3 posts tagged “jobs”

The boom is on.  I mean it is ON.  I saw it, and said so, 6 months ago.  But I think it is really clear now.

In 2000 I could only watch the boom from afar, as an 18-year-old, just entering college.  This time the effects are certainly felt directly.  The job market is getting insane.

There was a time when I would've killed to even get Google to read my resume...nowadays I actually receive emails from Google and Microsoft recruiters just asking me if I'm interested.  When I joined linkedin.com way back in 2005, and worked hard to develop contacts on it, it was a dud.  But now 2 years later it has sprung to life for me, and I get recruiting requests from there too.

I hear of friends getting job offers to move to Paris, France, all expenses paid.

In the last month, 3 people on my team of 7 have announced their resignations (or left for other teams), and finding decent replacements has, thus far, been quite disappointing.

While this may be a bit of a bubble, I think the growing worth of a technology knowledge worker is inexorable and inevitable.  I read recently that a "genius" candidate got 375k/year base salary from Google.  Programmers are entering the ranks of Doctors and Lawyers.  The glass ceiling for a corporate employee is skyrocketing.

Just like 2000, this boom is revolving around the web, and the workers that can work within the web (along with their investors) are the ones profiting the most.  It's not a boom for steel manufacturers and candy stores.

It is awesome to be in the middle of it.  I've read Michael Arrington and a few others essentially complain about the boom.   It's like how a small number of people that love a band early in its existence end up complaining about how popular the band has become.  The original followers feel like their passion has been cheapened by losing its uniqueness.  All these "bandwagon" fans don't deserve to associate themselves with the original "true" fans.  The elite few want to go back to the small clique of the truly passionate.

So yah that's fine for them.  I can understand the feeling for band-followers, or sports-fans, but I think there's a major distinction with something like software engineering:  you can still differentiate yourself from the "bandwagon" by your own hard-won skills!

Sprinkle on top the reality that your skill distinction can actually lead to opportunity, praise, and recognition.  It's a pretty sweet deal.  Unlike the "true" sports fans who can do nothing but whine, the "true" awesome software engineers can make more money!  Amen to that...I embrace the boom, and I encourage its growth. ;o)  bubble bubble.

My job history is manic.  Since graduation I've had 4 jobs, all of which lasted for more than 6 months, but none of which lasted as long as a year.

With every company thus far I've found some reason or another why the company/environment upset/angered me.  Usually they'd revolve around painful exchanges with coworkers, overtime demands, or tight-fisted corporate policies that wouldn't foot the bill for a pretty LCD monitor, training program, etc.

I've watched my coworkers suffer similar abuses, and they agree it sucks, but manage to shrug it off.  I certainly have never, nor do I think I ever will, develop a sense of loyalty to what is an organization whose undoubted singular goal is to make money.  So my job choices are always selfishly my own.  If I am working somewhere it is because it is in my own best interest--I am not charitably contributing for the better of my company.  If anybody finds themselves staying put simply because they don't want to hurt the company, they may want to re-evaluate, and realize that unless legally obligated, that company will not take care of you for very long if you aren't contributing to their bottom line.

Loyalties aside, there are still good reasons not to switch jobs TOO often.  Primarily because it looks bad on the resume.  So I am trying my hardest to learn patience, and stoically sail past annoying coworkers and/or unfair corporate practices.

I just read in Newscientist about two kinds of people when it comes to decision making:  Maximizers must try every option to make sure they get the best, but they are driven nuts by never settling, whereas Sufficers settle with the first thing that seems "good enough", but may miss out on something better.

They followed college grads and found that those who were "maximizers" got 20% higher salaries in their first jobs, but were actually less happy by almost any psychological measure, because they kept fretting about what better job they may still have missed.  I am definitely a maximizer--hoping to reform to be a bit more sufficing...

It's coming up on 2 years now that my full-time job was essentially a "flash-developer".  It's only recently hit me how deeply I've already enmeshed myself down the flash and web-front-end developer path.  Besides moving within my company, I think it'd be hard at this point to switch jobs to another segment of development without taking a pay-cut.  That's because I can be a somewhat-senior "flash developer", but I'd be closer to "entry-level" developing desktop c[derivatives], or back-end java, etc.

I maintain a strong interest in development of other sorts, most notably Ruby and Rails.  And I think self-education and then demonstration is vital to successfully shifting your development career-path.  But inevitably what I am doing for 35+ hours a week is going to be the area I have the most experience and expertise.

It's odd, and certainly somewhat disturbing, that what started as a very happenstance coincidence has snowballed into such an important reality of my current professional career....and one that will only grow further with time.  Initially, I hunted for jobs anywhere across the computer science spectrum.  In 2005, the same week I got my first job programming flash, I also interviewed to write C for digital-cable-switchers.  It was real-time, embedded-application C-development.  I thought I did horrible at the interview, (I couldn't tell them what a "singleton" was!), and expected a prompt "no thanks".  But they wanted a 2nd interview.  Yet the flash company wanted me more immediately, and they had a really interesting simulation project.  So I took it, and never had that 2nd interview with the cable-coders.

Inadvertently stumbling down a certain specialization of development that you may have not intended is something that I think is true for a LOT of developers.  What you get into from the start, which is often by luck of which company would hire you, ends up deepening into your "focus".  Even those people that get to choose exactly what they want, may still wish to reinvent themselves in the future to avoid burnout.

Of course, many developers just shift into management or other peripheral paths.  But for those with the intention to stay in development long-term, I think it's an issue worth considering.  Or maybe the same language/tool for 5-10+ years isn't all that bad....