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Blinkz0rz posted:That's...really dumb and super demoralizing. Why would anyone want to work there? I don't know. They're the biggest employer in the area. They keep wages down; last time I talked with them they said the job was 30k less than what I currently make. And it shows. I've seen their internal systems and they are a mess.
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Jun 15, 2017 12:14
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Jun 15, 2017 14:27
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I'm hitting my quarter-life crisis and got thinking about the future, so I was wondering: how should I approach my career thinking of the long term? I'm at the age where I wanna start settling down, saving up for a house, etc., and I want to know how to deal with SWEng as a career in the long term. I'm in the central Boston area right now, but I'm thinking of eventually moving further away from the city center or even possibly a different state altogether - I have no idea what the future is like. Is software development a relatively mobile career? It seems pretty amenable to moving around the US, since there's software needs everywhere, but specific tech stacks differ from place to place. Don't dev jobs tend to last 3~5 years on average? That suggests to me a degree of flexibility in where you live and work, due to commute needs, changes in insurance plans, all that. Is that good enough for eventually getting a house n stuff? Maybe this doesn't actually have anything to do with dev itself, but I was just thinking of how to get stable for the long term and this got me wondering how best to position myself. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Jun 16, 2017 |
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Jun 16, 2017 16:03
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Pollyanna posted:I'm hitting my quarter-life crisis and got thinking about the future, so I was wondering: how should I approach my career thinking of the long term? I'm at the age where I wanna start settling down, saving up for a house, etc., and I want to know how to deal with SWEng as a career in the long term. I'm in the central Boston area right now, but I'm thinking of eventually moving further away from the city center or even possibly a different state altogether - I have no idea what the future is like. If you are looking to settle down at all, then don't entertain ideas of moving your entire family every 3-5 years, that's a stupid amount of stress. Find a tech hub and hop jobs within it.
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Jun 16, 2017 16:34
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Pollyanna posted:I'm hitting my quarter-life crisis and got thinking about the future, so I was wondering: how should I approach my career thinking of the long term? I'm at the age where I wanna start settling down, saving up for a house, etc., and I want to know how to deal with SWEng as a career in the long term. I'm in the central Boston area right now, but I'm thinking of eventually moving further away from the city center or even possibly a different state altogether - I have no idea what the future is like.  You can't plan for the future except in very general terms. My plan when I was in my early 20s in no way resembles the reality of my mid-30s. I'm not even close to the same person I was back then, and the things I value and desire have drastically changed. Hell, my life drastically changed in the past 12 months in several totally unplanned ways. You have a career in an excellent field. Continue to grow and learn and excel in your field. Save money where you can, especially for retirement. The rest will work itself out.
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Jun 16, 2017 16:45
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Pollyanna posted:Is software development a relatively mobile career? It seems pretty amenable to moving around the US, since there's software needs everywhere, but specific tech stacks differ from place to place. Mobile and web have demand everywhere, it's desktop apps, app servers and legacy maintenance that will vary on many levels. Certain shops with a preference for the man month are more likely to dictate a particular technology, in the solutions world it is more important to get things done so you have more control over the technology to use. quote:Don't dev jobs tend to last 3~5 years on average? Some development work has short lifecycle tied to the technology, but there is a lot of legacy or Enterprise infrastructure that work on 15 year cycles. It's a noose around your resume the further entrenched into proprietary stacks and languages. Freelancing or consulting provides great flexibility but like my current contract expires September and I have no idea what is happening after that.
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Jun 16, 2017 18:07
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Pollyanna posted:I'm in the central Boston area right now, but I'm thinking of eventually moving further away from the city center or even possibly a different state altogether - I have no idea what the future is like. I don't know much about Boston, but I'm in the Philly suburbs and find it pretty nice. Many of the F500 corpo jobs are actually out here in the burbs instead of in the city. I assume it's due to the lower taxes and the fact that many of their employees want grass for their kids to play on. The city holds most of the Hot-JS-Framework/Ping pong/Nerf gun jobs, but I couldn't give less of a poo poo about that crap once I aged out of my early 20s. Overall, I think it is a nice balance: 10+ years of experience will net you in the low-mid $100Ks, and house prices run around 300-450K for something decent. Cost-calculators put my salary at a level in SF that is basically $200K, and good luck finding something nice to live in in SF for <$1M without a 2 hour commute. Besides finding an area with a good salary/housing price ratio (and opportunities), I think the most important advice is to learn how to find enjoyment in the s/w engineering process itself. You might not be writing software that will change the world, but going into an air-conditioned office and making enough money that you can easily own a house, car, and raise kids by using your brain is a drat sweet lot in life.
