We've all been there. Working for the man, just getting by. I'd like to know why you are stuck and how you think you can get out of it. Or, if you don't want to leave the job, what keeps you there? Benefits? Pay? The job is easy?
Stability. Once you start to build a family and lay down roots the harder it gets to be able to move because you have to put family first. What may be 'better' for you might now always be better for the family.
This is the reason for me as well. The dead end part for me is that the company doesn't value hands-on technical people and has outsourced most of that.
There aren't a lot of jobs in the area either. My wife and I have discussed moving down the coast to Raleigh/Durham area since there are a lot more jobs around there and we have some family near there. But I imagine it would be hard to apply and get interviews for jobs when you're not in the area.
My wife says if we are to move it has to be in the next 2 years - before the kids are in middle school. The thought process there being that they will solidify friendships, clubs, sports, etc. before high school.
Since I've moved into management it is hard to apply for remote jobs that look very appealing career-wise. I fear employers see the management history and think "this guy hasn't coded in years".
So many factors to take into consideration that it numbs you into staying.
I'd definitely upvote this one as being a prime reason.
And it's not like the jobs we're talking about here are completely "dead-end" (I wouldn't call a well-paying job a dead end and I definitely have one of those).
As an example, I got an email this morning from Whitetruffle mentioning a company was interested in me (which is always a nice boost to hear) for a position. However, the position was in New York City, and I live in Southern California. Researching the company, I find the salaries offered are probably so-so. Work-wise, I have no idea how it might be (it could be great, it could be similar to my current place, it's hard to tell because of that "grass is greener on the other side" one starts to get after being in one position for a while and seeing all of the neat new companies that come up), but in general I tend to look at the big picture of how such a job would affect me and my family.
In my case, the reasons for staying in my current position are definitely a combination of stability (working for a public college provides certain benefits in that regard for pension/job security), my current pay (at this point I can't really move to any other local organization because none of them would pay similar to what I'm paying now...I would be forced to somewhere else), liking my small town commmunity, being able to be close to my parents, and having a small family (one 6-year old daughter with another on the way).
A few years back I took an opportunity to go up to the Bay Area and work for eBay, but I was uncertain about job security (combine the Glassdoor reviews mentioning mid-year staff cuts and my own impostor syndrome feelings made me feel like I could be one of those people), work-wise it actually wasn't more fulfilling than my current position (I had a lot more freedom to define my own projects and work at the college)...plus the salary wasn't really much more than I had already been making when I factored in cost of living changes...then to top it off my family was much further, and my wife (fiance at the time) and I weren't living together so that added additional stress.
So in the end, I ended up making the decision to come back to the college (and luckily it was to a slightly upgraded position).
It's not perfect, but overall, I definitely feel like I made the right choice.
Would I love to work for a startup? Definitely! I think there's a ton I still want to learn and can learn, but at the same time I don't want to place myself or my family in any sort of bad financial position because I don't know the future and which company out there would be even more perfect than my current job.
Up until last week I was in this exact same position, Golden handcuffs, enough money to choke a small donkey with as a daily rate but I had lost all job satisfaction. Then they offered me more money, and a 4 year contract. But I bit the bullet and said no! So now I've only just over a month left, with nothing lined up but sometimes you need to just take a leap of calculated faith. I don't know if it is going to work out, but I do know ill be happier on the other end.
This is great and I'm glad you're in a position where you can do this. I took a government job since the benefits are great and the pay is consistent and safe while I finish a degree. I got an amazing promotion into a completely unrelated field than what I enjoy (development), and the pay is far more than I ever expected to make, but not enough to save enough to be comfortable about leaving my job to pursue development. Unless I can find a entry level job that pays over $90k/yr in the midwest, I'm pretty much stuck at my boring, non-exciting job.
To be clear, I have a mortgage and family, small savings but not for unemployment. At the end of the day, I am the only person that can change my situation, so I did. Yes its scary but, If i believe in myself enough and have the courage I will make it work one way or the other.
I was in a similar position, but left early because even though the work was vapid, it made me miserable. I don't make as much, but haven't even been tempted to look back.
Your life really is a little bit brighter when you wake up in the morning and don't dread going to work.
The other end is anywhere but here, that will be a happier place regardless of the money. As for the plan, I am looking for a new job, I know I am damm good at what I do so its just a matter of finding the right company, while working on a startup. (ill need the job to float me, until I know I have a product worth jumping into the deep end with)
I'm at the highest level of the technical track within the division of the company that I work for. Moving up probably means moving to a different town or spending a lot of time in China, based on who is getting hired or promoted into those positions.
I don't want to move.
The town that I live in is a nearly ideal place to raise kids. Good public schools, educated and tolerant populace, nearby university, things like high caliber music programs, and stuff is close enough together that they don't have to spend 1/2 of their life in a minivan.
It's a pedestrian- and bike-friendly town. My spouse and I both bike to work. The kids walk, bike, or take public bus to school. I think this is better for their bodies and all of our brains.
My apologies for being cagey, but I'm still on the fence about my anonymity at this site. I think that you can find "pockets" of any major university town in the Midwest that satisfy these criteria... and also neighborhoods a few miles away that don't.
