When to leave your (first, second, third or nth) tech job
When to leave your first job in the technology field Editorial by Christopher Wilson
It was early May of 2004, and I was almost at the finish line for my degree. Between me and graduation: Just two summer classes. I was in the process of finishing what could only be described as the most intense spring semester of my college career. As the semester's end finally hit, I realized something. I was going to need a job, and I hadn't even started looking.
Then, almost on cue, the phone rang. The president of a small and local software company was looking for computer engineers with.NET experience. They searched my university's resume database for candidates, and I came up. Would I like an interview? Hell yes.
I was to be part of a team of highly skilled, versatile,.NET Ninjas. We were going to produce top-notch software for the nuclear power industry. Combining management's knowledge of the nuclear field and our kung fu grip on.NET , we hoped to dominate our market niche. As developers we would be on the ground floor of a booming company. There was greater room for advancement compared to a traditional office environment. We all hoped to have company cars, top-notch health care, company cell phones, and tons of other wonderful perks; all just slightly out of reach.
It did not go as planned.
One stressful year later, while I was staying late with a few other developers to finish up on some work, I was asked to report to the president's office. My manager was already there, sitting on the same side of the desk as the president. They explained to me, in a level and professional tone, that due to financial factors, I was going to be let go, with only an hour's severance pay. Thanks for all the hard work, and best of luck.
The first layoff is tough. After bending over backward, after being a loyal employee, this is the reward? To summarize how I felt: Disillusioned. Only one thing kept me going -- pure ego. You know when the schoolyard bully says something about your mom in front of everyone? But, ignoring the size difference and the fact that he's already shaving daily at age 14, you step forward and say "Oh yeah?", with a Brock Sampson-like eye twitch the only warning of the impending ownage? That's the kind of ego that kept me determined to give software engineering a second shot.
Over the course of the previous year, my friends quickly learned I liked to talk about work less and less. When I did open up about it, they were astounded by, well, let's say various factors of the work environment. Each and every time it was discussed with my peers in the field, time and time they gave me the same advice: Get out.
I have to say, they were totally right.
All the signs were there, but I blazed on, telling myself that this was just a rough patch for the company, and that we'd pull out of this tailspin in time to land safely at our destination. I was ignoring the pilots screaming "Mayday, Mayday".
Now, while I was blind to obvious signs that it was time to leave, doesn't mean that you have to be. I would like to present the 4 signs that you should leave your workplace (for software engineers):
1 It's the environment, stupid!
In the University of Pittsburgh's Computer Engineering program, there is a mandatory department seminar, where the department informs us about our career options. Oftentimes, alumni come back to speak about the career opportunities in their field. It's all very, very dry, and as a result, nobody listens. They also fail to give one piece of advice that I would at the first seminar of every year, if I was ever asked to give one:
Don't work in cubicles, ever. Working in cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company. Imagine the smartest person you know, working in your field. Now imagine how they would react if they were told they're going to work in a box with no door or roof, allowing them no privacy.
They would no doubt leave that organization for one that is less creatively stifling. So unless you are convinced that you're stupid (and, in that case, you're in the wrong field) you shouldn't be accepting cubicles in your work place either. If the company will not or can not spend the money to create offices for its knowledge workers, so they can get into the zone, the odds of it creating a successful software product and capitalizing on it are about the same as you becoming a millionaire by going to Las Vegas, betting fifty on black, and letting it ride all night.
Cubicles do not automatically make an employee stupid; but it is one more barrier for you to climb over before you can create your own space to think. At my last workplace, the noise traveled. Everyone could hear everyone. An intern with nothing to do bullshitting with your boss, a co-worker venting about how he's not paid enough, the busybody secretary ordering people around with no authority. Not one single employee liked the set up, but without management's understanding, naturally nothing was done.
And for those management types who live in the dead end of corporate culture, if you don't believe noise is a big detriment to your productivity, just buy an electric drill or vacuum cleaner. Turn it on and let it run. Put it as close to your ear as humanly possible, and try to get work done.
It sounds like such a small thing to critical about, but like so many things in life, little things turn out to be extremely crucial. Little things snowball into bigger things. If people can't relax in their workplace, dealing with them becomes difficult, which creates friction where none should exist. That friction could destroy the delicate cohesion every team needs to maintain to produce software. So if you find that getting ready for work in the morning is a larger effort then getting ready to go out on a Friday night, maybe you should talk to your boss about making your workplace more accepting, or find a new one.
2 Just How Dumb is Management, Anyway?
Engineering n-tier enterprise level software is like navigating a minefield. There are countless potential disasters just waiting to happen. From creeping requirements to budgetary nightmares to horribly incorrect estimates, oftentimes it is not technical ability that makes or breaks a product; it is how all the other chainsaws are juggled. Your project is as dependent on the know how of your manager as it is your technical ability.
Since the inception of the term, software engineering, people have acknowledged that it is inherently hard to manage software projects. It is exponentially harder to have a superior that actually understands this, and is capable of both properly delegating and managing the complexity. Here are three major mistakes to look for in your manager. Take any of these as a sign that it is time to have that interview suit dry cleaned.
A. Thinks they know too much:
Is your superior an old hand, who's worked his way up from the trenches, but hasn't kept up with the pace of technology? Does he base his assumptions of how you should be doing things based off the way that he did things? So while you try to explain that the create_user_account module should call a stored procedure in the database to minimize the chance of SQL injection, he's showing you how easy it was to create a form in Access97. Questioning the methodology at work will often result with a "this is how we did it in the old days, and I don't see anything wrong with that!" New technology isn't likely to be adopted at its full potential in a workplace with a manager like this. Instead, you will end up grinding the same gears, only faster, louder, and harder.
B. Relies on, but disregards your technical advice:
Oftentimes, a non-technical manager, or an "old hand" who's edge is no longer sharp will be impressed enough to listen to your technical advice. If they were smart, they'd actually take it.
My former company had the unlucky experience of needing to reformat its single production server. While our DBAs tried to figure out what caused the crash, and how to fix it, I began talking to various other developers about what needed to be done if we had to recover from a worst-case scenario, where a reformat/reinstall was necessary.
I studied up on the re-install procedures, so that I could come in over a weekend, fix the sever, and have it ready so that everyone could work on Monday. I told my superior, who promptly disregarded it. That task was going to another employee, one who had no experience in setting the server up properly. If you find yourself in a situation where management is disregarding the sound technical advice they should be basing decisions on, you need to expedite your job search.
C. Schedule Bullies:
This one needs no explanation. If you tell management that it will take 8 days, and they turn around and tell you they think it will take six, you need to leave. Rushed work is almost always subpar. You will not learn sound defensive coding practices. If management does share your view of "I'm writing this, I'm the only one who can tell how long this is going to take." then you have an uphill battle explaining to your boss such difficult terms as quality or pride in your work. I wish you luck on that endeavor. It will be as fun as herding cats.
Remember, not all programmers make good managers, just like not all managers make good programmers. If your boss' skill set brings nothing to the table, don't expect to replace him anytime soon. Instead, get your references ready.
3. Personal Growth:
At my last job, I constantly felt dejected. "You're not growing fast enough! You're barely in the middle of the pack." was the kind of feedback I was getting from my supervisor. Much later, I realized they were setting employees up for failure, and then blaming the employee, instead of blaming themselves.
When it comes to growth, you need to consider two things about your company. Are you happy doing what you're happy doing? Do they have you developing in-house tools, when you'd rather be developing next-generation user interfaces? Are you finding yourself spending half your time fixing the network and pulling cable when you'd rather be developing a framework for your fellow developers?
The second thing you need to consider is what kind of options they offer for career advancement. Will the company you're working for pay for graduate schooling in your field? What about management classes? How about industry certifications? If the answer to any of those three is no, the company is trying to trap you, by removing the path most employees use to get better jobs: Expanding on their experience and education. Plenty of companies now offer this benefit to developers, so if yours doesn't, find one that does. You'll thank me when you have that nanotechnology Ph.D.
4. Compensation and Overtime.
If you're not happy with the amount of money that you're making, do a reality check. Find out what you're worth. If you are confident your compensation is inadequate, extend your superior the opportunity to rectify this mistake, and then start looking for jobs where you will be valued.
Overtime should also be considered along with compensation. If you're working too many hours at the office, and the company isn't doing whatever it takes to get you back down to a healthy 40 hour work week, then something is wrong. Is it because the network is breaking and none of you know what to do? Hire a network administrator with certifications. Are you talking to vendors and doing the legwork on products you might need later down the pipeline that a temp could do instead? Are you testing software instead of a full time tester?
While the occasional (paid) overtime is nice, long hours put more wear and tear on you, and over time, can cost you the passion you had for developing quality software. No amount of profit sharing, casual dress or office perk can get that back for you.
Final Thoughts:
Work is not all bad. A lot of employers say they want their employees to think work is fun. Few employers put their money where their mouth is, and difference is something you not only see - you feel it when you start working for those employers. After reading this, you should have some concrete feeling as to whether you feel your employer measures up, or whether you need to move on. If you start thinking more about your career and less about your particular job, you'll start to pay attention to those warning signs. And for those of you feeling those warning signs: I'll offer you the same two words of advice that my friends gave me: Get out.
I made the choice long ago that I will never work in a cubicle or end up like those guys in office space. I'm currently in grad school and loving it. It's a lot of work, but you're working for the benefit or yourself and your field. JUST SAY NO TO CUBICLES.
I made the choice long ago that I will never work in a cubicle or end up like those guys in office space. I'm currently in grad school and loving it. It's a lot of work, but you're working for the benefit or yourself and your field. JUST SAY NO TO CUBICLES.
Cubicles are indeed the massive suck. But... It is one of the lesser issues on his list. Often times employers with large tech staff simply can't afford to privately house each and every tech employee. Good employers though, understand the frustration created by a chaotic environment and compensate with benefits like flextime and telecommuting. Those perks add up, and at a certain level, the cubicle doesn't seem all that bad when you don't actually have to be in it that often in order to do your job.;)
TFA missed an important point on my list though.
Death By Meeting
If you find yourself in a repetitive slew of non-technical (read: sales and marketing) meetings filled with the scum of the earth (ok, maybe only if you work at a law firm), and you aren't either (a) some sort of S&M liason or (b) upper-management, something is very very nordically decomposed.
There are some points that are valid. There are a lot of points that would be better addressed by his Therapist. Cubicles and office doors being one of them.
In TFA he mentions that the really smart people should have doors. I don't know where he has been working but in the last 20 years of work in a variety of positions, some of which have nothing to do with management or software, there are no more cubicles in America. If you think you need one then you'll either have to work in a small company, your
"Everyone cuts the schedule. If they didn't reduce the schedule from 8 to 6 days then they wouldn't be "productive". Get over yourself and learn to pad everything by the necessary 25% to 30% in time so that when they cut it out it's still attainable. But make sure it looks like a struggle doing it. If you get on schedule without massive OT then they cut goes from 25% to 35% to 45% and so on. One company I worked at they had a 75% fluff to every number just to survive all the management cuts that will come along during the budget reviews."
No, not everyone. Only PHBs act like that. If the company you work for has to do all that charade, and you _still_ end up with massive overtime, you've just told me you have a complete idiot for a boss. And let me get back to one particular management idiocy there:
"If they didn't reduce the schedule from 8 to 6 days then they wouldn't be "productive"."
No. Measuring productivity like that has got to count as not just clueless, downright surrelistic lack of clue. And let me give you just one reason why.
In this job everything can be done in 1001 ways, and about 900 of them are bad shortcuts. They involve write-only code, lack of testing, and generally just hoping that the quickest and dirtiest and most unmaintainable hack will just work on the first try. If you cut someone's time by 25% you've just told them to take such a bad shortcut.
The result isn't just bad unmaintainable code (which _will_ bite you in the ass when you want to make a v2.0), and not only just buggy, but it might blow the deadline even worse. Debugging bad code takes a lot longer, and debugging (in one form or another) is what you do some 90% of the time. A shortcut that's nearly impossible to debug, and nearly impossible to change into something else (e.g., when debugging says that your very choice of algorithm was wrong) will likely take longer to be ready.
