very good email Kon. Sums up nicely the ongoing dynamics of sticking with this profession.
Personally, I've found two types of companies: 1. an environment that (overall) is good and I will learn loads - this could be better technologies, development responsibility, very good process, etc. 2. an environment where they are struggling to make it work. I seem to come across type 2's more often that type 1s. The thing about type 2 is whether you feel the problems can be solved or if they are too entrenched. If there is little room for change to the better, I won't stay as I will end up being frustrated and angry. In my current company for instance, I have dramatically improved their throughput of work by enforcing pairing and better planning. Management love me for this but they will not support me on the other things I would like to do to make things easier and now I am looking to move on. I guess that's how it is and I need to get used to it. Cheers Rakesh On 5 December 2011 14:24, Kon Soulianidis <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Marco, > > Wanted to let you know I was in a similar position for the past couple of > years prior to this one. A year ago I stumbled across a blog post that > addressed my frustrations at the time: > > http://blog.developwithpassion.com/2010/12/strategies-for-becoming-a-better-programmer > > In short it talks about not letting your blog reading and desire to keep up > to date cloud your perspective on what the world is actually practising and > doing. It also advocates approaching a role with a fresh set of eyes to see > the merits of why decisions were made at the time. > > As I've changed jobs over the years and networked with many more experienced > people at conferences, I've come to realise that every company has different > levels of maturity in different areas. Some companies may embrace agile but > have some legacy tech that forces their hand, others like to try new things > but only because it complements their own tech interests rather than helping > business efficiency. Blogs generally only talk about new happenings. > Hardly ever do you see a blog talking about using an old technology in a > new way. > > The second thing is appreciating the tech thats already there for what it is > and how it came about. There may be better ways to do things now, but if > there was a significant investment at the time that a legacy tech was > created, there is mindshare from devs/sponsors involved in getting that > product up and going. They would understand its shortfalls but were proud > enough to know they got something across the line to serve a need. Lets say > tomorrow you were given the opportunity to do a project in NoSQL and it was > successful. Eventually it will become old hat too. > > I think a lot of projects start with these good intensions and they do > address needs at the time with known short-comings. There's an opportunity > in that though. If you can really appreciate what someone was trying to > achieve, then you can align yourself and your desired solutions with those > goals that still haven't been realised, introducing viable relevant > incremental change using the tools and techniques you like - or at least > understand why they couldn't implement it themselves. Its significantly > easier than advocating a new project that may not have a strong business > case behind it. Like coding itself, small incremental change works best. > > For me, the changing point was stratching my itch. Working for companies > that used the tech I wanted or doing good Agile for a little while helped. > But once that itch was scratched I learnt that it wasnt the only thing that > was important to be a successful software dev. I'm currently working for a > company with a lot of legacy, but thats ok because its in the industry I > enjoy. They do embrace sensible ideas and I do have the freedom that comes > with 'ask permission later' so I can introduce new things. A > new persistence mechanism probably not, but a javascript library that allows > devs to write less code that works across all browsers with far less > regressions, and at the same time the nice side effect that makes older > browsers compatible with html5 - well that serves my itch and reduces our > regressions. Eventually there will be a new itch, that needs to be > scratched more than what a conference, code retreat and outside of work > coding can satisfy, and so my parameters may change and I'll want to move > again. But I'm a little wiser and know what to look for & understanding > where I can make change. > > After all that long talk, it all just depends on you. If you can see a path > in your current situation, drive out that change where you are now. If you > think that will take too long, then go find a company that does and get the > flow you've been yearning (make sure they don't hate photoshop layers and > hex colours). Both things are equally ok. > > Regards and Good Luck > > Kon > > On Friday, 2 December 2011, Marco F. wrote: >> >> this may sound yet-another venting kind of post, and if it does sound like >> that to you, please stop reading. sorry to waste time. >> >> if you're still here, good… i'll try not to wast too much of your time. >> >> i'm a java developer at a big international digital marketing firm. >> i've been working here for 14 months now. >> >> before this, i was a java developer at another big and international >> digital marketing firm. >> worked there for 2 and half here. >> >> (before that, i worked for accenture for a short while. it was my first >> job ever after university). >> >> i grew a lot (professionally) working for these 2 firms mostly from >> "passing-by" mentor-workmates (was never enrolled a single course or >> workshop or anything). >> but i've always been the youngest (31) and so I was always on the >> developer side rather than the architect one. fine. >> >> both companies seriously look the same when it comes to the >> non-creative-fluffy-marketing work. >> >> i feel like i've been working on the same project! >> it was either: >> - the same old CMS (i dare you name one that's sleek, light and has a >> great UI), >> - soap-ws to allow third party to use our services and do stuff, >> - (recently) a very nice RESTful application (it basically replace the >> previous one). >> >> i tend to be a very active professional, so during these years, i've been >> the one saying "hey let's try nosql!" or even "let's switch to logback" and >> so on. >> >> success rate? zero. >> >> so lately i've been feeling very frustrated. >> looks to me like tech dpt. of companies like these does not want to focus >> on being innovative and one step ahead of the usual system integrators. >> >> i told my boss we should be focusing on doing cutting-edge stuff like >> tweet-monitoring and social stuff integration or HTML5 craziness but what >> did i get? "yeah sure…. now update those two users emails on production db >> and check on that tomcat… we'll talk about that later". >> >> recently, i've been studying a lot on many different areas (tdd, agile, >> responsive web design and so on). >> all of this was done at home or stealing time from stupid (yes, i mean it) >> tasks that could be automated but no one has ever asked my team to do. (we >> seriously manually update users' emails) >> >> so i'm asking, is this a common situation in companies like these? >> feels like when technology is not core-business (which is very arguably >> the case, if you ask me) tech dpt. lack its necessary push to go forward. >> >> what's even worse is that tech guys dry out an die inside and so newcomers >> only "normally interested" in what's going on like me end up like the only >> luke skywalker at a star wars themed party. >> >> i have been contacted by so many consulting firms, but i do like hanging >> around creative guys, producing stuff for the web and seeing the whole >> structure. i'm sure these firms would push the pedal more on what i might be >> doing (four letter: java) but i'm afraid i'll miss the photoshop layers and >> hexadecimal colors. >> >> sorry to have bothered you. >> >> -m >> >> ps: the posse's always an inspiring thing. thank you guys. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "The Java Posse" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. 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