That was my guess until he mentioned it's a bike+pedestrian friendly friendly town. Maybe if it's a job in the heart of Raleigh or Durham, but RTP is definitely not fitting that description.
Anyone heard of imposter syndrome? It makes it hard to change jobs. Although my managers have only ever had good things to say about my work, and despite being promoted several times, the last time I tried to update my CV to apply for a job I broke down, feeling useless and incapable. I never think my work is good "enough" and often wonder when everyone else will realise I'm actually terrible at my job.
Interviews for someone suffering from imposter syndrome are awful - how are you supposed to come across well if you already feel like you're not good enough for the job?
I stayed at my last company for at least a year more than I wanted to because I didn't think I was good enough to get a job elsewhere. Although I feel like I've recovered somewhat from the worst of my I.S, this question made me realise I haven't just yet - the thought of interviewing elsewhere inspires just as many "Oh but you haven't learned much lately, you've fallen behind the crowd, they won't want you etc.. etc...".
I work remote and have plenty of time to work on side projects and learn programming. I still get excellent reviews from my peers and manager so the raises and yearly bonus have been decent. I want to make the switch to a developer role but I am insecure about my coding skills. In addition, I love working from home and I would have to replace my aging car with something more reliable if I commuted to a new job.
Quite a few companies take full time remote devs, check the who's hiring threads each month. Off the top of my head Buffer and Heap (full disclosure I work there) accept full time remotes.
I mailed both of them. Got a reply from Buffer and it wasn't a template. The CTO had taken his time to look at what I had written and crafted an appropriate reply. I really really appreciated it.
On the other hand, I didn't even receive an acknowledgement from Heap, template or otherwise. It is fine, really. But I just want to get this out there as an addendum to your comment.
Education is holding me back, I started working at a newspaper when I turned 20 as a Graphic Designer, moved to IT, then to the Web Department. Fast forward 9 years, now my position is mash up of all of these. Everything I have learned has been self taught, I feel like a Jack of all traits master of none. I feel I lack a solid foundation on the fundamentals.
>How do you think you can get out of it.
Honestly I don't know if I can get out of it without putting my life on hold. Which, I can't since I'm pretty much paycheck to paycheck and about to get married. I'm currently trying to teach my self Java to add to my tool chain. (html, css, javascript, php). I'm hoping I can collect enough skills that if I do apply for another job my lack of education will not hurt my chances so much.
>What keeps you there?
The steady income.
>Benefits?
We have them, but definitely not here for them.
>Pay?
Awful, I'm a couple of dollars over an In-N-Out burger flipper.
I'm on the Central Coast in California, not many tech jobs around)
Because the first development team I joined worked with a dying language, and then I moved to different teams using a language that was losing ground to things like Rails, Python, .Net (read anything really). I haven't kept myself up to date, instead blaming my tools (my 7 year old laptop with no battery) or the fact I have a partner/life and thus too busy to do (home)work in my spare time.
But i'm in a comfortable position too. I have a team who respects me and my input, I have good friends at work who i would hang out with any day of the week, I have decent holiday, increasing pay, great benefits... but I won't make my company a $million company, nor will I change the position of this company in many significant ways. Tech is not their focus, so suggesting we use Neo4J goes on deaf ears.
and so i'm still writing a language that should be dead... that few other companies would take a chance on me because of this... and still i walk the earth
I have shared custody of my 7 year old daughter in an area (Amarillo, TX) that is geographically distant from metros w/ developer jobs, and Amarillo has little IT presence.
I've reached the pinnacle of technical jobs in my area (lead developer). The job is easy, I do pretty much what I want when I want, work 40 hours or less a week, the commute from home to office is 5 minutes - I can bike it in 10, and eat lunch at home each day. My quality of life is hard to beat. My job also allows me to experiment with many new technologies, so it can be somewhat challenging.
Beyond that, I make a decent salary for the area and combined with my wife's income and low cost of living, we are able to save A LOT.
I'd like to have a remote position, but the above reasons + imposter syndrome keep me from even applying.
Until last year, I was living as an expat in a foreign country, whose laws limited my ability to take another job, since employers need to sponsor foreign workers and go through the hassle of paperwork to employ them. I was stuck, then, and now I'm not.
I was also working in a rapidly obsolescing industry, journalism, where demand for reporters and editors is decreasing sharply. People in those positions often feel like they can't make the jump, because they lack the skills to be considered for work in another industry.
While that's not always correct, it is true that early career choices can commit you to economic sectors that end up not doing well. And then you're playing catch up with other candidates who spent their years building more desirable skills.
From journalism your in a great position to move to social media & PR, if interested in the marketing world. These areas have quite good growth currently. And once in the marketing world a lot of doors can open in other areas.
I hope I'm not stuck, but after a few months not working and an expensive cross-country move, I ended up taking a job working at a university with an old, messy codebase. It's really low-pressure, and if it turns into full-time the benefits would good. It pays just enough, but nothing like people are getting in SV right now. I'd rather do something more cutting-edge and more challenging, and I'd rather be around people who are a little more driven.
