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Comment on So Long to Tech's Dream Job: It’s the shut up and grind era, tech workers said, as Apple, Google, Meta and other giants age into large bureaucracies.

turkalino@lemmy.yachts ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

I’ve been a software engineer for almost 10 years now and lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to doing something else. I went into the field because coding and computing in general are genuine passions of mine but I find it difficult to be the code mill I’m expected to be, especially when getting work done quickly is prioritized over getting it done correctly. I also feel like most of the coworkers I’ve had over the years don’t have any genuine interest or intrinsic motivation, and are just in it because it pays well - which I don’t fault them for, especially in the current economy, but they’re much more likely to put up with being treated like shit.

I just don’t know what else I would do. Teaching high school CS seems fun but I’m pretty sure making that transition would take a couple years, since I gotta get a teaching degree and be a student teacher and all that, and I’m not sure I have the patience for that

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Damage@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Industrial automation is always looking. Don’t underestimate the satisfaction of watching your code produce something tangible in front of your eyes.

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- ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Just be prepared to integrate with 40 year old equipment and add new features in to a PLC that should have been decommissioned a decade ago and the program is a mangled Frankenstein piece of shit made by 50 different people, many with no real understanding of programming or how to structure things…oh, and various “temporary” hacks upon hacks to keep production running with minimal downtime.
  
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  - Damage@feddit.it ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Those things happen, but if they’re the norm for you, seek different employment.
    
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themaninblack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
You’ve nailed it. 15 years of experience here.

Scrum messed everything up too - lots of less-technical people needed jobs in software and that’s where they tend to slot in.

The kids don’t seem to think one level of hierarchy higher than the context they’re in a lot of the time. Not much appreciation for holism and design patterns (your mileage with the latter can vary of course).

Elegance is down and writing your own shitty code instead of using decent opinionated frameworks is up.

If I’m frustrated I write code outside of work.

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- phutatorius@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  Scrum messed everything up too - lots of less-technical people needed jobs in software and that’s where they tend to slot in.
  
  We do what we need to do, and if any humanities major with a Scrum background questions it, we tell them “we’re being a self-organizing team, just like the Agile Manifesto calls for.”
  
  unless the team worships the “clever” maniac who wrote it
  
  I love getting rid of those people. There has never been a downside from doing so.
  
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jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

I find it difficult to be the code mill I’m expected to be, especially when getting work done quickly is prioritized over getting it done correctly.

Same. Half the time the code base is an indicipherable, spaghetti filled dumpster fire. More often than that, the business plan is either non existent or just plain idiotic. Management can’t even answer basic questions like, “who is going to pay for this?” The last three projects I worked on were DOA because there was no clear path to profitability. This was at large, well established corporations.

I’m still trying to figure out how it’s possible to graduate with an MBA without understanding the inherent need for revenue to exceed expenses.

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kinsnik@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
i am in a similar position. i have started to give serious thought to the idea of moving back home (to a country with a much lower cost of living than the US), and live from savings while i figure out what i want to do the rest of my life.

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Rooskie91@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I think you can teach at community college without a teaching degree. You might need a master’s though.

I have a CS degree but started out in nuclear power, then that got me into automation and robotics. There’s way more of that take your time to do it right atmosphere, and these jobs are all over hiding in unexpected places. I guess nobody wants to turn on an expensive machine just to have it eat itself because of a software bug lol.

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resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I imagine you mean well, but teaching is a profession — not a hobby you dabble in when the honeymoon with your career is over.

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frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
What kind of company do you work at? I try to aim for big enough to pay well and give good benefits, but has small enough teams that we own the whole product, start to finish. If you’re working at a software development company, maybe try a company that does something else, but still needs developers?

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stoly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
This is where I got the hell out of the industry. I now manage IT for a major university and love it. It doesn’t pay as well but it has great benefits, is pandemic-proof, and allows me to work with a lot of excited and motivated students. When I help them get through their studies with confidence, it means the world to me.

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panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Those soulless people who have no live off the craft drive me nuts, and a lot got in the field like 2017-2023 when everyone was trying to grow headcount as fast as possible.

Those people drive me mad.

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