Or it may never be ready. Someone I know is still stuck in a project that should have been finished in the last quarter of _2002_. But yeah, they were always under pressure, so they skipped testing almost completely until the end of 2004, they always fixed bugs via the quickest hack that can sorta work, never had time to figure out a _consistent_ way to implement that spec, or to get a good spec out of the client for that matter, and so on.
Having to add fluff to justify the deadline wrangling game, again, adds complexity and adds places where bad shortcuts will bite you in the ass.
So that kind of approach "productivity" just means making a bad product.
A product's architecture and the allocated time should involve understanding the pros and cons of each approach. That's what design is all about: making an informed choice, and knowing the price you pay for that choice. (And there will _always_ be a price to pay. In some cases it will just be much smaller than the gains.) Replacing it with a sad game in which management pats just themselves on the back for imposing an arbitrary 25% to 75% without even asking what's the effect, is pretty much _the_ nemesis of any kind of good design.
in the last 20 years of work in a variety of positions, some of which have nothing to do with management or software, there are no more cubicles in America. If you think you need one then you'll either have to work in a small company, your own company, or start a Union
I call bullshit here on several levels. I've worked in IT for an incredibly successful, multinational insurance brokerage for ten years, and as I look around the floor all I see are cubicles. When I go to the fifth floor, I see cubes. Sixt
Amen:) The company I work for is moving to a new office. I was quite directly involved in the space planning for the new office. I fought long and hard for private offices for our development staff, but the budget simply didn't allow it. Its not that offices are particularly more expensives than cubes, but the fact that a private wall arrangement takes up a LOT of space.. and space is expensive.
Instead, we really worked to put together a cubicle arrangement that optimizes the work space. We have social/meeti
Unless you're in SoCal or NYC, it's a myth that office space costs your employer more, relative to your salary. If you're renting at least 1 floor of an office building, the difference in space between a 10x10 office and an 8x8 cubicle is almost certainly less than 10% of your pay. Even if your company is getting a poor deal on office space the difference is problably less than 20% of your pay. We have offices here and the average "fully burdened cost" of an employee is only 20-25% above salary, and the
If you find yourself in a repetitive slew of non-technical (read: sales and marketing) meetings
Now, "repetetive slew" might be a bit much, but if you do programming in the same area for a few years (billing, in my case), you're likely to get to a point where you know more about even the non-technical details of a problem than any of the users. These days, I'm annoyed when meetings about new billing features *don't* include me, because that means I'm probably going to get a spec with serious flaws.
I WISH we had cubicles, right now I'm working for a tiny startup company and we basically have one medium sized room (with big windows, at least) but no dividers of any kind, and our boss likes sucking on sunflower seeds and spitting the shells into a large cup.
Try working on something with *sshhhtltpt.. dsh.. shshshsskhtpt.. dshh..* All day long.
The choices are offices, cubicles, and bullpens. I've spent more time in bullpens than the other two combined. Other things being equal, cubicles are a step up. Don't assume that your shiny new college degree entitles you to an office.
I work for an extremely successful software company (Google is one of our clients) - I work in a cubicle - The office is in Chicago's Merchandise Mart [aviewoncities.com] - for those of you about to rock, I salute you, but for those of you who don't know, the MM takes up two entire city blocks (which in Chicago means it's 1/8 mile x 1/4 mile), has its own zip code and is the largest commercial building in the world - Only 5% of the people who work in the building are fortunate enough to have an office on an exterior wall of th
Cubes can end up being a good workspace if laid out correctly in an environment which provide some semblence of privacy. When I worked as an IT employee for Northwest Airlines, for example, the building I worked in (MSP Building J, i.e. "the computer center") had a white noise generator in the center area that did a very good job of drowning out conversations that were more than ten feet or so away. One could easily stand up and talk to the person next to you thanks to the relatively low cube walls (I'm 6'1
I was to be part of a team of highly skilled, versatile,.NET Ninjas. We were going to produce top-notch software for the nuclear power industry.
i agree, but dont run for the hills, either get a plane or a coffin(so others would have to make one for you).
who could possibly so %^#$@#%@ stupid, that he would build a system that needs to be up !25/8!(yes that is meant as 25 hours a day, 8 days a week) on a software that hasnt been proven to be stable for years in a row ? you CANT have a failure in plant with th
nuclear plants would really be good off with some really old boxes running single threaded os's on them ( and that are backed up by some failover boxes just to be sure ). this way you have no lockups , no blue screens, no nuclear mushrooms over your city.
Waste of time. Run a modern design incapable of meltdown and use simple monitors where possible. Old, reliable is good, but address the root problem first. Oh, and nuke plants don't explode.
It still did lots of damage by spewing radioactive materials all over the country. Much like the "dirty bombs" that are frequently cited as possible terrorist threat. Only that the Chernobyl reactor had a lot more radioactive inventory than a terrorist group might be able to obtain.
On Saturday, April 26, 1986, at 1:23:58 a.m. local time, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl power plant--known as Chernobyl-4--suffered a catastrophic steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and a nuclear meltdown.
You forgot the most important part.
There are two conflicting official theories about the cause of the accident. The first was published in August 1986 and effectively placed the blame solely
who could possibly so %^#$@#%@ stupid, that he would build a system that needs to be up !25/8!(yes that is meant as 25 hours a day, 8 days a week) on a software that hasnt been proven to be stable for years in a row ? you CANT have a failure in plant with the software. enough can already go wrong without it.
You know, for someone who really seems to hate 'stupid', you are making a pretty big assumption. Just because they were writing sortware for the nuclear power industry, doesn't mean that they were writing reactor control systems. I mean, the nuclear power industry needs infrastructure databases like any other businuess.
They shouldn't use it for anything else involving nuclear power, either. Scheduling, getting parts, monitoring security cams, even just turning the lights on in the parking lot can be a problem for security reasons..NET has been a minefield since Peter LaMacchia at Microsoft, who wrote the first good book on it, resigned from the project over the security changes management was making to it in the next release over his direct objections.
.NET has been a minefield since Peter LaMacchia at Microsoft, who wrote the first good book on it, resigned from the project over the security changes management was making to it in the next release over his direct objections. got a source for what those changes were and why they are bad? or are you simply trolling?
anyway i bet the kind of security you are talking about is securely running untrusted code on your systems something that is only relavent to a pretty small number of applications.
Interesting point. But if you read about the failure at Three-mile Island, it was an interesting combination of design oversight and human error (most likely caused by the factors brought on by the design oversight). What's even more interesting is how all these events "connected" with one another- in ways that you might not normally expect (the designers sure didn't). I will grant you that all of this was directly associated with the operation of the reactor itself, but even if you're talking about somethin
I worked for a few years after graduating in the state-owned arm of the British nuclear industry (Magnox reactors).
The first thing to be aware of is that all of the nuclear reactors were protected by analogue safety circuits such as thermocouples, amplifiers, relays and LADDECs (sp?).
The reactors were either controlled manually with the control rods on a gang switch attached to a grumpy old man awaiting his early retirement golden wheelbarrow of cash, or simple analiogue feedback circuits overseen by said
How about OSISoft, creators of the largest, most expensive data historian (that I am aware of). They have several client apps and service-based things that are built in.Net. They have a.Net SDK. They don't write their historian or interfaces in.Net (at least they didn't a year ago). Everything on the control side is non-.Net, everything on the client side is moving to.Net.
How about Wonderware, another prevalent suite of process control and data tools. They are moving to.Net also, ad you can set your local plant up with this for under $100k (unlike PI which I think starts at $150k without client tools).
How about all of the.Net OPC tools out there? Many control system devices can talk OPC now (it's an open standard) and there are tons of tools that will collect data from them or allow read/write connections, many in.Net. Several OPC.Net SDKs are out there for sale to let you write your own.Net software that ties into your process data.
And yes, I know for a fact that the nuclear power plant about 20-30 miles from me has.Net software on their process network. Course, last time I was there they also still had windows NT boxes on the process side (they have since upgraded to 2000 though, they stay 3-4 years behind on purpose).
How about Mole? I have no clue what is running to actually collect the data (I did at one time, but it's been a while). It uses a SQL database as it's historian, so I would be incredibly surprised if someone wasn't developing or running some.Net apps that tied into it.
As far as fear of nuclear plants goes, I don't have much. My fear is paper plants. Especially old paper plants that run the entire process from wood chips to paper. I'll never forget almost being forgot in one of the control rooms the day before christmas when they were evacuating half the plant due to a chemical leak...I don't remember what it was now, except that it was insanely deadly, in extremely small doses (.5 ppm?) it would kill your nasal receptors in a few seconds, so while it wasn't odorless it wasn't exactly something you could smell either...not to mention that that same small dose was capable of killing, not just you, but the person that tried to save you (clothing, skin contact), etc. There wasa case at a paper plant in SC or georgia where 5 people were taken out. Two ambulances took two of them each, bythe time they gotto the hospital the medical personal were already showing symptoms. The 5th guy was taken by his boss who had followed some safety procedures (get rid of the clothes, wrap in another cloth, then go to the hospital) and they still had to replace the backseat of his car...
Lastly, it would take a lot more than a computer crash to take down a reactor in such a waythat it would go critical, somehow ignore the multitude of safeguards, etc. I'm not sure you could purposely cause tht to happen, as so many safeguards are engineered in (there is no "Make it go boom" button). On top of that, there is a significant difference between sending a set of commands to a specific device in it's manufacturers specific protocol for that device and sending a burst of gibberish. What you do lose is some of your monitoring. I don't know as much about the monitoring at nuclear plants as I didn't work on that part at all, but at standard turbine plants they have two systems, the computers in the control room (Windows, Solaris, VMS, whatever) and either whatever equipment is left form the 50's (analog (pneumatic?) equipment, yes it's still out there) or LCDs. Either way it runs completely seperate from the data control software and systems.
I work in the paper industry and chlorine chemical leaks are rare. There are sensors everywhere in the pulping area to detect the presense of chlorine and hydrogen sulfide, and dioxins. That's why you wear an emergency escape respirator in that area. Personally, I don't like to see a commodity operating system on a process network. Older, proprietary operating systems from Honeywell, Valmet, Rockwell, etc... are damn near bullet proof. When Windows NT was introduced the system availability went down from
There's no doubt that many people have been doing process control using OPC (OLE for Process Control), but that doesn't mean it was ever a good idea. Granted, on a completely closed network (a carefully restricted workgroup with NO connections to other PCs), OPC was a solution of sorts. However, the security and network issues are such that nobody in their right mind will allow an OPC connection (DCOM) in a normal network and expect it to support mission-critical applications. The right place for mission-cri
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @01:34AM (#13720014)
> Don't work in cubicles, ever. Working in cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company.
This a big fallacy. When I started my job I shared an office with a coworker, but due to various moves to different buildings through the years I'm now in a cubicle. In fact, almost everyone in my building (all 5 floors) has a cubicle. The only people with offices are either high-level managers or executives. I would hardly say my company isn't successful, and the cubicle isn't so bad considering that I can work from home any time I want.
And I think you've heard of this company, it's called IBM.
You dont want too work for them. IBMs pay rise policy:
'He's got a house, and a wife and kids, he won't risk leaving. We don't need to give him a pay rise'
I does work backwards though:
'He's a new graduate, better give him a pay rise or he'll leave'
This, unfortunately, is all too true, and it is something that I will never understand. A company will deny you rightful compensation, watch you leave, hire someone on AT THE SALARY YOU ASKED FOR and wait 6 months for them to get up to speed. All because company policy doesn't allow large pay increases.
The bottom line, and my response to the article, is this : with rare exception, there is no such thing as company loyalty. A business is a business, and they will do whatever it takes to stay in business, even if it means laying off their most loyal employees. I learned a long time ago to treat a company as a shark while I act as the lamprey. Find "resume building activities" that can help you while helping the company reach their goals (making shitloads of money). Always look out for yourself and your family and your career first so you're not stuck when the company decides that your department no longer meets the companies needs.
