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 of the page.So this a two-parter. Feel free to answer one, both, or none! For the first: I think I'm having early-career woes. I'm living in Louisiana since 99% of my family is here or nearby, but it's not really doing anything for me career-wise. The climate also sucks, so that's at least one reason to leave. I'm still a young dude that wants to keep learning everything I can, but (100% not trying to sound arrogant) I currently feel like the smartest guy on my team. I need a challenge and something to learn, otherwise my brain tends to stagnate and get bored. When everyone comes to me for answers, I'm not being challenged or able to learn anything - I just provide a solution to my best ability. I know there are better ways to go about the solution, which I want to learn, but nobody here can teach me, nor does my workload permit time to learn. When I get home, I just want to chill the rest of the night. I've tried playing with various tools and new technologies on the weekends or after work, but I don't really have the drive to learn on my own when I just want to workout, Netflix, or shoot dudes in GTA online. I feel like I need to live in some ~technology mecha~ city like Denver/Portland/Seattle to surround myself with people I can learn from. I'm just frustrated trying to decide whether to focus on my career in a large city (not a fan of suburbia), or hang around for the family. Secondly: The reason I applied for my current job was that I could learn about warehouses/cubes/datamarts and building dashboards/reports. I've done purely DBA work before, but I wasn't really fond of it. This new role is a lot less DBA work (most of our stuff went to SaaS environments, but the warehouse and such stayed local), so it looked appealing at the time. I was hoping this could help me eventually get into a BI/Data Scientist role and away from supporting databases. We were a team of four - two DBAs and two analytical guys that did the cubes/reporting on the data. I joined as one of the DBAs, but as of a month ago our team was split - analytics went to one team, me and the Sr. DBA went to IT. My new IT manager isn't really keen on my continuing my BI/analytics training and duties, and wants to now push more IT/helpdesk duties on us. So, I spent a solid 2 years trying to transition into BI, which is now slowly going away. Working here, I've built a lot of custom reports, and a nice webapp we're currently piloting and planning on releasing in December, which is potentially a third part of this whole thing. I think the best 3-4 months I've had here so far was building the webapp - me and the Sr. DBA handled the whole project, back-end to front-end. I got to implement version control, learn the whole MVC ideology, and turn my passing interest of HTML/CSS/JavaScript into something that's been presented to VPs and soon the CEO of our company. It's also nice working at a smaller company, as it's easier to get recognized and noticed than at a huge company. e: I realize I haven't asked any questions, but I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions on what I've wrote. kloa fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Oct 3, 2015 |
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Oct 3, 2015 20:38
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I agree that it sounds like you should go to a tech hub.
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Oct 3, 2015 21:24
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You want to do web development, get a job doing that.
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Oct 3, 2015 21:26
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You need to push back really hard on the IT/help desk trend or leave. Parlay what you've done into more of the same - there or somewhere else. Don't play "great expectations" - time spent going away from the role you want will be time wasted.
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Oct 3, 2015 21:40
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Analytic Engine posted:Does anyone here work with D3.js (i.e. data visualization/science/journalism) we used D3 in my old job for providing data visualization to clients. it's pretty fun and cool since it uses jquery style dom selection and function chaining for data manipulation. But you have to kinda invert how you think to approach problems.
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Oct 3, 2015 22:27
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Paolomania posted:You need to push back really hard on the IT/help desk trend or leave. Parlay what you've done into more of the same - there or somewhere else. Don't play "great expectations" - time spent going away from the role you want will be time wasted. Well, why not both? I think that job seems like an obvious dead end.
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Oct 3, 2015 22:29
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:Well, why not both? I think that job seems like an obvious dead end. Yeah you're never moving out of that position at that job. Start looking.
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Oct 4, 2015 08:55
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Yeah, even if I stuck around as a DBA, there's nowhere for me to move up to as long as the senior is around, so I'd have to eventually leave anyways. Now I have to spend a lot of time researching where to go 
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Oct 4, 2015 15:18
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kloa posted:Yeah, even if I stuck around as a DBA, there's nowhere for me to move up to as long as the senior is around, so I'd have to eventually leave anyways. A few things: In my experience, it's really uncommon for smaller companies to have restrictions on the number of people with a certain job title, as in there is little to no "I can't move up to senior frobulator until one of the current senior frobulators leaves". The distinction between junior/mid-level/senior isn't something that is necessarily limited (like people reporting to you, or responsibility for budgetary decisions). If you only have one team, you can only have one team lead, but there's nothing stopping the team from being made up of 100% senior-level people. In fact, some companies prefer that. On the other hand, it's also really uncommon for them to give pay raises commensurate with the jump between ranks compared to what you can get by jumping ship with the new title. I got promoted to "senior" developer at one small company gig and they gave me $5000/year more. A few months later, I left for $20k more.