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Jun 16, 2017 18:07
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MrMoo posted:Some development work has short lifecycle tied to the technology, but there is a lot of legacy or Enterprise infrastructure that work on 15 year cycles. It's a noose around your resume the further entrenched into proprietary stacks and languages. I think describing it as a "noose" is a bit harsh. If you find a job you're happy with in a stable environment, there's no reason you should have to pick up sticks and leave just because some arbitrary time limit got exceeded. I mean, it is worth being aware of your prospects if said job ever were to vanish. But one of the great things about working in software is how transferable the fundamental skills are. Lacking experience in $new_framework won't stop you from picking it up pretty quickly.
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Jun 16, 2017 18:18
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New Yorp New Yorp posted:You can't plan for the future except in very general terms. My plan when I was in my early 20s in no way resembles the reality of my mid-30s. I'm not even close to the same person I was back then, and the things I value and desire have drastically changed. Hell, my life drastically changed in the past 12 months in several totally unplanned ways. When I was interviewing for currentjob, one of the interviewers asked me where I thought my career was going to go over the next five years, and I had to tell him that I had no idea because every single prediction I have ever made about my career has turned out to be invalidated by non-career events and I'm not even going to try guessing anymore.
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Jun 16, 2017 20:56
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Pollyanna posted:I'm hitting my quarter-life crisis and got thinking about the future, so I was wondering: how should I approach my career thinking of the long term? I'm at the age where I wanna start settling down, saving up for a house, etc., and I want to know how to deal with SWEng as a career in the long term. I'm in the central Boston area right now, but I'm thinking of eventually moving further away from the city center or even possibly a different state altogether - I have no idea what the future is like. Should I actively job hunt while working? Can I afford a house and stuff as a software developer? Is software development a good career? Is it mobile? Are you completely oblivious to basic, easily Googled facts and common sense you mildly retarded child? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 18, 2017 06:43
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rsjr posted:Should I actively job hunt while working? Can I afford a house and stuff as a software developer? Is software development a good career? Is it mobile? Are you completely oblivious to basic, easily Googled facts and common sense you mildly retarded child? That's pretty harsh. Pollyanna obviously COULD just type those questions into Google, but often with subjective questions (like, "What should I do with my life?") you would rather ask some trusted community of people for their thoughts, which up until just now, was us. 
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Jun 18, 2017 18:12
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No asking for career advice in the Career Advice thread!
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Jun 18, 2017 18:23
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rsjr posted:Should I actively job hunt while working? Can I afford a house and stuff as a software developer? Is software development a good career? Is it mobile? Are you completely oblivious to basic, easily Googled facts and common sense you mildly retarded child? 
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Jun 18, 2017 18:57
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There's a large difference between doing a little self research and asking for advice vs. a history of Livejournal, stream of conscious, you won't believe the new dumb poo poo I did at work today / had happen to me. The lack of perspective on just how good the OP has it -- graduated from a boot camp, writing if-statements in language of choice and will probably make six figures in most large markets -- and wanting to know if it's the right career that can let you buy stuff. Do you have any idea what the average income is for most people and how cushy your job is? Please keep treating this person with kid gloves. It'd be awful if they went to a different community to ask for permission to work on their resume and job hunts while taking money from their current employer. rsjr fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Jun 18, 2017 |
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Jun 18, 2017 19:10
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You sound like a good fit for management!
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Jun 18, 2017 19:12
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rsjr posted:There's a large difference between doing a little self research and asking for advice vs. a history of Livejournal, stream of conscious, you won't believe the new dumb poo poo I did at work today / had happen to me.
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Jun 18, 2017 19:17
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rsjr posted:There's a large difference between doing a little self research and asking for advice vs. a history of Livejournal, stream of conscious, you won't believe the new dumb poo poo I did at work today / had happen to me. Posting like that is how a forum community dies.
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Jun 18, 2017 19:42
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Bruegels Fuckbooks posted:Posting like that is how a forum community dies. We've been on the way out for years.
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Jun 18, 2017 19:46
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rsjr posted:There's a large difference between doing a little self research and asking for advice vs. a history of Livejournal, stream of conscious, you won't believe the new dumb poo poo I did at work today / had happen to me. That said, quote:The lack of perspective on just how good the OP has it -- graduated from a boot camp, writing if-statements in language of choice and will probably make six figures in most large markets -- and wanting to know if it's the right career that can let you buy stuff. Do you have any idea what the average income is for most people and how cushy your job is? Take your bootlicking class traitor rear end and
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Jun 18, 2017 20:01
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Oh god no, not elite educations! I guess the retard squad has escaped from sh/sc. Also Pollyanna he's right, you need to man the gently caress up and be able to handle PG-13-level adult situations. And you should note, the stakes are low. A new job or not, it's a small part of your life and always a fixable situation. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 18, 2017 21:15
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Skandranon posted:That's pretty harsh. Pollyanna obviously COULD just type those questions into Google, but often with subjective questions (like, "What should I do with my life?") you would rather ask some trusted community of people for their thoughts, which up until just now, was us. Let's be fair though; trusting goons is a recipe for disaster.