I know it sounds bad, but I've been burned too many times over the past 10 years as a developer. I've also seen way too many friends burned as well. I've worked for some high profile companies in the past several years, and all of them ultimately put their needs over the needs of the employees. The faster you learn that this is the way the world works, the better off you'll be!
Probably about $70K, depending where you live. However, if all of those five years are in the same specialty, you could probably be making 50% more as a self-employed consultant.
payscale.com is a good calculator, as is salaryexpert.com.
I've been with IBM for six years (came in straight out of school), and my wife has been with IBM for sixteen years (also came in right out of school). We both get pretty routine pay raises (not every year, but close), and neither of us feels at all underpaid.
While we don't have kids, we do have a house and deep ties to the area.
For IBM the cubicles were a cost savings method as part of a restructuring they did in the '80's and early 90's. They shut down entire centers, moved their employees into cubicle farms and shed numerous buildings (yes entire buildings), to save a few million bucks.
When I was associated with them (an indirect association), the IBM folks refered to IBM as "I've Been Moved"
Everyone at my company, even the founder and CEO, has a cube. But, we're allowed a lot of leeway to define our cube in our own way. In my group, we actually chose half walls so that we could more easily talk to each other.
My experience has been similar. The first company I worked for had the cubicle village. Everyone except for high level management sat in cubicles. I had absolutely no problem getting things done in that environment. If the noise level bothers you, invest in a set of headphones and listen to music. I actually enjoyed being able to hear my co-workers talk, because it allowed me to keep in the loop regarding changes to other parts of the software that could (and often did) affect my own portion of the software. I also sat next to my boss, so I heard his side of all the management phone conferences. HP was a great place to work, IMHO. I had a boss that had realistic expectations of the developers on his project. He made sure that the scope of each deliverable was attainable WITHOUT the forced deathmarch. Unfortunately, I started there just before the tech bubble burst, and HP announced their merger to Compaq. I left the company shortly after that (voluntarily). I would definitely consider going back there to work (especially now that Carly is gone).
Here were the signs that led me to leave:
Layoffs. Big turnoff with me. I was a young father, just out of college. I had a wife and 2 kids to take care of. We had moved some 8 hours away from the nearest family to a different state. When I started at HP, it was known to be a very stable company. Never had a mass layoff. In fact, a friend of mine had his project cancelled, and the company gave him 3 months paid to find a new job within the company. If at the end of that 3 months, he hadn't found a job, the company would find one for him, and only if he refused that last job would he be let go to fend for himself. Sounded pretty good and stable to me! But things changed shortly after I began working there. I made it through 3 rounds of layoffs. I never thought I would get laid off, but I also never thought anyone on my team would, and I was wrong there, as they guy who had been my mentor when I started got canned. Each time a new round of layoffs was announced, I would get a little nervous. I hated the feeling of not knowing. It was very frustrating. Of course, even in its layoffs, HP was still better than many companies. Its severance package was excellent. I wouldn't have minded getting that (if I had known at the time I would be leaving for a new job anyway).
Promotion without pay raise. Ok sounds kinda mercenary, I know. But, I felt pretty good about myself when I got promoted from the entry level 58 position to a level 60 (basically going from recruit to grunt, something they expect you to do within at least 3 years or you get canned) in my first year. Unfortunately, upper management (thank you Carly) had suspended all raises, so I got a fat load of stock options as a bonus for my promotion. That was great, until about a month later when HP announced its impending merger with Compaq, and their stock tanked. My options were worthless before any of them ever vested. So, new responsibilities, no corresponding compensation.
Bass Akward policies. One of the things Carly did early in her tenure was to change the travel policies for the company. In the R&D sections of the company, travel had to be approved not by your manager, not by his manager, but by his managers manager. To go anywhere (that didn't involve a customer directly) you had to get approval from 3 levels of management. One of my responsibilities on my team was to maintain a multi-million dollar piece of test equipment. I had absolutely no training on the hardware, all that I knew I got from what documentation I could get my hands on. If any maintenance was required, I had to get in touch with an HP Customer Engineer, and when he had time away from his real customers, I was his hands as he guided me through the steps to do whatever was required on the equipment. After several iterations of this, he told me of a CE training course in the hardware that was coming up at his site. I talked to my manager, who thought it would be a good idea fo
I work at HP in Australia and i can vouch that all of the positives mentioned there are precisely how things are over here (but no kangaroo's dont go bouncing down the main street, sorry to dissapoint on that one).
The only negative thing i have to say about HP is yet another moment of briliance by Carly, the 2 year congtracting tenure. Policy states that after 2 years as a contracter, you either go permenant, or go walk. As i'm working shift (it's 4:10am here and im at work) it suits me for convenie
Good luck with your pursuit of a stress-free life working the 9-5 for someone else.
I have one.
And my income is the rents I receive from my RE assets. Although I still work for "the man", I know in less than a year I will be free from this ball-n-chain hellhole.
Yeah, that or bankrupt because you don't know what the hell you're doing. I've seen tons of idiots try that crap, something like 10% actually succeed. Have fun when the housing speculation bubble kills your RE "assets."
I'm going to nitpick a bit at the article's first point: as much as we may dislike cubicles, a blanket statement like "working in cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company" is... well, a sure sign that the article's author hasn't worked at many companies. I've worked at some very successful companies with cubicles (my current one is arguably the world's most successful network equipment manufacturer), and more than one small, dismal and unfortunate place without.
I don't want to imply that happiness on the job is overrated, but very few of us can claim to be happy all, or even nearly all, of the time with our work--even the self-employed. For most of us, a significant chunk of whatever our given job is involves Sadly Boring Shit. Drudge work, waiting for work, paperwork about waiting for drudge work.
Do look out for warning signs about when to quit your job, sure. But make sure those aren't just signs of a bad day (or week, or even month). And if at all possible, get the next job before you quit the crappy one.
If you don't do that, make sure you're prepared for unemployment. Try to follow all the standard cliche advice: have enough money to live on for six months. (This means figuring out what your minimum outflow--housing, food, gas, utilities, other debt payments--is per month. A whole lot of people I know have no idea what this is.) You can expect to spend a month looking for work for every $10K of salary in the range you're looking for (I know people who've spent a lot less, yes, but I also know people who've spent well past that time)
I'm going to nitpick a bit at the article's first point: as much as we may dislike cubicles, a blanket statement like "working in cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company" is... well, a sure sign that the article's author hasn't worked at many companies.
Great point. The cubicle backlash is a tad extreme and the idea of being always happy at your job is probably getting too much airplay. You CAN be happy working in a cubicle and you can be miserable working in a job with an office.
Also, chances are, you're not working at Adobe or Microsoft, so you may need to realistically redefine what the employer has to provide for you to be "happy"...or you need to get a job at Adobe or Microsoft. Just because you boss doesn't let you bring your dog into the office, it may turn out that you can live with that concession if you try.
You make several other excellent points in a post worthy of a +5 insightful.
He said he disliked cubicals because they background noise was distracting, couldn't get into the "zone", couldn't do the "quality work"; but I heard, he has a lack of focus, and that is a sign and symptom of burnout and depression. Depression limits focus and creativity, which will make any job more difficult, which leads to more depression; when little shit starts to bothers you, maybe its time to look at the comp package and use one or two of those sick days for mental health.
Everybody is going to go through a sitsuational depressions/burn-outs, and the first time is going to be a real whammy, after you've learned how you react to it and develope some compensitory behaviours it easy to nip it in the bud before its too self-reinforcing for self-help.
It's a dumb reason to complain anyway...I've got my own office. It's pretty nice. But I'm in a busy department, and there are offices all around mine, and unless I shut the door (which isn't done around here, unless you're gone, or having some scary meeting), I can hear stuff going on in 6 or seven other offices. Adding to that, I'm one of a few programmers in an environment filled with DBAs, Netadmins, and tech support guys, so there are always people moving around working on system problems, chatting, etc.
In short, office != quiet.
My advice is to get an iPod and a pair of noise cancellation headphones. Make sure you turn your desk, or put up a mirror or something if you're easily startled...Every place I've ever worked, someone has thought it would be funny to try and "scare" me while I was doing this, and while this has never happened more than once, the reputation that goes with being a tightly-wound stress hound whose "fight" reflex beats the crap out of his "flight" reflex is no fun to live with, and hard to live down.
Some people can code listening to music. I can, depending on my mood. At other times, music is simply a distraction, as when I'm containing some huge state machine or data flow in my head and have to get it all down in code before I lose concentration. And that's just me...I've worked with people who were more productive listening to positively blaring rap. If you want to insinuate that noise sensitivity is only a factor for the depressed, I'd ask you to go take a Chainsaw into the next PGA match in your are
Had a boss once who liked flicking me on the ear when I was coding, and when I'm coding, I put on the headphones, get into tunnel vision mode, and tune out the whole world. Having someone sneak up on me and flick me on the ear when I'm like that is the psychic equvalent of getting smacked with a 2x4. I was pretty rational about it at first, but we were pretty good friends, and he thought it was funny...
He did it about 3 times, and on the fourth time I snapped. I can't remember ever being so mad...I was so mad it wasn't even like being mad. I had a real moment where I really thought I might attack him, not a little scuffle or anything, but seriously out for blood...really wavered on it for a moment...then I turned and put my fist through two layers of a prefab wall.
Not my finest hour. Though it does mark the only point in my programming career where I found a use for the ability to repair drywall.
That kind of crap is hardwired with me. Normally it's not much of an issue, because how often do you end up with people literally sneaking up on you in a business environment? Used to be really useful in college...I could crash on a couch after a party and no one would even think about pulling post-party pranks on me.
But the first thing I do when I get a new job, is find a place to put my desk where no one can walk up without me seeing them. Better safe than sorry.
no more like a day trip, or if your a guy and a brain worker pick something physical that can be finished, finishing something gives a sense of control that men need to control stress, if a woman do some girly thing like complain about it to your bestfriend./. is too close to the source of the problem for IT workers; porn would be better!
You CAN be happy working in a cubicle and you can be miserable working in a job with an office.
Those aren't the only two choices. The best environment is to work in an XP-style project room, with everyone clustered around a central table full of machines, working in pairs, and able to trivially bat questions and design ideas back and forth.
The second-best environment to work in, if you and your team can solve the resulting communication issues, is a virtual office environment out of your own home. If
I completely agree - most of the companies (all startups) I've worked for over the years, good and bad, have had cubes - only one has had offices and honestly I found it quite isolating - a good startup environment involves communication and team building - you have to hang out with your co-workers or it doesn't work
besides it's no fun how can you have nerf wars in offices? and what happens when your neighor's gear catches fire while he's at lunch (happened to me) you'll notice in cubes (sniff sniff.... something's burning...) maybe not in offices....
Have to agree about the communication and team building. In our IT department there are 3 of us that share a rather spacious 4 cube setup. We are all back to back and able to share thoughts, make comments etc. all without having to resort to IM. I think like everything else, when properly implemented, the cube system can work.
I second the nerf wars comment as well. Though storming someones office can and is an exiting challenge.
This is why we stick the engineering teams on 6 out of 7 floors, and all support personal on the top floor. There's one secretary per floor to handle the necessaries. It makes HR giddy to be up on 7, they feel important, and we get left alone. If somebody in my team needs something from me, they say in a loud voice "Hey, Kiryat." I walk the 10 feet to their cube. We talk about it. If someone else in team has something to interject, they do so. If it's something that needs to be private (salary discussi
Yep, completely agree. Also, here in the UK anyway, cubicles seem to be going out of fashion; the last six or seven places I've worked have had large open-plan offices with shared desks. Works pretty well most of the time, tho' headphones are mandatory when you need to focus. It makes it much easier to get to know the people around you and to pick up what's really going on on the grapevine. (These jobs have been a variety of programming, network and security consulting type stuff.)
