As stated, I am a burned out software developer who have changed many developer jobs in the past 20 years. All of them ended up in the same toxic nasty situation which forced me to move on after 1 or 2 years.
I am an average Joe. Not smarter than most out there. I have a college degree in IT, but not exactly the cream of the crop which can land me a job with a competitive Big Tech. So I ended up in a series of jobs with IT outsourcing companies working on government projects as a contractor.
Well, initially I thought since I am a developer, I would be working on new development projects with new business requirements and new technologies. I was wrong. Most of the time, they are hiring developers to “enhance” or “extend” existing software systems, most of which were built with zero framework, discipline, consistency and coding guidelines. Quality is non-existent, and the software systems I inherited are flaky and crash-prone.
Whenever I join a new job, I would find out that the previous developer had “left” (aka fled) a few months ago, and there is no one to ask about the last status. The project manager would dryly tell me all the files and documents are in a particular laptop or PC that the previous developer or software engineer was last working on. “So just go through the files in there and figure out where the previous guy last stopped,” he/she would say. If I ask the manager anything, they would say, “I have no idea. I am the manager, so I do not know the actual technical details. You’re the engineer/developer who’s hired to do the technical work, so go figure them out.”
And then the project manager would tell me on my first week, there’s a upcoming deadline in 2 weeks or 1 month. Since the previous guy already left a few months prior, I would have to catch up on the lost time. And I have to make sure the thing works during user acceptance testing.
The project manager would then pass my mobile number to the clients or users, and then conveniently excuse himself/herself from all project meetings. They would just disappear, make excuses for not being able to attend meetings, and angry clients who are pissed with the constant project delays would call or email me directly everyday to chase for updates.
I realize later that what they are hiring are actually fall guys to take the rap, and slaves to toil unpaid overtime hours in an attempt to undo and redo the mistakes made by the past developers in order to deliver projects. When someone leaves, they would just ask HR to get some job applicants as replacement. I am tired of chasing project development milestones like a superman.
I have now given up hope that any developer/software engineer job would turn out differently. I am looking forward to a full time job that has stable hours, and predictable schedule for routine tasks, even if it pays lesser. I am now toying with the idea of looking for an IT support or application support job instead. Would a operations support role be more suitable to avoid nasty surprises?
So if you have faced the same situation and found a way out to a better life, I would definitely love to hear from you.
submitted by /u/2048b
[link] [comments]
r/cscareerquestions As stated, I am a burned out software developer who have changed many developer jobs in the past 20 years. All of them ended up in the same toxic nasty situation which forced me to move on after 1 or 2 years. I am an average Joe. Not smarter than most out there. I have a college degree in IT, but not exactly the cream of the crop which can land me a job with a competitive Big Tech. So I ended up in a series of jobs with IT outsourcing companies working on government projects as a contractor. Well, initially I thought since I am a developer, I would be working on new development projects with new business requirements and new technologies. I was wrong. Most of the time, they are hiring developers to “enhance” or “extend” existing software systems, most of which were built with zero framework, discipline, consistency and coding guidelines. Quality is non-existent, and the software systems I inherited are flaky and crash-prone. Whenever I join a new job, I would find out that the previous developer had “left” (aka fled) a few months ago, and there is no one to ask about the last status. The project manager would dryly tell me all the files and documents are in a particular laptop or PC that the previous developer or software engineer was last working on. “So just go through the files in there and figure out where the previous guy last stopped,” he/she would say. If I ask the manager anything, they would say, “I have no idea. I am the manager, so I do not know the actual technical details. You’re the engineer/developer who’s hired to do the technical work, so go figure them out.” And then the project manager would tell me on my first week, there’s a upcoming deadline in 2 weeks or 1 month. Since the previous guy already left a few months prior, I would have to catch up on the lost time. And I have to make sure the thing works during user acceptance testing. The project manager would then pass my mobile number to the clients or users, and then conveniently excuse himself/herself from all project meetings. They would just disappear, make excuses for not being able to attend meetings, and angry clients who are pissed with the constant project delays would call or email me directly everyday to chase for updates. I realize later that what they are hiring are actually fall guys to take the rap, and slaves to toil unpaid overtime hours in an attempt to undo and redo the mistakes made by the past developers in order to deliver projects. When someone leaves, they would just ask HR to get some job applicants as replacement. I am tired of chasing project development milestones like a superman. I have now given up hope that any developer/software engineer job would turn out differently. I am looking forward to a full time job that has stable hours, and predictable schedule for routine tasks, even if it pays lesser. I am now toying with the idea of looking for an IT support or application support job instead. Would a operations support role be more suitable to avoid nasty surprises? So if you have faced the same situation and found a way out to a better life, I would definitely love to hear from you. submitted by /u/2048b [link] [comments]
As stated, I am a burned out software developer who have changed many developer jobs in the past 20 years. All of them ended up in the same toxic nasty situation which forced me to move on after 1 or 2 years.
I am an average Joe. Not smarter than most out there. I have a college degree in IT, but not exactly the cream of the crop which can land me a job with a competitive Big Tech. So I ended up in a series of jobs with IT outsourcing companies working on government projects as a contractor.
Well, initially I thought since I am a developer, I would be working on new development projects with new business requirements and new technologies. I was wrong. Most of the time, they are hiring developers to “enhance” or “extend” existing software systems, most of which were built with zero framework, discipline, consistency and coding guidelines. Quality is non-existent, and the software systems I inherited are flaky and crash-prone.
Whenever I join a new job, I would find out that the previous developer had “left” (aka fled) a few months ago, and there is no one to ask about the last status. The project manager would dryly tell me all the files and documents are in a particular laptop or PC that the previous developer or software engineer was last working on. “So just go through the files in there and figure out where the previous guy last stopped,” he/she would say. If I ask the manager anything, they would say, “I have no idea. I am the manager, so I do not know the actual technical details. You’re the engineer/developer who’s hired to do the technical work, so go figure them out.”
And then the project manager would tell me on my first week, there’s a upcoming deadline in 2 weeks or 1 month. Since the previous guy already left a few months prior, I would have to catch up on the lost time. And I have to make sure the thing works during user acceptance testing.
The project manager would then pass my mobile number to the clients or users, and then conveniently excuse himself/herself from all project meetings. They would just disappear, make excuses for not being able to attend meetings, and angry clients who are pissed with the constant project delays would call or email me directly everyday to chase for updates.
I realize later that what they are hiring are actually fall guys to take the rap, and slaves to toil unpaid overtime hours in an attempt to undo and redo the mistakes made by the past developers in order to deliver projects. When someone leaves, they would just ask HR to get some job applicants as replacement. I am tired of chasing project development milestones like a superman.
I have now given up hope that any developer/software engineer job would turn out differently. I am looking forward to a full time job that has stable hours, and predictable schedule for routine tasks, even if it pays lesser. I am now toying with the idea of looking for an IT support or application support job instead. Would a operations support role be more suitable to avoid nasty surprises?
So if you have faced the same situation and found a way out to a better life, I would definitely love to hear from you.
submitted by /u/2048b
[link] [comments]