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Jun 18, 2017 21:50
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ToxicSlurpee posted:Let's be fair though; trusting goons is a recipe for disaster. You can get useful advice from people you don't trust. You just have to engage your brain instead of blindly following what they tell you to do.
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Jun 18, 2017 22:09
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This is a generally positive/good thread in what can be a daunting field. Let's keep it that way, maybe?
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Jun 18, 2017 22:10
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We haven't been letting the Dumb out enough, and now it's built up enough to explode. Gotta manage that more carefully.
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Jun 18, 2017 22:48
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rsjr posted:Should I actively job hunt while working? Can I afford a house and stuff as a software developer? Is software development a good career? Is it mobile? Are you completely oblivious to basic, easily Googled facts and common sense you mildly retarded child? The thread title says "Career Advice, Questions, Change of Directions" so... seems like these are all completely on-topic. And it's a forum thread, not loving Stack Overflow. The whole point is to get the LiveJournal poo poo. I want people whining about their stupid coworkers or bragging about their giant new paycheck or reminiscing about stealing Internets from their job. Or asking silly questions, because it either leads to a good story behind the questions or everyone who's not a twit ignores it.
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Jun 18, 2017 23:50
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Good Will Hrunting posted:This is a generally positive/good thread in what can be a daunting field. Let's keep it that way, maybe? Arguing can be cool and good; we should call each other out when it matters and SA relies on that edge to stay quasi-relevant. Here's a good example of critical posting from 2014, when I asked for brutal feedback on my newbie resume: shrughes/sarehu posted:Go into more detail about relevant experience, go into less or more compressed detail about the "additional" experience, using less words to say the same things. I wouldn't have them be separately labeled sections, because if one section is "relevant" experience, the other section is irrelevant experience. But this rsjr posted:Should I actively job hunt while working? Can I afford a house and stuff as a software developer? Is software development a good career? Is it mobile? Are you completely oblivious to basic, easily Googled facts and common sense you mildly retarded child?
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Jun 19, 2017 00:20
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Also let's be honest, in the age of SEO googling questions like that is more likely to lead to markov chain, bullshit clickbait than anything actually helpful.
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Jun 19, 2017 00:31
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rsjr posted:There's a large difference between doing a little self research and asking for advice vs. a history of Livejournal, stream of conscious, you won't believe the new dumb poo poo I did at work today / had happen to me. Asking for personal anecdotes in a somewhat trusted community of those of us who have been around the block that can't be easily answered by loving google isn't a bad thing. I remember when I was hitting that time in my life and being just as unconvinced / unsure of my career path. There are no stupid questions, just stupid responses by asshats like these. :getfucked: 
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Jun 19, 2017 00:42
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Pollyanna you should move away from Boston. It's a bad, cold, miserable place to live. I moved away and I don't regret it. Getting a job before you move is the usual advice and even if you have savings built up I see no reason not to make that your methodology. Apparently you've got plenty of time to do phone/skype interviews. Beware that if you're like me you might be pinning general life dissatisfaction on a particular job, and changing jobs won't help things. The same advice applies to people mad about how, uh... VC's are investing money in things. Incidentally in oldie programming news I got a job the other day, so apparently a 2.5 year employment gap won't kill the career. My general job-hunting recommendations: 1. Send resumes to multiple places instead of one or two at a time. 2. There's a higher ratio of interesting jobs on the monthly thread on Hacker News than most other places, and if you wait until the middle of the month before sending resumes, it looks like you aren't desperate/applying to everything. 3. There was some interesting stuff on Stack Overflow jobs. 4. Forget about looking at any employers in San Diego 5. Use the official Go font on your resume, and you'll get a job programming Go 
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Jun 19, 2017 01:42
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sarehu posted:Pollyanna you should move away from Boston. It's a bad, cold, miserable place to live. I moved away and I don't regret it. Lots of tech jobs in NYC... at least until the massive public ponzi scheme propping up our barely functional infrastructure finally collapses, taking the entire regional economy with it.
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Jun 19, 2017 12:57
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mrmcd posted:Lots of tech jobs in NYC... at least until the massive public ponzi scheme propping up our barely functional infrastructure finally collapses, taking the entire regional economy with it. Is this going to happen before or after San Francisco VCS run out of investor money?
