Technology

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.

We would do better to think one level of hierarchy higher than the context we’re in more of the time. Doesn’t seem to be 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. Because people hate reading code.

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

I tend to look for roles where there is serious, vertically integrated ownership of the code over time.

Spaghetti (or lasagna) is common and I can deal with it, unless the team worships the “clever” maniac who wrote it.

The one specific thing that will cause me to leave is micromanagement.

Thinking about moving closer to bare metal where there is less room for cruft and genuine tradeoffs have to be considered.

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.

Industrial automation is always looking. Don't underestimate the satisfaction of watching your code produce something tangible in front of your eyes.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

I imagine you mean well, but teaching is a profession — not a hobby you dabble in when the honeymoon with your career is over.