Career Advice

etienne_marais said:
Could you elaborate ? I only knew electronic engineers as fellow students, no idea how they are faring now.
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It's because he got screwed over and he's all sour about it. That basically sums it up. I know a few elec eng guys, they are not complaining with their salaries.
 
Ancalagon said:
There is an opportunity for me to move internally to a BA/PM role....

....BUT I would be moving from the worst project in the company, to the second worst project. In fact, given that the project I am now is actually stable (thanks in large part to me), it is no longer the worst project in the company. So, I would be going from the former worst project in the company to the current second worst project in the company, although under a different role.

If I turn it around, then it will look very good for me and open up other doors for me. But, right now my frustration levels are extremely high, owing to the fact I was on the worst project in the company for months on end basically without any support. I worry that, if I were to move to this other project, my frustration levels would continue to rise and I would basically have to leave.
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I'll be honest, with your current attitude you are already poisoned. So you mind as well make the move that will make you happy.
 
When i read your post before u mentioned business analyst,i thought maybe that's what u should do.A person in my family is doing it,but it might not be exactly what you were hoping for. The advice i can give u is,to try out a project manager role at first and see how u like that before committing to further studies and leaving you're company,see if they can give u a project or two at first,if they cant do anything,maybe u should think about moving on.
 
Ancalagon said:
BUT I would be moving from the worst project in the company, to the second worst project. In fact, given that the project I am now is actually stable (thanks in large part to me), it is no longer the worst project in the company.
If I turn it around.
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Right. So you took someone elses bug ridden , logic-errant sphagetti code with no structure and no direction and turned it into something half respectable? And you did this for months on end?

I've done this and it would break anyone's spirit. No wonder you're full mad and tired.
This is indicative of the company you work for. They're the bad guys. Not you.

Development jobs are easy to pick up right about now.Especially in Sandton.

Move development jobs NOW. Don't even waste another minute. Take up a post after doing the below test on a prospective company and ride it for a few months and see how it goes. Don't make hasty decisions on disillusionment.

retromodcoza said:
Items deemed to be important for developer hiring position
(Compiled by Lloyd Lopes, Durban, C# Developer)

These questions are designed for rapid fire questioning and answering. Point form answers are taken, and each questions answer is then graded on a scale of 1-5 in terms of suitability to the candidate. Thus, there are 285 points available. A candidate can easily weight a question by adding points over and above 5 for any question and then adding the excess to the total.

1) Language/s used?
2) Database type?
3) Integrations with other solutions?
4) Libraries used?
5) Product spec document up to date?
6) Disaster recovery plan and systems tested?
7) Bug tracking? System used?
8) Workflow system?
9) Frequency of builds?
10) Automated testing?
11) Code structure details? Importance? Samples?
12) Work from home allowed for at least portion of time worked?
13) Description of software/website purpose?
14) Source control used? Type?
15) Company email system used?
16) Company phone system used?
17) Servers on site/ collocated / cloud based?
18) Server stack used?
19) Current state of code? Spaghetti? Outsourced and then rewritten?
20) Developer available in company that knows the codebase?
21) Test and mock live environments?
22) Is there a designated project manager?
23) Is there at least one tester on the team?
24) Is usability testing conducted?
25) No of other developers are on the core website/software team?
26) No of other developers that are junior?
27) Overtime paid for every overtime hour?
28) Leave provided
29) Medical aid?
30) General traffic in area of office?
31) Does the developer have a dedicated telephone?
32) Specs of a typical developer’s machine?
a) Processor
b) RAM (speed and quantity)
c) Hard disk? Type? Speed?
d) Cost range?
e) Monitors? – Size, Layout, Spec
33) Desk Size?
34) Chair specs?
35) Quiet separate office/work area?
36) Free food/nearby food available?
37) Basic salary?
38) Bonuses/13th cheque/shares?
39) Laundry services provided?
40) Dress code?
41) Tech perks (provided phone, laptop etc.)
42) Out of office activities?
43) Onsite/nearby gym?
44) Areas to relax / eat?
45) Developer input taken seriously?
46) Developers overloaded with work?
47) Do developers deal with end users?
48) Dealing with any outsourced providers?
49) Any technically competent managers available in company?
50) Any managers available that understand the development process?
51) How agile is the developer environment?
52) Does management throw parties or events for release dates?
53) Is the office environment clean and neat?
54) Is the average IQ of most other employees above 110?
55) Is upper management actively involved in overseeing projects?
56) Typical qualifications of other employees?
57) Training opportunities provided?


------------------------- ------------------------------
Total Points / 285 Percent scored
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It wasn't so much the quality of code (which I will freely admit, is not fantastic), its the politics that surrounded it.

Its the fact that massive scope creep occurred - MASSIVE - and for political reasons, it was not managed. This client was "too important". Which meant, the deadline was not moved, misrepresentations were made to the client, etc etc etc.

I could write a book on what went wrong and why, so don't get me started. What I will say is that we essentially had to clean up the mess made by the attempt to get this deal together, a deal which might still fail in any case (again, for commercial reasons, not code reasons).

If it was just badly written code, that wouldn't be a problem - everyone has to deal with that sooner or later.
 