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Jun 19, 2017 13:29
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leper khan posted:Is this going to happen before or after San Francisco VCS run out of investor money? Dunno, but NYC actually has multiple industries. Even 2009 didn't hurt too badly. SF is gonna suuuuck when the tech party goes through its next "economic cycle".
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Jun 19, 2017 14:06
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mrmcd posted:Lots of tech jobs in NYC... at least until the massive public ponzi scheme propping up our barely functional infrastructure finally collapses, taking the entire regional economy with it. At least we have twin peaks branded metro cards now.
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Jun 19, 2017 14:12
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 Looks like I touched a nerve. I come here not to get answers to trivia questions - I use Google for that - but to get perspective and wisdom that I can't necessarily get on my own. At least, not without possibly loving up. I care less about getting one specific answer or opinion and more about fostering discussion and getting a wide variety of responses, cause that's the best way to actually come to a conclusion on something more abstract and arbitrary than "how I do a resume???". Yeah, sometimes I ask the same question more than once, and that's cause I have the memory of a goldfish. Sometimes I ask questions that have obvious answers and it ends up sounding vapid, oh well. Point is I asked. I have my own opinions, I'm not looking for other people to fill in the blanks for me. I don't care about me, gently caress me, I care about what other people have experienced and what they say I should look out for. Anyway, as you said, I'm in a highly valued and sought-after (for now) field, and that makes it more important to ask for advice, not less. I'll be damned if I gently caress this up and waste the bullshit amount of chances and support I got in life. It's good to hear that it's tenable in the long term, because my experience so far is that it really depends on where you end up working and how long you see yourself in a particular job. Job hopping does not feel stable to me, but that's probably just me instead of the industry itself. Being in a tech hub (that is not SV/SF) helps a lot. I'll just keep on keeping on for now, and really try and make things work long-term. also, Bernie would have won 
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Jun 19, 2017 |
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Jun 19, 2017 15:01
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If there's one thing I've heard repeatedly over the last 7 months of job hunting other than "we've decided to move forward with candidates that better fit our needs" it's "the average tech job lasts 18 months".
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Jun 19, 2017 15:11
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Pollyanna posted:
I think the problem is that you're looking for definitive answers for questions whose answers are very dependent on you. For example, you've taken it as a foregone conclusion that job hopping is how you should pattern your career because *reasons*. Plenty of people have long and stable tenures with one company then move to another long stint. While job hopping is probably the best way to maximize income in the short term, you still have at least another 30 years of working life (but more realistically 40 years at least) to think about. Find what is comfortable and sustainable for you rather than following someone else's path. If that means you jump jobs every 2 years so be it. If it means you find a place where you're stable for 10 years at a stretch that's great. Just stop trying to do what other people do and figure out what you want. Then go do that.
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Jun 19, 2017 23:03
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Iverron posted:If there's one thing I've heard repeatedly over the last 7 months of job hunting other than "we've decided to move forward with candidates that better fit our needs" it's "the average tech job lasts 18 months". That may be accurate, but I've seen the average tenure at good companies to be much higher. And of course, leaders stay for a long rear end time because continuity of management is super important.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:18
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How irregular is it for prospective employers to ask for my W2 or paystub? I already gave my salary range in earlier talks because I also didn't want to waste my time, I liked the work and I'm already near the top of the salary range in my area. But this is all information I would have shared if they had asked me without first resorting to asking for documents. What's more frustrating is that this is near the end of the process and I've already been through technical interviews. I've never been asked before and my initial response was being shocked and dumbfounded. Am I wrong for wanting to tell them to pound sand (in nicer terms) and cutting out? Part of me thinks that the compromise would be in telling them I'm uncomfortable sharing those documents and seeing how they react, but it's just so off-putting. Edit: I am assuming this is to look at my salary, as there hasn't been any job offer made. What else could it be for? biceps crimes fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Jun 20, 2017 |
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Jun 20, 2017 00:39
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Sinten posted:Edit: I am assuming this is to look at my salary, as there hasn't been any job offer made. What else could it be for? This, and to verify your employment. But mainly the salary. And it's an awful practice.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:46
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Sinten posted:How irregular is it for prospective employers to ask for my W2 or paystub? I already gave my salary range in earlier talks because I also didn't want to waste my time, I liked the work and I'm already near the top of the salary range in my area. But this is all information I would have shared if they had asked me without first resorting to asking for documents. Don't give it to them. Don't ever give a prospective employer any information about your current salary. It only puts you at a disadvantage.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:53
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