>...as much as we may dislike cubicles, a blanket statement like "working in > cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company" > is... well, a sure sign that the article's author hasn't worked at many > companies. Agreed. Cubicles can be an indicator, though. There are so many different styles. I would look at the working environment provided in the cubicle, and determine if it's mindless penny-pinching or part of a reasonable plan.
I'm going to nitpick a bit at the article's first point: as much as we may dislike cubicles, a blanket statement like "working in cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company" is... well, a sure sign that the article's author hasn't worked at many companies. I've worked at some very successful companies with cubicles (my current one is arguably the world's most successful network equipment manufacturer), and more than one small, dismal and unfortunate place without.
Agreed. I've worked for some truly craptastic companies where everyone had their own office. I've also worked for several Fortune 500 companies where everyone except directors on up had cubicles. It has nothing to do with the success of the company whatsoever.
I'm going to nitpick a bit at the article's first point: as much as we may dislike cubicles, a blanket statement like "working in cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company" is... well, a sure sign that the article's author hasn't worked at many companies.
You're absolutely right. I don't know of a single large company that *doesn't* use cubes. It makes me question the writer's knowledge of...anything. He admits he didn't do anything to look for a job, didn't even bother to listen to alumni dispensing career advice because it was "all very, very dry." He grabbed the first one that made an offer, and got disillusioned when they canned him. Well, duh. Put a little effort into that job search, you'll have less chance of that happening.
There are other signs that make me think I'd like to hear management's side of the story. For one, he sounds like a prima donna. His sole qualification is a Bachelors in CS from a middle tier school, and he acts like he should be given the golden boy treatment in his first job. An office for a kid who knows.NET? Company car?!?!? Sorry, Charlie, the 90's are gone and that crap's over.
Also, he sounds a bit arrogant - implying that anyone over 40 doesn't know what they're doing, mentions that management didn't take his advice, etc. That could be true, or it could be that he's an arrogant little man who can't constructively work as part of a team.
I also wonder how good he was at his job - he says that management told him he wasn't picking up the work fast enough, and that he was just "barely middle of the pack." He says that was them "setting the employees up for failure." Yeah, that's one option. That or they don't think he's getting the job done.
Finally, this wasn't a mass firing. The impression I got was that he was selected to be let go among the team. He claims they blamed it on finances, but legally they would anyway, in all likelihood.
We only have one side of this story - it could well be another case of a kid coming out of college with a ton of arrogance, no respect for people who have a ton more experience than he, skills that didn't translate to his job, and a problem working with others. Perhaps there's a reason he was canned?
We only have one side of this story - it could well be another case of a kid coming out of college with a ton of arrogance, no respect for people who have a ton more experience than he, skills that didn't translate to his job, and a problem working with others. Perhaps there's a reason he was canned?
Agreed, this guy may have simply have been clueless.
"Oftentimes, a non-technical manager, or an "old hand" who's edge is no longer sharp will be impressed enough to listen to your technical advice. If the
No, the truly greatest sign your place of work is expanding faster then space is available, is when they start talking about giving you computer and phone equipment and letting you work from home.
I personally believe the time to leave that first tech job is when you can find another job that pays significantly more (and at a point that doesn't leave the current team in a bind). This applies to any job in any industry, not just the tech industry.
You should think of yourself as somewhat of a free agent, not totally unlike a professional athlete. Money is the bottom line with any company and is independent of the behaviour of anyone in the company. Even employers "who put their money where their mouth is" are helpless if the money just isn't there for whatever reason.
So while your boss may be the nicest guy in the world able to inspire the troops through any adversity, if the money ever runs out then the troops will die, period. And blaming the employer is pointless, even if they deserve it. You have to think "I'm in this situation...how do I get out of it and if possible, how do I guard against it in the future". Let others waste time and energy whining. You can join in later...after you get your new job.
Some people may read this and think I have a totally self-centered attitude...and that'd be true to an extent. However it doesn't mean that you have to become a callous asshole. You can still be a nice, moral person. However, being nice doesn't mean you're a naive pushover. You have a duty to look out for yourself.
We're still in the growing pains of a new era in the American/Global economy where getting a job doesn't mean you can retire there if you so choose. Let this layoff be a wakeup call.
I personally believe the time to leave that first tech job is when you can find another job that pays significantly more (and at a point that doesn't leave the current team in a bind). This applies to any job in any industry, not just the tech industry.
I couldn't agree more. I've been thinking along these lines for a long time. Of course, if you have a comfortable salary, and a busy work schedule, it isn't always easy to motivate yourself into looking for those better paying jobs...
Some people may read this and think I have a totally self-centered attitude
On the contrary. I have a house, a wife and two kids to feed and take care of, and I applaud you for being determined giving them top priority. That means standing firm when management keeps asking for more.
I've heard colleagues regret putting their work at #1, only to be surprised when their spose says she was leaving tomorrow.
Agreed. I watched a good colleague, with a new wife and new son, gently refuse to do more than 60 hours/week at his start-up. The baby actually affected the quality of his work by improving it: he planned more, completed projects more thoroughly, documented his work, put in safety features, and made his code more reliable. The result is that when layoffs happened, his core projects had just been completed and other departments were clamoring for his help and trying to get him to transfer, but since his devel
On the contrary. I have a house, a wife and two kids to feed and take care of, and I applaud you for being determined giving them top priority. That means standing firm when management keeps asking for more.
I'm pretty sure he's not actually planning to spend that time with your wife. If he is, YOU should be concerned!
Judging a job _only_ by the money ("I personally believe the time to leave that first tech job is when you can find another job that pays significantly more") is IMHO a case of literally not seeing the forest for the trees.
Money is a means, not an end. You can't eat money, you can't get much entertainment out of just looking at a bunch of 100$ bills, etc. The question is what you can do with them to improve your life quality, not the number alone, like some screwed-up game score.
And before you lash back with "well, duh, with more money you can buy more stuff and be happier", no, that's still not getting it.
Yeah, you can buy a bigger plasma TV or some high-end stereo or whatever, but if you end up in a job where an asshole demands your presence there 14 hours a day, and occasionally that you bring a sleeping bag and don't leave until he sees some program ready (yes, I've actually seen such an asshole)... you won't actually have the _time_ to actually _use_ those. You'll just have time to eat and flop into bed.
Additionally, let's talk about happiness on the whole. Even if money could buy some happiness, it's not a linear scale. Twice the money doesn't make you twice as happy. So you gain, what? Maybe 5% extra happiness in those 4-5 hours at home. If the price to pay is anywhere between 8 and 14 hours of pure hell at work, I'd say on the average you're actually worse off.
Guarding against the future? Hah. I'll tell you what's more likely to happen, because I personally know people who chose to work for an asshole for a lot more pay. You know how much they've saved for the future? Well, one was telling me at the end of last week that he's some $2000 in debt... right after salary day. (And that's not counting the debts for his car, the house, etc.)
Welcome to the deathtrap of consumerism. See, most people who try too hard to believe that success is measured in money alone, and that more money can literally buy happiness... end up literally trying to buy it. Or failing that, trying to convince themselves that theirs is the right way. ("Hey, look how much stuff I can buy with that money! Of course it's worth it! Why, that's what success is all about!")
The guy I was mentioning above, we're good friends, so I hear about it each time he gets a raise or a promotion. Also when he buys new stuff. Guess what? Each raise was followed by an even bigger increase in how much he spends. Each time he'll just get a bigger car, a bigger computer, then military-grade IR goggles for when he goes fishing, then now a bigger house in a whole other (more fashionable) town. (Just in case those 12 hours a day at the office weren't enough, now he'll also spend an extra 2 hours commuting.)
Those in turn just dig the trap deeper. Now with all those monthly payments and being in debt he _has_ to keep at it.
So what did he _really_ get out of it? Well, from where I stand, it looks like he's got $2000 debt, plus the loans for the car and house, and some 12 hours a day of high stress. Now with the extra commuting, he only gets to see his infant son briefly before going to sleep, and on weekends. Yeah, way to go.
My advice? Forget it. I've saved a lot more on a lesser wage. Not falling into the "money is everything, and consumerism is the way to show it off" trap tends to have that effect.
I agree, happiness is much more than the things you own. I make a good bit more money than I did 5 years ago, but I still live like I did 5 years ago. Actually, my finances are in better shape because my car has been paid off for awhile now. Don't get me wrong, I buy toys and have a fun time, but I don't measure my happiness by other people. I buy things that I want not things that other people tell I should want. Once you start thinking about what you (and only you) want, it's surprising how few thing
The social contract is broken irretrievably, and we all need to adapt to the new reality. The new reality is, don't get too comfortable, keep the resume up to date, and move on the minute things are the slightest bit fishy. Some signs to look for:
o No more free pens in the stockroom, now the admin hands them out one by one and makes you sign for them. o An all-company memorandum from the CEO shows up suddenly, responding to hallway rumors or soft-pedaling bad news. o The perennial blame game between Sales, Marketing, and Engineering stops simmering and comes to a full boil in the hallway. o A top executive (any top executive) leaves mysteriously. o Sales guys start leaving (more than one is big trouble) o "The Board" starts poking around and introducing themselves to people. o A routine purchase request for equipment is turned down, regardless of justifications presented. o There is an odd new emphasis on collections activity. o "Investors" start showing up for tours of the engineering department. o The annual customer conference is canceled or postponed. o A delivery date is moved forward inexplicably, without consulting the engineers on the project. o It is impossible to get a reasonable explanation from your boss for a clearly unreasonable situation or request. o You are asked to stop work and "document" your project at a time that seems inappropriate and wrong. o You are asked to sign any document "acknowledging" your equity position (if any), when it should be abundantly clear what your equity position is.
One small way to protect yourself (and to acquire information about the company's activities that they would not normally share with you) is to take advantage of any stock purchase plan (real stock, not options) put forward, and buy a few shares (preferably as few as possible). This will at least make you privy to the legal documents around acquisition scenarios and so on.
But the best way to protect yourself is to get the resume engine revved up the minute you see the warning signs above. No need to delay. Get the hell out.
These are all really good indicators of trouble. You really hit the nail on the head here. I have been through this several times myself. Another indicator that I've seen is when a company starts selling off longer term type assets (land, buildings, etc.)
Others: -Recently vacated positions are not advertised nor refilled. -More talk behind closed doors by management than usual. -Consequently, management starts evading/ignoring their previous open-door policies. -Management, seen talking in the hallways, stops talking when others pass. -All equipment is re-inventoried. -No more "free food" in the kitchen area after meetings. -Any requests for vacations are begrudgingly given, and your contact info is required, just "in case." -Visits from the lawyers become frequent
--Yeah, you can buy a bigger plasma TV or some high-end stereo or whatever, but if you end up in a job where an asshole demands your presence there 14 hours a day, and occasionally that you bring a sleeping bag and don't leave until he sees some program ready (yes, I've actually seen such an asshole)... you won't actually have the _time_ to actually _use_ those. You'll just have time to eat and flop into bed.-- Yes, time must also be figured in as well. It is more valuble than money because you only have a l
I think the guy has consumerism confused with poor money management. Spending is fine, WITHIN YOUR MEANS. That would translate into some non-zero savings rate, not paycheck to paycheck plus credit card debt. I'm with you, I look forward to spending my money when I'm out of work. Not because it makes me happy to spend it, but because it makes it easier for me to do things that are fun. I'm a year out of college, work an 8 hr day as a stat. programmer, plus go to law school at night.. you have to be craz
"Sounds like you're jealous of that other guy frankly. Anyone who goes on and on and on about how evil "consumerism" is would trade places in a second if they had the opportunity." Heh. Jealous of him? Dude, I _pity_ him. I wish I could help him, but I'm not even sure how. Trade places? Why? I'm paid a lot more than I spend, I have all I need, and unlike him I have the time to enjoy it too. Why on Earth would I even consider trading places with some broken insecure slave like that?
