Comments on: Advice to a young developer

By: Ashish

Ashish — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:28:40 +0000

I always try to explain this thing in a different way. Companies are like big zig-saw puzzles (most of the time), and people are like small pieces that fit together and complete the picture. My experience is, all of us have to find out right fitments, and its not as easy as it seems.
Exit is always not the only option, yeah your advice is very practical, if you get no on multiple dimensions, its better to exit. I had been in this situation myself, but rather than just calling it good bye, started thinking, is the problem in me or I am in wrong place? I gave myself a good one long year and finally concluded something :-)
You have to wait a couple of weeks before I can disclose that secret.

By: WazzaM

WazzaM — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:40:08 +0000

Here’s a trick: If the developer sticks with it and finds strategies for dealing with FOO’s deficiencies as a dev environment, he or she could be very valuable indeed. It could be a career maker, especially given the value of the projects as described – each project is high value and clearly it is very saleable.

So the trick is, find ways to work around the issues. Ask the team to help. Make heroes of all of you. The funny thing is that if you become valuable enough, you can then push to get other environments in the mix – I really want “xyz” Mr Boss as this is becoming popular in the market and it’s also important to retain staff. If seen as a leader who delivers, they’d be nuts not to listen to this.

By: links for 2008-04-25 « D e j a m e S e r

links for 2008-04-25 « D e j a m e S e r — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:32:45 +0000

[...] Alex Miller – Advice to a young developer (tags: career development) [...]

By: Ikenna Okpala

Ikenna Okpala — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:14:14 +0000

Hi,

i really like this article. Nine Months ago i was also faced with this same issue. we had ancient app with a lot of bugs and was practically frustrating everyone in my Team.

i tried to change things, but the CTO and initial developer of the app was not flexible to change, he preferred a one way traffic.

i found out after all struggles, that my personal growth, responsibility, leadership, salary, benefits, flexibility, were not really improving, then i decided to leave and do things one at a time.

this has really help me and now i really am happy.

By: Ian Robinson

Ian Robinson — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:11:15 +0000

I spent a number of years battling as the Lead Developer in the sort of environment described. I found myself in a position whereby I was passionate about my team and the work they did, but did not care for the work my employer did or if I kept the job at all. This turned out to be quite liberating and although I may have become the proverbial thorn in management’s side, I was able to really effect some change (I hope for the better).

I have since left this world behind and now work freelance. At the time my team probably felt that management had finally beaten me into submission. Perhaps they were right, though I prefer to think that I had achieved more than I had hoped to and stayed longer than I intended.

Despite the stress, frustration and pain, I look back on it as perhaps the most rewarding period of my career so far. It shaped who I am and convinced me that change is possible and worth striving for.

My advice would be to have an exit strategy, but to stick it out and see what you can do to make things better. It could be your legacy.

And I also echo the sentiment that free advice is worth what you pay for it! :)