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Oct 4, 2015 15:29
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Ithaqua posted:On the other hand, it's also really uncommon for them to give pay raises commensurate with the jump between ranks compared to what you can get by jumping ship with the new title. I got promoted to "senior" developer at one small company gig and they gave me $5000/year more. A few months later, I left for $20k more. That's not really unique to small companies, though. In general you're not going to see big raises by just staying at the same place. You have to move companies if you want a large bump.
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Oct 4, 2015 15:38
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Pollyanna posted:I do have a lot to say on software design theory and best practices Pollyanna posted:I don't think I can consider myself anything other than Junior or entry-level, still.  I don't understand this.
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Oct 4, 2015 20:34
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JawnV6 posted:
I have a lot to say, but that doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about.
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Oct 4, 2015 20:52
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that's just called being a newbie programmer
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Oct 4, 2015 21:10
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Some noobs have no interest in such things, being interested is important.
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Oct 4, 2015 21:13
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The only way anyone can ever teach you anything new is if you show them what they need to teach you. I spend a lot of time being loudly wrong, it's the best way to get people to explain why you're wrong.
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Oct 5, 2015 02:03
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Dessert Rose posted:The only way anyone can ever teach you anything new is if you show them what they need to teach you. Ex: See my posting.
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Oct 5, 2015 11:42
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https://twitter.com/erowidrecruiter Don't know if this is old hat to the thread or not but I cannot stop laughing.
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Oct 5, 2015 18:39
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Dessert Rose posted:The only way anyone can ever teach you anything new is if you show them what they need to teach you. I've spent a lot of time being loudly wrong at this soon-to-end job, and it has actually helped me learn quite a bit - unfortunately, it had the side effect of making my manager go "I've received complaints about you asking people too many questions" and poo poo like that, sooooooo  Whatever. I'm moving on from there. And quite frankly, given where it looks like the company is going, I think that's a good thing. mrmcd posted:https://twitter.com/erowidrecruiter https://twitter.com/erowidrecruiter/status/646377435802435584
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Oct 5, 2015 19:17
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triple sulk posted:Python and Java are the only two truly employable languages of the four you listed. Interop aside, Java and Scala are basically not even the same language and 99% of Scala code is unreadable FP circle jerk garbage that still isn't as good as something like Haskell or F#. It has a horrid toolset, is slow as poo poo, and has a learning curve so bad that at one point they literally had "official" levels of Scala programmer skill (http://www.scala-lang.org/old/node/8610). Go has arguably been on a downward trend for a little while now because people finally realized that it's poorly designed. There are plenty of perfectly good Scala jobs out there. You just need to make sure that the organization isn't using it as a lovely Java++. Scala is much worse than Haskell or F# and every time I start a new Scala project I wish I was doing it in Haskell. But it's okay. You can live with it, especially if it is your job. You can make it entirely tolerable, you just need to be vigilant. Admittedly can get really annoying really quickly. Go is a joke and was designed because Google did not have faith that they were able to hire engineers who were smart enough to understand a real language.
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Oct 5, 2015 19:25
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Pollyanna posted:I have a lot to say, but that doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about. Nobody likes uninformed opinions in any profession. But recognizing that you don't know what you are talking about is a first step, I guess?
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Oct 5, 2015 19:27
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Pollyanna posted:I've spent a lot of time being loudly wrong at this soon-to-end job, and it has actually helped me learn quite a bit - unfortunately, it had the side effect of making my manager go "I've received complaints about you asking people too many questions" and poo poo like that, sooooooo Seconding what sink said. If I'm mentoring a younger engineer, I want them to ask tons of questions. I don't want them to be loud and obnoxious while doing it. Nuance is key here and will get you a hell of a lot further than anything else (sadly or not).
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Oct 5, 2015 20:06
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This is the best one, IMO: https://twitter.com/erowidrecruiter/status/597823511919398912 So, I've actually got a career advice question. My background is 8 years of IT ops/automation. I've just recently left a startup because of burnout and moral issues with what they were doing, plus a feeling that they were going to run out of money and fail hilariously in the next couple years. I'm not sure what to do next. I like doing what I've been doing, but IT operations is a dead end unless you're at a huge company, and even then it quickly peaks out and goes into management if you want to keep progressing career wise. I also enjoy doing software development-type stuff (that's what automation is after all - writing software to deploy servers/software) but I have no career background in software development and while I know a ton of practical stuff and can pick stuff up fast, I don't have enough of a background in dev that I get picked up when applying for jobs doing it. I'd rate myself as having about 2-3 years experience as a dev but without all the background in algorithms/data structures that a CS degree teaches.