Agreed. There is a new "model" in the US, per the 'news' and talking heads - and they have it partially right. Low-end workers (i.e., those easily replaced - burger flippers, entry level anything) are treated like cattle. Higher end workers, unless they own a piece of the company, are tolerated as long at their pay packages doen't get too high. The rise of the 'independant consultant' on long-term contract seems the best way to go. At my firm, we have two people I work with daily who are full employees, but t
If there's a sudden drop in the amount of communication from management then something is wrong. If management is saying things that everyone in the room knows to be lies then you've got a major problem.
If new people are coming in and making things worse, you've got an incurable problem. "A players hire A players, B players hire C players". You cannot fix that kind of death spiral by working hard or even by working brilliantly.
How do you tell if you're job-jumping too quickly, overreacting to normal frustrat
I have been in the workforce for more than twenty years. The great majority of jobs I've had have been cubicle based, from insurance to several technology companies to bioscience. There's a pretty darn good solution to the noise problem. It's called 'being quiet'. As long as the walls are reasonably high (I've seen extremely short cubicles, which don't work well), and your coworkers are polite, it's a great way to get a lot of work done.
Offices are expensive. If you're THAT bothered by distractions, you can buy huge jars of very good foam earplugs for like $8 at your local drugstore. You don't need to hear everything going on around you. You don't need to see it either. Wear earplugs for a few weeks. Realize how little you're missing by not paying attention to everything around you. Soon, you'll likely develop virtual earplugs that will serve you just as well, and cost nothing.
Demanding that your employer provide the workforce with offices is saying "I require that you quadruple your rent to suit me." It is very, very unlikely that you are that much better than everyone else, nearly all of whom work just fine in cubes.
Your complaints about poor management, though, are spot-on. That is the telltale of a bad company. If you realize that the management is dumb, get the hell out.
Your complaints about poor management, though, are spot-on. That is the telltale of a bad company. If you realize that the management is dumb, get the hell out.
I don't see the not letting the new kid fresh out of school handle the reinstallation of an important production server as a sign of stupidity, though.
Hm... expensive compared to salary? The office space I occupy (half a room) costs less than 3 percent of my current pay. I wouldn't take 3 percent raise for moving into a cubicle. I have worked in a cubicle, and it wasn't very bad, especially compared to a big 15-person room with no cubicles whatsoever:-) Still, I wouldn't go - assuming I had the choice, of course.
Office space is not just the square footage cost. And mananging office space is a pain in the ass. If you rent too much of it you're wasting money, and if you rent too little to accomodate your company's growth, you're looking to either move or get some more space on another floor in six months. Cubicles at least offer a certain amount of flexibility in how the space is allocated and you can comfortably get more people into less space with them. Are they perfect? No, but like many other posters I've had jobs in them for over a decade and in the majority of cases it was just fine as long as everyone around you understands it's a work environment, not a rumpus room.
As for "companies with cubicles are doomed", how does that explain Intel? IIRC they were kicking ass and taking names under Andy Grove's watch, and HE worked in a cubicle along with everyone else at his insistence.
As the semester's end finally hit, I realized something. I was going to need a job, and I hadn't even started looking. Then, almost on cue, the phone rang.
The article's author should consider himself fortunate to have landed a job without even looking for one. The next time around, when he actually puts some effort into finding a job at a good company instead of taking whatever falls into his lap, maybe he'll actually have a job he enjoys at a company that treats him right.
Why does this whole article sound like (to me) a person who reads your future? His entire attitude, is that akin to that of, "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence". Great example of this, his whole attitude w/t his quote..
"If you're not happy with the amount of money that you're making, do a reality check. Find out what you're worth."
To me it feels like he's saying, "You're worth more than you think you are, you could do better!". Well if everyone thinks they're worth a million bucks
There's a difference between price and worth. The price of Enron stock was riding high the week before the scandal hit - but its worth was zero.
Similarly, a CEO who presides over a long decline in stock valuation charges a high price for his services but the shareholders will probably not consider him worth much.
On a more prosaic level, while hiring Java programmers, I have found that there was little difference in ability between high-paid contractors and relatively low-paid staff. The only striking di
"and have had to sit through many interviews where high priced candidates didn't know how to implement an equals method."
You know, even though I know people who fit that description, it still makes my head hurt. It's not like they're being asked to overload an operator in C++ (which can be a little bit of a pain) because Java won't let you do that (or at least it didn't. I don't know if 1.5 changed that).
I find it more depressing that you need to. The compiler knows the internal state of the object and how to compare intrinsics - why can't it generate one for you? Ideally the language should have something like a notstate keyword which would mark a member variable as not part of the internal state, and then automatically generate an isIdentical method by comparing the rest. It should also understand the casting methods, and if a sequence of casts exists that arrives at the same object then it should allo
"Don't work in cubicles, ever." The one time I worked in a cubicle, it was not only hard to concentrate over the noise, but you lacked privacy and it seemed Big Brother was watching you, plus it also seemed like you were valued less, this was a step down from my offices of past.
It did help you not work and chat to your neighbour instead though.... Nice one management.
"2 Just How Dumb is Management, Anyway?"
Never underestimate the power of the Dark Side.
I've worked for managers who are knowledgeable ex-progra
"3. Personal Growth:" This really is your first job isn't it?!;-)
You never get the opportunity for growth at work. You'll only ever get training if it's free or has something directly to do with a task at hand and not the possibility of training you for your next job outside the company. Your boss is always mindful of people who could fill his shoes.
Personal growth is achieved by taking in a "Learn X in 21 Days" book and reading it in the slow times. Or surfing www.X-programming.com then getting a job at a
I'd love to work at companies who need skills I haven't got. But, uhmm.. how'd you get past those HR guys?
They keep telling me I need the skills!
Some consulting companies require that you have experience of the exact make and model of the stuff that they are consulting on (specified like so: 18 months experience of BEA WebLogic 8.1 SP2). Companies like that are probably boring to work at, and will have problems hiring very soon if not already.
Otherwise you only need to make plausible that you have basic soft
This entire article grates on my nerves. But if I had to pick one thing to grouse about, it would have to be the management-bashing.
Some time ago at work, we had a bit of a fire that needed to be put out with one of our products. Everyone assumed that the guy with the most knowledge of that part of the product (let's call him "Joe") would be the one to take care of it. The boss ignored this, and assigned the work to me. Joe and I were both very stunned at this, because I had never even looked at the
Most companies have cubicles, and the ones that don't have open offices with no walls of any kind. Does this mean they are not forward thinking, successful companies? No, it means they are not wasting a bunch of money on private offices and may actually turn a profit. I've worked places with the fancy offices that "catered" to developers, and I've worked at places with $50 IKEA desks thrown together in the big room. Guess which companies are still in business.
I decided to leave my first tech job shortly after several people were laid off. While doing some one-on-one tutoring of the CEO's admin assistant, I spotted a sheet of paper on her desk with several names and positions listed on it, a few of them at the bottom crossed off. The uncrossed names had one thing in common: they were the people who'd been laid off. And one of the crossed-off names was mine. Which meant that when/if a new list was created, mine would be at the top. Six months after I resigned
"I hadn't even started looking"
".NET Ninjas"
"our kung fu grip on.NET"
"We all hoped to have company cars..."
"Only one thing kept me going -- pure ego."
"Don't work in cubicles, ever."
"knowledge workers, so they can get into the zone"
"Put it as close to your ear as humanly possible"
"disregards your technical advice...If they were smart, they'd actually take it"
"I studied up on the re-install procedures...That task was going to another employee"
"Schedule Bullies...I'm writing this, I'm the only one who can tell how long this is going to take"
"have you developing in-house tools, when you'd rather be developing next-generation user interfaces"
"What about management classes?"
"If you are confident your compensation is inadequate, extend your superior the opportunity to rectify this mistake"
Perhaps some of this was involved with their decision that there wasn't enough money to continue your employment??
article text (Score:5, Informative)
When to leave your first job in the technology field
Editorial by Christopher Wilson
It was early May of 2004, and I was almost at the finish line for my degree. Between me and graduation: Just two summer classes. I was in the process of finishing what could only be described as the most intense spring semester of my college career. As the semester's end finally hit, I realized something. I was going to need a job, and I hadn't even started looking.
Then, almost on cue, the phone rang. The president of a small and local software company was looking for computer engineers with
I was to be part of a team of highly skilled, versatile,
It did not go as planned.
One stressful year later, while I was staying late with a few other developers to finish up on some work, I was asked to report to the president's office. My manager was already there, sitting on the same side of the desk as the president. They explained to me, in a level and professional tone, that due to financial factors, I was going to be let go, with only an hour's severance pay. Thanks for all the hard work, and best of luck.
The first layoff is tough. After bending over backward, after being a loyal employee, this is the reward? To summarize how I felt: Disillusioned. Only one thing kept me going -- pure ego. You know when the schoolyard bully says something about your mom in front of everyone? But, ignoring the size difference and the fact that he's already shaving daily at age 14, you step forward and say "Oh yeah?", with a Brock Sampson-like eye twitch the only warning of the impending ownage? That's the kind of ego that kept me determined to give software engineering a second shot.
Over the course of the previous year, my friends quickly learned I liked to talk about work less and less. When I did open up about it, they were astounded by, well, let's say various factors of the work environment. Each and every time it was discussed with my peers in the field, time and time they gave me the same advice: Get out.
I have to say, they were totally right.
All the signs were there, but I blazed on, telling myself that this was just a rough patch for the company, and that we'd pull out of this tailspin in time to land safely at our destination. I was ignoring the pilots screaming "Mayday, Mayday".
Now, while I was blind to obvious signs that it was time to leave, doesn't mean that you have to be. I would like to present the 4 signs that you should leave your workplace (for software engineers):
1 It's the environment, stupid!
In the University of Pittsburgh's Computer Engineering program, there is a mandatory department seminar, where the department informs us about our career options. Oftentimes, alumni come back to speak about the career opportunities in their field. It's all very, very dry, and as a result, nobody listens. They also fail to give one piece of advice that I would at the first seminar of every year, if I was ever asked to give one:
Don't work in cubicles, ever. Working in cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company. Imagine the smartest person you know, working in your field. Now imagine how they would react if they were told they're going to work in a box with no door or roof, allowing them no privacy.
They would no doubt leave that organization for one that is less creatively stifling. So unless you are convinced that you're stupid (and, in that case, you're in the wrong field) you shouldn't be accepting cubicles in your work place either. If the company will not or can not spend the money to create offices for its knowledge workers, so they can get into the zone, the odds of it creating a successful software product and capitalizing on it are about the same as you becoming a millionaire by going to Las Vegas, betting fifty on black, and letting it ride all night.
Cubicles do not automatically make an employee stupid; but it is one more barrier for you to climb over before you can create your own space to think. At my last workplace, the noise traveled. Everyone could hear everyone. An intern with nothing to do bullshitting with your boss, a co-worker venting about how he's not paid enough, the busybody secretary ordering people around with no authority. Not one single employee liked the set up, but without management's understanding, naturally nothing was done.
And for those management types who live in the dead end of corporate culture, if you don't believe noise is a big detriment to your productivity, just buy an electric drill or vacuum cleaner. Turn it on and let it run. Put it as close to your ear as humanly possible, and try to get work done.
It sounds like such a small thing to critical about, but like so many things in life, little things turn out to be extremely crucial. Little things snowball into bigger things. If people can't relax in their workplace, dealing with them becomes difficult, which creates friction where none should exist. That friction could destroy the delicate cohesion every team needs to maintain to produce software. So if you find that getting ready for work in the morning is a larger effort then getting ready to go out on a Friday night, maybe you should talk to your boss about making your workplace more accepting, or find a new one.
2 Just How Dumb is Management, Anyway?
Engineering n-tier enterprise level software is like navigating a minefield. There are countless potential disasters just waiting to happen. From creeping requirements to budgetary nightmares to horribly incorrect estimates, oftentimes it is not technical ability that makes or breaks a product; it is how all the other chainsaws are juggled. Your project is as dependent on the know how of your manager as it is your technical ability.