However I've got the syndrome real good, I feel like "all those people with jobs I want are pro programmers who go write big, beautifully structured, complex software on the weekends for fun; I'm just a guy who knows some scripting stuff that can muddle through some bug fixes."
So my plan is... work through some of the interview books, and try to find a personal project that's interesting enough to pursue. I have a hard time motivating to actually write software for myself, rather than for an employer.
"Dead end" is a bit of a hyperbole, but in two years I certainly don't want to be doing the type of work I'm doing now (finance). What keeps me here is my massive student debt balance and the prospect that this job could pay it off relatively quickly. At which point I intend to start my own thing. Side projects keep me sane in the meantime.
I was on a remote position for several years, maintaining code written by several other developers over the course of 10 years, poorly written and no spec in sight. I sincerely tried to move it forward to current standards, one bit at a time. It improved a bit for a while but from the distance it was a mess and I doubt some of the improvements will ever get deployed.
I went to a lot of stress during that period, but on the other hand it felt comfortable, sharing only a few hours of the day to touchbase gave me freedom to organize the time with the family, there were not many challenges other than managing a big ball of mud, and the hourly rate was much better than my colleagues did working on-site.
On the other hand, there was no prospect of new challenges, or technologies or salary, this was a small business. I did some side projects recently and it gave me confidence to move forward: there were many other companies willing to work remotely with newer technologies and with a better rate.
Because it's easy and one of the few Rails shops in my modest northern city (England).
Sometimes I roll in, don't code much and finish at 5 on the dot. It's partly due to laziness but more to do with weak moral and lack of autonomy. Moral where I work is appalling because the company I work for has been on a steady decline due to the clients being in their 70s/80s and almost being wiped out by a competitor a couple of decades ago.
I'm surrounded by suppressed talent that wants to do a good job by exploiting a younger market in order to secure the company's future, but the management here won't listen.
I know this job won't be here forever, but I'll have jumped ship before the cuts get made. I'm moving to Canada and hope to get into the startup scene or start something by myself (consultancy or startup). Until then, I'm resisting a move to London, which does have much better opportunities but the insane cost of living is not worth it.
I've been looking over the past couple years for a different dev job. I'm currently in a giant corporate setting with all the horrible paperwork and useless red tape that goes with it. I get to develop maybe 20% of the time, the rest is trying to figure out how to fill out paperwork about what I'm developing. I really don't like it.
My pay has dropped over the past few years when you factor in health care premiums and cost of living. I'm living paycheck to paycheck, but in my area developer pays are only now just slowly creeping up from 2008 levels. I don't want to move with kids in school.
I really, really keep hoping the pay in the area goes up soon, as I'm disliking my days more and more.
I'm learning so incredible much. The job is deadend, the money is not that great but I work on something I really enjoy (programming) with some really smart people in a city which is a rising star in the startup scene.
Sure, I'll jump ship in a few years but until then I'll try to learn as much as possible!
I've been trying for 2 years to escape but apparently I don't have have any useful skills. Or maybe I just am terrible at interviewing and the entire process. It's really hard to come off confident when deep down you really think you're a piece of shit.
In the past, I've done practice interviews (phone or in-person) for my friends prior to them doing a standard Amazon/Google/Microsoft interview. Do you have any friends that would be able to do that for you?
I used to be fairly good with resumes and would often help my friends perfect theirs. The last job I got I was able to put on my fake "Mr Extrovert" routine to get the job. Been there for almost 5 years now. Lately I just don't have the energy to pretend I'm someone else in interviews. Usually once I get hired and they see I can do the work the introvert/extrovert part doesn't matter as much.
I really just can't figure out if I'm depressed because I dislike my job or I dislike my job because I'm depressed.
No excuses. Just need to boost/sharpen some skills and apply for jobs that aren't in the rust belt. Nothing holding me here and I have the ability to re-locate.
I've been a software developer for about 5 years. I love working on my own projects but feel really stressed and bored at a coding job.
My escape plan is to move to B2B software sales. I know I might be optimistic but it has all the points that are appealing to me.
- large salary based on performance (good luck working your ass off on that API or optimizing product for a fixed salary)
- no programming (so I have brain cells left to work on my own projects after I come home)
- profit generation culture (when you are a cost overhead like many engineers, you tend to be treated like a machine and measured for efficiency, you tend to compete with other engineers, I'd rather be paid more to win and I love a good race I can run on my own against others, not have senior engineers or managers slow me down.)
My uncle's friend was an engineering sales type decades back.. I think worked for IBM. Had something to do with laying cables in Berkeley. He recommended I do a similar thing after a while because of the reasons you listed.
Sales Engineering seems like a pretty good gig. You get to come in and do proof of concepts. Make things look like they work. Tell the customer anything is possible and everyone loves you. Then I, the consultant, have to come in and break it to them that no, not everything is possible. Also as the sales person you get a commission but I actually have to deliver results to get us paid and I get no additional compensation for that. To top that off my take home pay is about 1/10 of what the customer pays for my time.