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Oct 5, 2015 20:46
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Urit posted:I'm not sure what to do next. I like doing what I've been doing, but IT operations is a dead end unless you're at a huge company, and even then it quickly peaks out and goes into management if you want to keep progressing career wise. I also enjoy doing software development-type stuff (that's what automation is after all - writing software to deploy servers/software) but I have no career background in software development and while I know a ton of practical stuff and can pick stuff up fast, I don't have enough of a background in dev that I get picked up when applying for jobs doing it. I'd rate myself as having about 2-3 years experience as a dev but without all the background in algorithms/data structures that a CS degree teaches. Give it a shot and start sending your resume out. Applying for a job is a low cost operation and there is no consequence for not getting it. All the while you gain good feedback. You can also start talking to recruiters, let them know where you are, and what you are looking for.
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Oct 5, 2015 21:27
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sink posted:Give it a shot and start sending your resume out. Applying for a job is a low cost operation and there is no consequence for not getting it. All the while you gain good feedback. I kind of already addressed that - I've tried applying for a few dev jobs and been screened out at the resume submission stage because I don't have prior software dev experience (that was the feedback) despite having "here's a project I did where I wrote code in the language you want" type statements on my resume. Maybe I will have to interact with recruiters.
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Oct 6, 2015 00:23
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Urit posted:I kind of already addressed that - I've tried applying for a few dev jobs and been screened out at the resume submission stage because I don't have prior software dev experience (that was the feedback) despite having "here's a project I did where I wrote code in the language you want" type statements on my resume. Maybe I will have to interact with recruiters. Sorry -- completely missed that part, I shouldn't have skimmed. Talk to recruiters. This isn't an overnight fix and it's hard to directly quantify the value but having some projects on Github is a really good idea. When I screen candidates I am overjoyed if they link to their Github, and I always check out their projects.
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Oct 6, 2015 02:17
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sink posted:Sorry -- completely missed that part, I shouldn't have skimmed. Talk to recruiters. This. Put up a github. Also go through and rewrite every single one of your job experience descriptions on your resume to highlight anything even approaching development. Its all about the framing.
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Oct 6, 2015 05:52
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Urit posted:This is the best one, IMO: Maybe I'm thinking of something slightly different than what your experience is, but if you're in the DevOps world and still want to do that and reasonably up on recent technologies (Chef, Puppet, Ansible, etc. etc.) then literally just include the word "DevOps" on your resume and people will start knocking your door down, especially in the Bay Area. We've been trying to add to our DevOps team recently and we have to hurry a lot of people through the process because they've either received or are about to receive offers. If you want to shoot me your resume, I'd be happy to run it by our team.
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Oct 9, 2015 08:49
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Does anyone have advice going to a place that has a ton of awful legacy code / really bad software engineering practices? I'm getting offered a job at a company that does really cool work that I'm interested in, but their code base is looks to be god awful and it seems like they do lots of stuff that blows (manual testing of poo poo / bad source control practices / etc). Now I'm being told that I'll be enabled to make whatever sweeping changes I deem necessary, but I'm still worried. Just wondering if anyone might have some advice for me, this is my first chance to be a 'big fish' at a place. Are there any books about this?
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Oct 9, 2015 12:42
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Working Effectively With Legacy Code is a good place to start.
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Oct 9, 2015 15:10
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Dog Jones posted:Does anyone have advice going to a place that has a ton of awful legacy code / really bad software engineering practices? I'm getting offered a job at a company that does really cool work that I'm interested in, but their code base is looks to be god awful and it seems like they do lots of stuff that blows (manual testing of poo poo / bad source control practices / etc). Now I'm being told that I'll be enabled to make whatever sweeping changes I deem necessary, but I'm still worried. Just wondering if anyone might have some advice for me, this is my first chance to be a 'big fish' at a place. Are there any books about this? Most of your problems are going to be political, not technical. Do you want to be a politician?
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Oct 9, 2015 15:11
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Also how many people are there currently? Are you in a management position or team lead? Who said you'd have freedom to make sweeping changes and do you think they'll back you up when you'll hit the inevitable resistance that comes with change? The answers to those things are going to be really important in determining how effective you'll be. You probably also want to read Switch.
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Oct 9, 2015 15:16
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Skandranon posted:Most of your problems are going to be political, not technical. Do you want to be a politician? It's not being a politician, but it's definitely going to require solving social problems more than technical ones.
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Oct 9, 2015 15:17
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Dog Jones posted:Does anyone have advice going to a place that has a ton of awful legacy code / really bad software engineering practices? I'm getting offered a job at a company that does really cool work that I'm interested in, but their code base is looks to be god awful and it seems like they do lots of stuff that blows (manual testing of poo poo / bad source control practices / etc). Now I'm being told that I'll be enabled to make whatever sweeping changes I deem necessary, but I'm still worried. Just wondering if anyone might have some advice for me, this is my first chance to be a 'big fish' at a place. Are there any books about this?