Since the inception of the term, software engineering, people have acknowledged that it is inherently hard to manage software projects. It is exponentially harder to have a superior that actually understands this, and is capable of both properly delegating and managing the complexity. Here are three major mistakes to look for in your manager. Take any of these as a sign that it is time to have that interview suit dry cleaned.
A. Thinks they know too much:
Is your superior an old hand, who's worked his way up from the trenches, but hasn't kept up with the pace of technology? Does he base his assumptions of how you should be doing things based off the way that he did things? So while you try to explain that the create_user_account module should call a stored procedure in the database to minimize the chance of SQL injection, he's showing you how easy it was to create a form in Access97. Questioning the methodology at work will often result with a "this is how we did it in the old days, and I don't see anything wrong with that!" New technology isn't likely to be adopted at its full potential in a workplace with a manager like this. Instead, you will end up grinding the same gears, only faster, louder, and harder.
B. Relies on, but disregards your technical advice:
Oftentimes, a non-technical manager, or an "old hand" who's edge is no longer sharp will be impressed enough to listen to your technical advice. If they were smart, they'd actually take it.
My former company had the unlucky experience of needing to reformat its single production server. While our DBAs tried to figure out what caused the crash, and how to fix it, I began talking to various other developers about what needed to be done if we had to recover from a worst-case scenario, where a reformat/reinstall was necessary.
I studied up on the re-install procedures, so that I could come in over a weekend, fix the sever, and have it ready so that everyone could work on Monday. I told my superior, who promptly disregarded it. That task was going to another employee, one who had no experience in setting the server up properly. If you find yourself in a situation where management is disregarding the sound technical advice they should be basing decisions on, you need to expedite your job search.
C. Schedule Bullies:
This one needs no explanation. If you tell management that it will take 8 days, and they turn around and tell you they think it will take six, you need to leave. Rushed work is almost always subpar. You will not learn sound defensive coding practices. If management does share your view of "I'm writing this, I'm the only one who can tell how long this is going to take." then you have an uphill battle explaining to your boss such difficult terms as quality or pride in your work. I wish you luck on that endeavor. It will be as fun as herding cats.
Remember, not all programmers make good managers, just like not all managers make good programmers. If your boss' skill set brings nothing to the table, don't expect to replace him anytime soon. Instead, get your references ready.
3. Personal Growth:
At my last job, I constantly felt dejected. "You're not growing fast enough! You're barely in the middle of the pack." was the kind of feedback I was getting from my supervisor. Much later, I realized they were setting employees up for failure, and then blaming the employee, instead of blaming themselves.
When it comes to growth, you need to consider two things about your company. Are you happy doing what you're happy doing? Do they have you developing in-house tools, when you'd rather be developing next-generation user interfaces? Are you finding yourself spending half your time fixing the network and pulling cable when you'd rather be developing a framework for your fellow developers?
The second thing you need to consider is what kind of options they offer for career advancement. Will the company you're working for pay for graduate schooling in your field? What about management classes? How about industry certifications? If the answer to any of those three is no, the company is trying to trap you, by removing the path most employees use to get better jobs: Expanding on their experience and education. Plenty of companies now offer this benefit to developers, so if yours doesn't, find one that does. You'll thank me when you have that nanotechnology Ph.D.
4. Compensation and Overtime.
If you're not happy with the amount of money that you're making, do a reality check. Find out what you're worth. If you are confident your compensation is inadequate, extend your superior the opportunity to rectify this mistake, and then start looking for jobs where you will be valued.
Overtime should also be considered along with compensation. If you're working too many hours at the office, and the company isn't doing whatever it takes to get you back down to a healthy 40 hour work week, then something is wrong. Is it because the network is breaking and none of you know what to do? Hire a network administrator with certifications. Are you talking to vendors and doing the legwork on products you might need later down the pipeline that a temp could do instead? Are you testing software instead of a full time tester?
While the occasional (paid) overtime is nice, long hours put more wear and tear on you, and over time, can cost you the passion you had for developing quality software. No amount of profit sharing, casual dress or office perk can get that back for you.
Final Thoughts:
Work is not all bad. A lot of employers say they want their employees to think work is fun. Few employers put their money where their mouth is, and difference is something you not only see - you feel it when you start working for those employers. After reading this, you should have some concrete feeling as to whether you feel your employer measures up, or whether you need to move on. If you start thinking more about your career and less about your particular job, you'll start to pay attention to those warning signs. And for those of you feeling those warning signs:
I'll offer you the same two words of advice that my friends gave me: Get out.
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
Cubicles are indeed the massive suck. But
TFA missed an important point on my list though.
Death By Meeting
If you find yourself in a repetitive slew of non-technical (read: sales and marketing) meetings filled with the scum of the earth (ok, maybe only if you work at a law firm), and you aren't either (a) some sort of S&M liason or (b) upper-management, something is very very nordically decomposed.
Re:article text (Score:2)
There are some points that are valid. There are a lot of points that would be better addressed by his Therapist. Cubicles and office doors being one of them.
In TFA he mentions that the really smart people should have doors. I don't know where he has been working but in the last 20 years of work in a variety of positions, some of which have nothing to do with management or software, there are no more cubicles in America. If you think you need one then you'll either have to work in a small company, your
You just described bad management (Score:5, Insightful)
No, not everyone. Only PHBs act like that. If the company you work for has to do all that charade, and you _still_ end up with massive overtime, you've just told me you have a complete idiot for a boss. And let me get back to one particular management idiocy there:
"If they didn't reduce the schedule from 8 to 6 days then they wouldn't be "productive"."
No. Measuring productivity like that has got to count as not just clueless, downright surrelistic lack of clue. And let me give you just one reason why.
In this job everything can be done in 1001 ways, and about 900 of them are bad shortcuts. They involve write-only code, lack of testing, and generally just hoping that the quickest and dirtiest and most unmaintainable hack will just work on the first try. If you cut someone's time by 25% you've just told them to take such a bad shortcut.
The result isn't just bad unmaintainable code (which _will_ bite you in the ass when you want to make a v2.0), and not only just buggy, but it might blow the deadline even worse. Debugging bad code takes a lot longer, and debugging (in one form or another) is what you do some 90% of the time. A shortcut that's nearly impossible to debug, and nearly impossible to change into something else (e.g., when debugging says that your very choice of algorithm was wrong) will likely take longer to be ready.
Or it may never be ready. Someone I know is still stuck in a project that should have been finished in the last quarter of _2002_. But yeah, they were always under pressure, so they skipped testing almost completely until the end of 2004, they always fixed bugs via the quickest hack that can sorta work, never had time to figure out a _consistent_ way to implement that spec, or to get a good spec out of the client for that matter, and so on.
Having to add fluff to justify the deadline wrangling game, again, adds complexity and adds places where bad shortcuts will bite you in the ass.
So that kind of approach "productivity" just means making a bad product.
A product's architecture and the allocated time should involve understanding the pros and cons of each approach. That's what design is all about: making an informed choice, and knowing the price you pay for that choice. (And there will _always_ be a price to pay. In some cases it will just be much smaller than the gains.) Replacing it with a sad game in which management pats just themselves on the back for imposing an arbitrary 25% to 75% without even asking what's the effect, is pretty much _the_ nemesis of any kind of good design.
Re:article text (Score:2, Informative)
I call bullshit here on several levels. I've worked in IT for an incredibly successful, multinational insurance brokerage for ten years, and as I look around the floor all I see are cubicles. When I go to the fifth floor, I see cubes. Sixt
Re:article text (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:article text (Score:2)
*gets out whips and chains* any upper management need a beatin'
Re:article text (Score:3, Interesting)
The company I work for is moving to a new office. I was quite directly involved in the space planning for the new office. I fought long and hard for private offices for our development staff, but the budget simply didn't allow it. Its not that offices are particularly more expensives than cubes, but the fact that a private wall arrangement takes up a LOT of space.. and space is expensive.
Instead, we really worked to put together a cubicle arrangement that optimizes the work space. We have social/meeti
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, "repetetive slew" might be a bit much, but if you do programming in the same area for a few years (billing, in my case), you're likely to get to a point where you know more about even the non-technical details of a problem than any of the users. These days, I'm annoyed when meetings about new billing features *don't* include me, because that means I'm probably going to get a spec with serious flaws.
Re:article text (Score:3, Funny)
Try working on something with
*sshhhtltpt.. dsh.. shshshsskhtpt.. dshh..*
All day long.
Re:article text (Score:2)
Embrace the cubicle...it's your life! Muhahahaha!
Re:article text (Score:2)
what's wrong with cubicles? (Score:3, Insightful)
Cubicles aren't always a bad thing. (Score:2)
When I worked as an IT employee for Northwest Airlines, for example, the building I worked in (MSP Building J, i.e. "the computer center") had a white noise generator in the center area that did a very good job of drowning out conversations that were more than ten feet or so away. One could easily stand up and talk to the person next to you thanks to the relatively low cube walls (I'm 6'1
Re:article text (Score:2, Insightful)
Most grad students have their schooling paid for them by their professor. (RAship) And they get a stipend. So it does compare.
It also does compare to slave labor, from what my friends have told me.
Re:article text (Score:5, Funny)
Run for the hills (literally), and try to get 100 miles from their nearest customer.
Re:article text (Score:2)
I was to be part of a team of highly skilled, versatile,
We were going to produce top-notch software for the nuclear power industry.
i agree, but dont run for the hills, either get a plane or a coffin(so others would have to make one for you).
who could possibly so %^#$@#%@ stupid, that he would build a system that needs to be up !25/8!(yes that is meant as 25 hours a day, 8 days a week) on a software that hasnt been proven to be stable for years in a row ? you CANT have a failure in plant with th
Re:article text (Score:4, Insightful)
nuclear plants would really be good off with some really old boxes running single threaded os's on them ( and that are backed up by some failover boxes just to be sure ). this way you have no lockups , no blue screens, no nuclear mushrooms over your city.
Waste of time. Run a modern design incapable of meltdown and use simple monitors where possible. Old, reliable is good, but address the root problem first. Oh, and nuke plants don't explode.
Re:article text (Score:3, Insightful)
Chernobyl !!!
Stuff it. You were talking about mushroom clouds, not overpressurized steam. Anyway, pebble-bed reactors don't behave like chernobyl.
Re: Chernobyl (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:2)
You forgot the most important part.
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, for someone who really seems to hate 'stupid', you are making a pretty big assumption. Just because they were writing sortware for the nuclear power industry, doesn't mean that they were writing reactor control systems. I mean, the nuclear power industry needs infrastructure databases like any other businuess.
Re:article text (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:article text (Score:2)
got a source for what those changes were and why they are bad? or are you simply trolling?
anyway i bet the kind of security you are talking about is securely running untrusted code on your systems something that is only relavent to a pretty small number of applications.
Re:article text (Score:3, Insightful)
I will grant you that all of this was directly associated with the operation of the reactor itself, but even if you're talking about somethin
Re:article text (Score:2)
I worked for a few years after graduating in the state-owned arm of the British nuclear industry (Magnox reactors).
The first thing to be aware of is that all of the nuclear reactors were protected by analogue safety circuits such as thermocouples, amplifiers, relays and LADDECs (sp?).
