56
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So I got the job offer and when I told my boss he managed to dig up a (at first glance) really interesting project and now I'm agonizing hard over the decision to quit or stay. I've been here 5 or 6 years already so I think it's time to move on and try new things but I honestly really like this place and my coworkers. The reason I started to look for something new in the first place was because I've had a pretty bad time in my current project and didn't really see anything else on the horizon.
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Sep 22, 2016 15:00
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netcat posted:So I got the job offer and when I told my boss he managed to dig up a (at first glance) really interesting project and now I'm agonizing hard over the decision to quit or stay. I've been here 5 or 6 years already so I think it's time to move on and try new things but I honestly really like this place and my coworkers. The reason I started to look for something new in the first place was because I've had a pretty bad time in my current project and didn't really see anything else on the horizon. Never stay. Seriously, never. Whatever the thing was that made you start looking, it will be back. Plus they already didn't have any loyalty to you, they still don't... but now know that you don't have any to them.
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