Ancalagon said:
It wasn't so much the quality of code (which I will freely admit, is not fantastic), its the politics that surrounded it.

Its the fact that massive scope creep occurred - MASSIVE - and for political reasons, it was not managed. This client was "too important". Which meant, the deadline was not moved, misrepresentations were made to the client, etc etc etc.

I could write a book on what went wrong and why, so don't get me started. What I will say is that we essentially had to clean up the mess made by the attempt to get this deal together, a deal which might still fail in any case (again, for commercial reasons, not code reasons).

If it was just badly written code, that wouldn't be a problem - everyone has to deal with that sooner or later.
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Still the companies problem. If scope creep isn't managed , you won't have a company , no matter how important the client is.
This is a sinking ship with an endless supply of problems which won't go away. You don't actually need to deal with any of it , because as a developer you have a large amount of market power.

Leave it as their problem and move on.
 
I know, and it has had an impact on the career of those responsible for the mess (I don't want to say more). Let's just say its a massive problem, and I'm not talking about the code!

The thing is, I'm being moved off that particular project anyway, and as I said, the project is kinda stable now. After months of pleading for more developers, we finally now have a team of 4 developers (it took the CEO getting involved to make that happen, anyway).

My problem is that going through that has made me pretty negative, and it may even have triggered my depression. They did promise to move me off after the project was stable, and it looks like that will happen. The problem is, the new project I'm being offered isn't exactly the "reward" I had in mind.

Should I leave the company? I don't really want to because I've been here less than 2 years. I like the CEO, I think he has a good head on him and I can learn a lot from him. Other people I'm not so sure about. Its also easier to transfer to a new role internally, than convince a new company to take a chance on you.
 
Ancalagon said:
My problem is that going through that has made me pretty negative, and it may even have triggered my depression. They did promise to move me off after the project was stable, and it looks like that will happen. The problem is, the new project I'm being offered isn't exactly the "reward" I had in mind.

Should I leave the company? I don't really want to because I've been here less than 2 years. I like the CEO, I think he has a good head on him and I can learn a lot from him. Other people I'm not so sure about. Its also easier to transfer to a new role internally, than convince a new company to take a chance on you.
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Wow. Theres a lot going on there.

I'm going to repeat this here because its critical. YOU HAVE MARKET POWER. From your post , you actually have no idea of how much market power you have. If you did , you wouldn't be in the position you are in.

This means it will be dead easy to get a new role. The market is desperate for developers - and you should have no problem sourcing another position if you need one and are good enough. It is actually harder for you to move internally than to get a new job elsewhere. Market forces flow better between companies. There is a lot of internal resistance to change inside organisations which you will have to fight.

Fighting isn't worth it. Coming on 2 years is much more than most will tolerate , and it won't look bad on your CV. When going to new interviews , say you left because "I wanted to work in a company that is run correctly".

A take on your depression : Its eroding what you think of yourself. This is probably why you view yourself as not having the market power that you do.

A take on your companies promises : Company promises are worth absolutely nothing. I have made promises to my employees on where I see them going and what I see them doing. These were based on fresh air. I had no contracts or work to make sure thats where they went or what they did. It was just my hope. I either got these employees there or moved them on before the promises came to nothing. But I'm one of the better ones. Most companies will string you along to keep you there and working hard. This is what your current company is doing. They run crisis projects and they need a saviour - and you are it. Let me ask you this : Did you see any profit share for the projects you "saved"?

There's one easy solution to all of this. TRY AND MOVE. Apply for a few positions and go for a few interviews. Maybe collect an offer or two. Use it to bully your company into giving you a better project or use it to move. But do something. Your company is betting on you doing nothing.
 
The problem is that I want to change roles a bit. This unfortunately erodes my market power. Finding a good fit when I am an experienced developer, but not an experienced analyst or project manager, is pretty hard. Not impossible, just difficult.

It wouldn't be impossible for me to find a new development job, the problem is I don't want a new development job.

No, I got no profit share from the project I saved - but there were no profits in the first place. The entire project is a massive loss, and I helped it to become a slightly smaller loss. This is the reason the people responsible have had their careers affected. No, it wasn't corruption or embezzlement, just mistakes on a large scale.

Look I'll see what the CEO says. The way I see this meeting with the CEO is the final step before I start looking for a new job. I may even say that to him. All I want is to be transferred to a different division (so a new boss) and have my role changed. And I don't think it is a good idea to transfer me into another hellhole project until I've recovered sufficiently to handle such a project - right now, I would just quit after 3 months and that would be bad for everyone.
 
Ancalagon said:
My problem is that going through that has made me pretty negative, and it may even have triggered my depression.
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I think your attitude to this situation has to with your depression. I wonder if you'll be happy even if you are moved to your new role.
 
Fuma said:
I think your attitude to this situation has to with your depression. I wonder if you'll be happy even if you are moved to your new role.
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Quite possibly. I'm making some lifestyle changes to address it. Specifically, I'm exercising more.

I am somewhat prone to depression - I've been diagnosed with depression before. I think I allowed it to sneak up on me again, because of this stuff.
 
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