The reactors were either controlled manually with the control rods on a gang switch attached to a grumpy old man awaiting his early retirement golden wheelbarrow of cash, or simple analiogue feedback circuits overseen by said
Re:article text (Score:5, Interesting)
How about Wonderware, another prevalent suite of process control and data tools. They are moving to
How about all of the
And yes, I know for a fact that the nuclear power plant about 20-30 miles from me has
How about Mole? I have no clue what is running to actually collect the data (I did at one time, but it's been a while). It uses a SQL database as it's historian, so I would be incredibly surprised if someone wasn't developing or running some
As far as fear of nuclear plants goes, I don't have much. My fear is paper plants. Especially old paper plants that run the entire process from wood chips to paper. I'll never forget almost being forgot in one of the control rooms the day before christmas when they were evacuating half the plant due to a chemical leak...I don't remember what it was now, except that it was insanely deadly, in extremely small doses (.5 ppm?) it would kill your nasal receptors in a few seconds, so while it wasn't odorless it wasn't exactly something you could smell either...not to mention that that same small dose was capable of killing, not just you, but the person that tried to save you (clothing, skin contact), etc. There wasa case at a paper plant in SC or georgia where 5 people were taken out. Two ambulances took two of them each, bythe time they gotto the hospital the medical personal were already showing symptoms. The 5th guy was taken by his boss who had followed some safety procedures (get rid of the clothes, wrap in another cloth, then go to the hospital) and they still had to replace the backseat of his car...
Lastly, it would take a lot more than a computer crash to take down a reactor in such a waythat it would go critical, somehow ignore the multitude of safeguards, etc. I'm not sure you could purposely cause tht to happen, as so many safeguards are engineered in (there is no "Make it go boom" button). On top of that, there is a significant difference between sending a set of commands to a specific device in it's manufacturers specific protocol for that device and sending a burst of gibberish. What you do lose is some of your monitoring. I don't know as much about the monitoring at nuclear plants as I didn't work on that part at all, but at standard turbine plants they have two systems, the computers in the control room (Windows, Solaris, VMS, whatever) and either whatever equipment is left form the 50's (analog (pneumatic?) equipment, yes it's still out there) or LCDs. Either way it runs completely seperate from the data control software and systems.
Sorry for the extra ramble
Re:article text (Score:2)
Personally, I don't like to see a commodity operating system on a process network. Older, proprietary operating systems from Honeywell, Valmet, Rockwell, etc... are damn near bullet proof. When Windows NT was introduced the system availability went down from
Re: Wonderware, OPC, & .NET (Score:2)
Granted, on a completely closed network (a carefully restricted workgroup with NO connections to other PCs), OPC was a solution of sorts. However, the security and network issues are such that nobody in their right mind will allow an OPC connection (DCOM) in a normal network and expect it to support mission-critical applications. The right place for mission-cri
Re:article text (Score:5, Interesting)
This a big fallacy. When I started my job I shared an office with a coworker, but due to various moves to different buildings through the years I'm now in a cubicle. In fact, almost everyone in my building (all 5 floors) has a cubicle. The only people with offices are either high-level managers or executives. I would hardly say my company isn't successful, and the cubicle isn't so bad considering that I can work from home any time I want.
And I think you've heard of this company, it's called IBM.
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:2)
I've heard that the only way to get a raise in this day and age is to leave your job for another one.
Re:article text (Score:4, Insightful)
The bottom line, and my response to the article, is this : with rare exception, there is no such thing as company loyalty. A business is a business, and they will do whatever it takes to stay in business, even if it means laying off their most loyal employees. I learned a long time ago to treat a company as a shark while I act as the lamprey. Find "resume building activities" that can help you while helping the company reach their goals (making shitloads of money). Always look out for yourself and your family and your career first so you're not stuck when the company decides that your department no longer meets the companies needs.
I know it sounds bad, but I've been burned too many times over the past 10 years as a developer. I've also seen way too many friends burned as well. I've worked for some high profile companies in the past several years, and all of them ultimately put their needs over the needs of the employees. The faster you learn that this is the way the world works, the better off you'll be!
Re:article text (Score:2)
payscale.com is a good calculator, as is salaryexpert.com.
Re:article text (Score:4, Informative)
While we don't have kids, we do have a house and deep ties to the area.
SirWired
Re:article text (Score:2)
When I was associated with them (an indirect association), the IBM folks refered to IBM as "I've Been Moved"
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:article text (Score:5, Interesting)
Here were the signs that led me to leave:
Re:article text (Score:3, Interesting)
The only negative thing i have to say about HP is yet another moment of briliance by Carly, the 2 year congtracting tenure. Policy states that after 2 years as a contracter, you either go permenant, or go walk. As i'm working shift (it's 4:10am here and im at work) it suits me for convenie
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:2)
I have one.
And my income is the rents I receive from my RE assets. Although I still work for "the man", I know in less than a year I will be free from this ball-n-chain hellhole.
Yeah, that or bankrupt because you don't know what the hell you're doing. I've seen tons of idiots try that crap, something like 10% actually succeed. Have fun when the housing speculation bubble kills your RE "assets."
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't want to imply that happiness on the job is overrated, but very few of us can claim to be happy all, or even nearly all, of the time with our work--even the self-employed. For most of us, a significant chunk of whatever our given job is involves Sadly Boring Shit. Drudge work, waiting for work, paperwork about waiting for drudge work.
Do look out for warning signs about when to quit your job, sure. But make sure those aren't just signs of a bad day (or week, or even month). And if at all possible, get the next job before you quit the crappy one.
If you don't do that, make sure you're prepared for unemployment. Try to follow all the standard cliche advice: have enough money to live on for six months. (This means figuring out what your minimum outflow--housing, food, gas, utilities, other debt payments--is per month. A whole lot of people I know have no idea what this is.) You can expect to spend a month looking for work for every $10K of salary in the range you're looking for (I know people who've spent a lot less, yes, but I also know people who've spent well past that time)
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
Great point. The cubicle backlash is a tad extreme and the idea of being always happy at your job is probably getting too much airplay. You CAN be happy working in a cubicle and you can be miserable working in a job with an office.
Also, chances are, you're not working at Adobe or Microsoft, so you may need to realistically redefine what the employer has to provide for you to be "happy"...or you need to get a job at Adobe or Microsoft. Just because you boss doesn't let you bring your dog into the office, it may turn out that you can live with that concession if you try.
You make several other excellent points in a post worthy of a +5 insightful.
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
Depression limits focus and creativity, which will make any job more difficult, which leads to more depression; when little shit starts to bothers you, maybe its time to look at the comp package and use one or two of those sick days for mental health.
Everybody is going to go through a sitsuational depressions/burn-outs, and the first time is going to be a real whammy, after you've learned how you react to it and develope some compensitory behaviours it easy to nip it in the bud before its too self-reinforcing for self-help.
Re:article text (Score:4, Interesting)
In short, office != quiet.
My advice is to get an iPod and a pair of noise cancellation headphones. Make sure you turn your desk, or put up a mirror or something if you're easily startled...Every place I've ever worked, someone has thought it would be funny to try and "scare" me while I was doing this, and while this has never happened more than once, the reputation that goes with being a tightly-wound stress hound whose "fight" reflex beats the crap out of his "flight" reflex is no fun to live with, and hard to live down.
Re:article text (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to insinuate that noise sensitivity is only a factor for the depressed, I'd ask you to go take a Chainsaw into the next PGA match in your are
Re:article text (Score:4, Funny)
Had a boss once who liked flicking me on the ear when I was coding, and when I'm coding, I put on the headphones, get into tunnel vision mode, and tune out the whole world. Having someone sneak up on me and flick me on the ear when I'm like that is the psychic equvalent of getting smacked with a 2x4. I was pretty rational about it at first, but we were pretty good friends, and he thought it was funny...
He did it about 3 times, and on the fourth time I snapped. I can't remember ever being so mad...I was so mad it wasn't even like being mad. I had a real moment where I really thought I might attack him, not a little scuffle or anything, but seriously out for blood...really wavered on it for a moment...then I turned and put my fist through two layers of a prefab wall.
Not my finest hour. Though it does mark the only point in my programming career where I found a use for the ability to repair drywall.
That kind of crap is hardwired with me. Normally it's not much of an issue, because how often do you end up with people literally sneaking up on you in a business environment? Used to be really useful in college...I could crash on a couch after a party and no one would even think about pulling post-party pranks on me.
But the first thing I do when I get a new job, is find a place to put my desk where no one can walk up without me seeing them. Better safe than sorry.
Re:sitsuational depressions/burn-outs (Score:2)
cubicles considered harmful (Score:2)
Those aren't the only two choices. The best environment is to work in an XP-style project room, with everyone clustered around a central table full of machines, working in pairs, and able to trivially bat questions and design ideas back and forth.
The second-best environment to work in, if you and your team can solve the resulting communication issues, is a virtual office environment out of your own home. If
Re:article text (Score:5, Interesting)
besides it's no fun how can you have nerf wars in offices? and what happens when your neighor's gear catches fire while he's at lunch (happened to me) you'll notice in cubes (sniff sniff .... something's burning ...) maybe not in offices ....
Re:article text (Score:2, Interesting)
I second the nerf wars comment as well. Though storming someones office can and is an exiting challenge.
Re:article text (Score:3, Interesting)
If somebody in my team needs something from me, they say in a loud voice "Hey, Kiryat." I walk the 10 feet to their cube. We talk about it. If someone else in team has something to interject, they do so. If it's something that needs to be private (salary discussi
Re:article text (Score:5, Informative)
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
Environment as a warning (Score:3, Interesting)
> cubicles is the sure sign that you're not working for a successful company"
> is... well, a sure sign that the article's author hasn't worked at many
> companies.
Agreed. Cubicles can be an indicator, though. There are so many different styles. I would look at the working environment provided in the cubicle, and determine if it's mindless penny-pinching or part of a reasonable plan.
- Is the desktop space adequate for the
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. I've worked for some truly craptastic companies where everyone had their own office. I've also worked for several Fortune 500 companies where everyone except directors on up had cubicles. It has nothing to do with the success of the company whatsoever.
One naive, ignorant kid (Score:5, Interesting)
You're absolutely right. I don't know of a single large company that *doesn't* use cubes. It makes me question the writer's knowledge of...anything. He admits he didn't do anything to look for a job, didn't even bother to listen to alumni dispensing career advice because it was "all very, very dry." He grabbed the first one that made an offer, and got disillusioned when they canned him. Well, duh. Put a little effort into that job search, you'll have less chance of that happening.
There are other signs that make me think I'd like to hear management's side of the story. For one, he sounds like a prima donna. His sole qualification is a Bachelors in CS from a middle tier school, and he acts like he should be given the golden boy treatment in his first job. An office for a kid who knows .NET? Company car?!?!? Sorry, Charlie, the 90's are gone and that crap's over.
Also, he sounds a bit arrogant - implying that anyone over 40 doesn't know what they're doing, mentions that management didn't take his advice, etc. That could be true, or it could be that he's an arrogant little man who can't constructively work as part of a team.
I also wonder how good he was at his job - he says that management told him he wasn't picking up the work fast enough, and that he was just "barely middle of the pack." He says that was them "setting the employees up for failure." Yeah, that's one option. That or they don't think he's getting the job done.
Finally, this wasn't a mass firing. The impression I got was that he was selected to be let go among the team. He claims they blamed it on finances, but legally they would anyway, in all likelihood.
We only have one side of this story - it could well be another case of a kid coming out of college with a ton of arrogance, no respect for people who have a ton more experience than he, skills that didn't translate to his job, and a problem working with others. Perhaps there's a reason he was canned?
You're right, kid was clueless (Score:3, Insightful)
Agreed, this guy may have simply have been clueless.
"Oftentimes, a non-technical manager, or an "old hand" who's edge is no longer sharp will be impressed enough to listen to your technical advice. If the
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
You should think of yourself as somewhat of a free agent, not totally unlike a professional athlete. Money is the bottom line with any company and is independent of the behaviour of anyone in the company. Even employers "who put their money where their mouth is" are helpless if the money just isn't there for whatever reason.
So while your boss may be the nicest guy in the world able to inspire the troops through any adversity, if the money ever runs out then the troops will die, period. And blaming the employer is pointless, even if they deserve it. You have to think "I'm in this situation...how do I get out of it and if possible, how do I guard against it in the future". Let others waste time and energy whining. You can join in later...after you get your new job.
Some people may read this and think I have a totally self-centered attitude...and that'd be true to an extent. However it doesn't mean that you have to become a callous asshole. You can still be a nice, moral person. However, being nice doesn't mean you're a naive pushover. You have a duty to look out for yourself.