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Oct 9, 2015 16:03
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Or if literally every person responsible for the current state of things has already left.
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Oct 9, 2015 16:47
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Vulture Culture posted:Unless your job title is three letters and starts with "C", or has "VP of" in it, there is precisely zero chance of you having any ability to change this company's culture with respect to their bad habits and general laziness. This is 100% true. if it's that much of a mess the team either doesn't know how to do it right, or doesn't care.
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Oct 9, 2015 16:49
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I'm going to refine that prior statement, because I don't like how I put it. If it's a fast-growing company and you have the ability to fill lots of new positions with people who get it, that's basically the one other circumstance where you may have a fighting chance.
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Oct 9, 2015 17:06
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Shrimpy posted:Maybe I'm thinking of something slightly different than what your experience is, but if you're in the DevOps world and still want to do that and reasonably up on recent technologies (Chef, Puppet, Ansible, etc. etc.) then literally just include the word "DevOps" on your resume and people will start knocking your door down, especially in the Bay Area. My last job title was "Senior DevOps Engineer", and I basically get recruiters falling all over themselves because I've got the word "DevOps" in my resume. I'm probably just being a grump, but I loving hate the term and all the connotations that come with it because every single "devops" job I've seen is secretly "Operations and Automation". There's nothing that a devops engineer does that actually influences in the development of the code in a meaningful way to make it easier to operate in most companies. In my opinion, if you have a "DevOps team", you’re doing it wrong. It's the new Agile. That's why I'm trying to figure out how to transition more to an official software development type role, because I love the part where I'm solving the problems, but I hate the part where the problem is just "how do I get some lovely code to behave just long enough to work" with no way to fix it. sink posted:This isn't an overnight fix and it's hard to directly quantify the value but having some projects on Github is a really good idea. When I screen candidates I am overjoyed if they link to their Github, and I always check out their projects. I do actually have a GitHub account with multiple contributions to open source projects and a bunch of my own stuff. I think my biggest barrier to entry for this is figuring out where to start - I have plenty of ideas and the knowledge to make something happen but get bogged down in bikeshedding before I even start rather than just hacking together a quick prototype and building from there. That's just something I need to work on on my own though.
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Oct 9, 2015 18:11
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I have a non-developer friend who got shifted into "devops", but his role is basically just maintaining and watching some CI builds that others set up -- he doesn't really do the "dev" part of "devops". Even with that glaring problem he still has recruiters beating down his door.
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Oct 9, 2015 18:30
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Skandranon posted:Most of your problems are going to be political, not technical. Do you want to be a politician? I guess not really. I think of myself as a fine communicator. In some places I've worked I got a lot of pull and was enabled to make a really positive impact, in other places I was completely unable to make things better. wins32767 posted:Also how many people are there currently? Are you in a management position or team lead? Who said you'd have freedom to make sweeping changes and do you think they'll back you up when you'll hit the inevitable resistance that comes with change? Its a small team, 4 people including myself and the person 'in charge'. I forget his title if hes a manager or director or team lead or what. I'm not in a management or leadership position. The person who is 'in charge' said I would be free to pursue the work I deemed most important. When interviewing with him, I mentioned several things specifically that would need to be improved and he said he supported all those things. For example I mentioned scrapping the current system of manual tests and automating all of it and he said he would definitely support me in doing that. So I donno I guess its a bit wishy-washy? Re-thinking poo poo based off the way you guys responded, I think it will definitely not be as straight forward to actuate change as he presented it. Vulture Culture posted:I'm going to refine that prior statement, because I don't like how I put it. If it's a fast-growing company and you have the ability to fill lots of new positions with people who get it, that's basically the one other circumstance where you may have a fighting chance. It's not a fast growing company. But its really small -- I would comprise 25% of the team right off the bat. Furthermore part of what they're asking me to do is mentor 2 of their other developers, so I could help them grow in the right way maybe? Furthermore one of them mentioned leaving the company in December to be closer to his girlfriend and I already have people in mind I would try and fill that position with. Thanks for the book recommendations and advice yall. This kind of poo poo is tough to reason about so I'm glad to hear from peoples experiences trying to do this kind of poo poo.
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Oct 9, 2015 19:08
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Urit posted:My last job title was "Senior DevOps Engineer", and I basically get recruiters falling all over themselves because I've got the word "DevOps" in my resume. I'm probably just being a grump, but I loving hate the term and all the connotations that come with it because every single "devops" job I've seen is secretly "Operations and Automation". There's nothing that a devops engineer does that actually influences in the development of the code in a meaningful way to make it easier to operate in most companies. In my opinion, if you have a "DevOps team", you’re doing it wrong. It's the new Agile. Maybe I'm missing something, but I've always been under the impression that the "Dev" portion of "DevOps" was developing the automation?
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Oct 9, 2015 19:44
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