We're still in the growing pains of a new era in the American/Global economy where getting a job doesn't mean you can retire there if you so choose. Let this layoff be a wakeup call.
Re:article text (Score:2)
I couldn't agree more. I've been thinking along these lines for a long time. Of course, if you have a comfortable salary, and a busy work schedule, it isn't always easy to motivate yourself into looking for those better paying jobs...
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
On the contrary. I have a house, a wife and two kids to feed and take care of, and I applaud you for being determined giving them top priority. That means standing firm when management keeps asking for more.
I've heard colleagues regret putting their work at #1, only to be surprised when their spose says she was leaving tomorrow.
Re:article text (Score:2)
The result is that when layoffs happened, his core projects had just been completed and other departments were clamoring for his help and trying to get him to transfer, but since his devel
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:3, Funny)
I'm pretty sure he's not actually planning to spend that time with your wife. If he is, YOU should be concerned!
Very very wrong, IMHO (Score:5, Insightful)
Money is a means, not an end. You can't eat money, you can't get much entertainment out of just looking at a bunch of 100$ bills, etc. The question is what you can do with them to improve your life quality, not the number alone, like some screwed-up game score.
And before you lash back with "well, duh, with more money you can buy more stuff and be happier", no, that's still not getting it.
Yeah, you can buy a bigger plasma TV or some high-end stereo or whatever, but if you end up in a job where an asshole demands your presence there 14 hours a day, and occasionally that you bring a sleeping bag and don't leave until he sees some program ready (yes, I've actually seen such an asshole)... you won't actually have the _time_ to actually _use_ those. You'll just have time to eat and flop into bed.
Additionally, let's talk about happiness on the whole. Even if money could buy some happiness, it's not a linear scale. Twice the money doesn't make you twice as happy. So you gain, what? Maybe 5% extra happiness in those 4-5 hours at home. If the price to pay is anywhere between 8 and 14 hours of pure hell at work, I'd say on the average you're actually worse off.
Guarding against the future? Hah. I'll tell you what's more likely to happen, because I personally know people who chose to work for an asshole for a lot more pay. You know how much they've saved for the future? Well, one was telling me at the end of last week that he's some $2000 in debt... right after salary day. (And that's not counting the debts for his car, the house, etc.)
Welcome to the deathtrap of consumerism. See, most people who try too hard to believe that success is measured in money alone, and that more money can literally buy happiness... end up literally trying to buy it. Or failing that, trying to convince themselves that theirs is the right way. ("Hey, look how much stuff I can buy with that money! Of course it's worth it! Why, that's what success is all about!")
The guy I was mentioning above, we're good friends, so I hear about it each time he gets a raise or a promotion. Also when he buys new stuff. Guess what? Each raise was followed by an even bigger increase in how much he spends. Each time he'll just get a bigger car, a bigger computer, then military-grade IR goggles for when he goes fishing, then now a bigger house in a whole other (more fashionable) town. (Just in case those 12 hours a day at the office weren't enough, now he'll also spend an extra 2 hours commuting.)
Those in turn just dig the trap deeper. Now with all those monthly payments and being in debt he _has_ to keep at it.
So what did he _really_ get out of it? Well, from where I stand, it looks like he's got $2000 debt, plus the loans for the car and house, and some 12 hours a day of high stress. Now with the extra commuting, he only gets to see his infant son briefly before going to sleep, and on weekends. Yeah, way to go.
My advice? Forget it. I've saved a lot more on a lesser wage. Not falling into the "money is everything, and consumerism is the way to show it off" trap tends to have that effect.
Re:Very very wrong, IMHO (Score:2)
Right. Now some practical advice... (Score:5, Insightful)
The social contract is broken irretrievably, and we all need to adapt to the new reality. The new reality is, don't get too comfortable, keep the resume up to date, and move on the minute things are the slightest bit fishy. Some signs to look for:
o No more free pens in the stockroom, now the admin hands them out one by one and makes you sign for them.
o An all-company memorandum from the CEO shows up suddenly, responding to hallway rumors or soft-pedaling bad news.
o The perennial blame game between Sales, Marketing, and Engineering stops simmering and comes to a full boil in the hallway.
o A top executive (any top executive) leaves mysteriously.
o Sales guys start leaving (more than one is big trouble)
o "The Board" starts poking around and introducing themselves to people.
o A routine purchase request for equipment is turned down, regardless of justifications presented.
o There is an odd new emphasis on collections activity.
o "Investors" start showing up for tours of the engineering department.
o The annual customer conference is canceled or postponed.
o A delivery date is moved forward inexplicably, without consulting the engineers on the project.
o It is impossible to get a reasonable explanation from your boss for a clearly unreasonable situation or request.
o You are asked to stop work and "document" your project at a time that seems inappropriate and wrong.
o You are asked to sign any document "acknowledging" your equity position (if any), when it should be abundantly clear what your equity position is.
One small way to protect yourself (and to acquire information about the company's activities that they would not normally share with you) is to take advantage of any stock purchase plan (real stock, not options) put forward, and buy a few shares (preferably as few as possible). This will at least make you privy to the legal documents around acquisition scenarios and so on.
But the best way to protect yourself is to get the resume engine revved up the minute you see the warning signs above. No need to delay. Get the hell out.
Re:Right. Now some practical advice... (Score:2)
Re:Right. Now some practical advice... (Score:2)
-Recently vacated positions are not advertised nor refilled.
-More talk behind closed doors by management than usual.
-Consequently, management starts evading/ignoring their previous open-door policies.
-Management, seen talking in the hallways, stops talking when others pass.
-All equipment is re-inventoried.
-No more "free food" in the kitchen area after meetings.
-Any requests for vacations are begrudgingly given, and your contact info is required, just "in case."
-Visits from the lawyers become frequent
Re:Very very wrong, IMHO (Score:2)
Yes, time must also be figured in as well. It is more valuble than money because you only have a l
Re:Very very wrong, IMHO (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Very very wrong, IMHO (Score:2)
Heh. Jealous of him? Dude, I _pity_ him. I wish I could help him, but I'm not even sure how. Trade places? Why? I'm paid a lot more than I spend, I have all I need, and unlike him I have the time to enjoy it too. Why on Earth would I even consider trading places with some broken insecure slave like that?
Sound like you're just the
Economic change (Score:2)
Low-end workers (i.e., those easily replaced - burger flippers, entry level anything) are treated like cattle. Higher end workers, unless they own a piece of the company, are tolerated as long at their pay packages doen't get too high.
The rise of the 'independant consultant' on long-term contract seems the best way to go. At my firm, we have two people I work with daily who are full employees, but t
more warning signs (Score:2, Insightful)
If management is saying things that everyone in the room knows to be lies then you've got a major problem.
If new people are coming in and making things worse, you've got an incurable problem. "A players hire A players, B players hire C players". You cannot fix that kind of death spiral by working hard or even by working brilliantly.
How do you tell if you're job-jumping too quickly, overreacting to normal frustrat
obligitory question (Score:3, Interesting)
Then how do you get B players?
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
Offices are expensive. If you're THAT bothered by distractions, you can buy huge jars of very good foam earplugs for like $8 at your local drugstore. You don't need to hear everything going on around you. You don't need to see it either. Wear earplugs for a few weeks. Realize how little you're missing by not paying attention to everything around you. Soon, you'll likely develop virtual earplugs that will serve you just as well, and cost nothing.
Demanding that your employer provide the workforce with offices is saying "I require that you quadruple your rent to suit me." It is very, very unlikely that you are that much better than everyone else, nearly all of whom work just fine in cubes.
Your complaints about poor management, though, are spot-on. That is the telltale of a bad company. If you realize that the management is dumb, get the hell out.
THAT'S your sign, not cubicles.
Re:article text (Score:2)
I don't see the not letting the new kid fresh out of school handle the reinstallation of an important production server as a sign of stupidity, though.
Re:article text (Score:2)
Or, get a pair of headphones and listen to some music while you work... It should be up to you to know what does/doesn't increase your productivity.
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:4, Insightful)
As for "companies with cubicles are doomed", how does that explain Intel? IIRC they were kicking ass and taking names under Andy Grove's watch, and HE worked in a cubicle along with everyone else at his insistence.
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:5, Insightful)
The article's author should consider himself fortunate to have landed a job without even looking for one. The next time around, when he actually puts some effort into finding a job at a good company instead of taking whatever falls into his lap, maybe he'll actually have a job he enjoys at a company that treats him right.
.NET Ninjas (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think that I've bumped into any of those, are they like Tae Kwon Do-Dos?
Re:article text (Score:2, Insightful)
"If you're not happy with the amount of money that you're making, do a reality check. Find out what you're worth."
To me it feels like he's saying, "You're worth more than you think you are, you could do better!". Well if everyone thinks they're worth a million bucks
"Price" versus "worth" (Score:2)
Similarly, a CEO who presides over a long decline in stock valuation charges a high price for his services but the shareholders will probably not consider him worth much.
On a more prosaic level, while hiring Java programmers, I have found that there was little difference in ability between high-paid contractors and relatively low-paid staff. The only striking di
Re:"Price" versus "worth" (Score:2)
You know, even though I know people who fit that description, it still makes my head hurt. It's not like they're being asked to overload an operator in C++ (which can be a little bit of a pain) because Java won't let you do that (or at least it didn't. I don't know if 1.5 changed that).
I find it depressing.
Re:"Price" versus "worth" (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:3, Insightful)
The one time I worked in a cubicle, it was not only hard to concentrate over the noise, but you lacked privacy and it seemed Big Brother was watching you, plus it also seemed like you were valued less, this was a step down from my offices of past.
It did help you not work and chat to your neighbour instead though.... Nice one management.
"2 Just How Dumb is Management, Anyway?"
Never underestimate the power of the Dark Side.
I've worked for managers who are knowledgeable ex-progra
I do get personal growth at work (Score:2)
This really is your first job isn't it?!
You never get the opportunity for growth at work. You'll only ever get training if it's free or has something directly to do with a task at hand and not the possibility of training you for your next job outside the company. Your boss is always mindful of people who could fill his shoes.
Personal growth is achieved by taking in a "Learn X in 21 Days" book and reading it in the slow times. Or surfing www.X-programming.com then getting a job at a
Re:I do get personal growth at work (Score:2)
But, uhmm.. how'd you get past those HR guys?
They keep telling me I need the skills!
Re:I do get personal growth at work (Score:2)
But, uhmm.. how'd you get past those HR guys?
They keep telling me I need the skills!
Some consulting companies require that you have experience of the exact make and model of the stuff that they are consulting on (specified like so: 18 months experience of BEA WebLogic 8.1 SP2). Companies like that are probably boring to work at, and will have problems hiring very soon if not already.
Otherwise you only need to make plausible that you have basic soft
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:2, Insightful)
Some time ago at work, we had a bit of a fire that needed to be put out with one of our products. Everyone assumed that the guy with the most knowledge of that part of the product (let's call him "Joe") would be the one to take care of it. The boss ignored this, and assigned the work to me. Joe and I were both very stunned at this, because I had never even looked at the
No Cubicles? Get over yourself (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:2)
Re:article text (Score:4, Insightful)
".NET Ninjas"
"our kung fu grip on
"We all hoped to have company cars..."
"Only one thing kept me going -- pure ego."
"Don't work in cubicles, ever."
"knowledge workers, so they can get into the zone"
"Put it as close to your ear as humanly possible"
"disregards your technical advice...If they were smart, they'd actually take it"
"I studied up on the re-install procedures...That task was going to another employee"
"Schedule Bullies...I'm writing this, I'm the only one who can tell how long this is going to take"
"have you developing in-house tools, when you'd rather be developing next-generation user interfaces"
"What about management classes?"
"If you are confident your compensation is inadequate, extend your superior the opportunity to rectify this mistake"
Perhaps some of this was involved with their decision that there wasn't enough money to continue your employment??