ccdev

I like to program for a living, but I'd like to do it without facing the pressures of moving up the ranks to management, or to lead this project, or mentor people, or initiate an important business move.

What kind of programming jobs should I look for, that are not anchored to a career mindset of growth?

I'm fine just programming in the trenches to solve technical challenges, and am into learning new tools and languages over time. I go from job to job, at smallish companies, feel out the company (which doesn't take long once I find similarities with past jobs), stay for about 1.5 to 2 years and then move on to the next job.

I just have this other requirement: I want to keep working for companies/institutions, and have a boss. I am NOT interested in going freelance.

I have worked for businesses that lean towards the very small side. This has become somewhat of a hassle to me, especially when I turned into telecommute work, because I have hardly anyone to talk to about software development process and life cycle, and what impact our work has whenever we finish a milestone. If someone tells me to do XYZ, I just do XYZ without giving it much more thought but nobody explicitly states on the why this is important to company goals.

Now with eight years of work under my belt, people expect someone of my tenure to be able to demonstrate knowledge of the big picture. They will want to hire someone who makes waves.

When I was just starting out my expected career path would have taken me into a senior, then lead developer position, and probably become a software architect. But right now, eight years of work later, I am nowhere near capable to hold any of those roles. I couldn't make waves, even at a small company.

My work history and resume give the impression that my career has stalled. I honestly don't know what looks worse- an inexperienced graduate who's gone a year without work, or an experienced person whose career has stalled and currently doesn't have work.

But anyhow, I'm trying to write some "impact statements" on previous jobs and my mind's drawing a blank. How can I understand how it helped the company when so many aspects were black-boxed from me?

A mention of Chinese-made developer frameworks was brought up in a different website's discussion, so that got me curious to ask this question. What development software, libraries, or frameworks are developed in Asia?

Also, how did that turn out? Did your business become profitable to the point where it replaced the need to look for a job?

I'm curious if you've ever been driven to start a business simply you had little or no alternative choice for making a living.

The business could be any kind of legitimate enterprise big or small. Doesn't need to necessarily be software or tech related, could be something from more traditional trades or disciplines.

I freelance remotely, making roughly $1200 a month as a programmer because I only work 10 hours maximum each week (limited by my contract). I share the apartment with my mom, and It's a section 8 so our rent contributions are based on the income we make. My contribution towards rent is $400 a month.

Although I make more money than my mom (she's of retirement age and only works 1-2 days a week), while I'm looking for more work I want to figure out how to move out and live more independently on only $1200 a month.

I need to live frugally and want to know what I can cut more easily. I own a used car (already paid in full), and pay my own car insurance, electricity, phone and internet. After all that I have about $400 left each month which can be eaten up by going out or some emergency funds.

More recently I had to pay for my new city parking sticker so that's $100 more in expenses this particular month. I would be satisfied just living in a far off town paying the same $400 a month, I feel my dollars would stretch further since I now get 100% more privacy for the same price.

On top of that this job is a contract job so I need to put money aside to pay my own taxes. This $1200 is basically living on poverty level. Any ideas to make saving work? Is it very possible for people in the US to still save while on poverty?

I have a career that's filled with many contract and/or part-time jobs. I started out with two part time developer jobs in college. Since then, it's been mostly contract jobs.

Most of my contracts aren't the kind that pay you well for some highly specialized knowledge. They're the kind of contracts that pay low because the companies don't want to pay employer taxes, or they simply don't have available work to justify a FT hire. Being hired as a contractor, I'm not expected to grow within the company, and these are small companies so it's difficult to build a good network. I don't stay longer than 18 months at any given place.

My last four years were also fully remote jobs. On one hand, it feels better to have companies trust you well enough with more autonomy. But being less visible also lessens the chance for promotions, contacts, or career growth.

My network isn't really that great, and I have a small circle of friends, none whom can provide good leads in the industry I work in.

Recruiters contact me a lot about FT jobs but any interviews I get through them never turn into offers. All my jobs offers have started out with cold applying, shotgunning resumes. All these rejections for FT jobs make me feel uneasy, and I'm tired of the rat race. I have a non-STEM degree and don't know if it also matters or not.

So I am at a standstill on how to build up my reputation after wasting so much time not building it.

I've set aside these two options:

1. Return to college to properly get a related degree, leverage that channel to get an internship and/or a full time non-contractor position upon graduation.

2. Keep applying to larger companies for FT jobs, and interview prep. I don't know of any good reliable sources for interview practice, but I did have one good mock interview with a local developer. He's just too busy to follow up with.

I am open to other options, if you have any suggestions on my first course of action.

Hello, I have to ask something about my abilities as a developer in a professional capacity. But I also have to rant. I feel very inadequate. And I don't really think it's just impostor syndrome anymore.

Reason 1 for feeling inadequate: I do not have a proper CS degree. Although this seems like the least problematic thing for many people.

Reason 2: I lack a good network for my years of experience. I rarely follow up with co-workers because I'm asocial. My closer friends also can't tell apart a programmer from an IT employee. So they're not good for leads.

Reason 3: I am probably an Expert Beginner. A chronic problem if you're 10 years experienced like me.

Reason 4: I'm grossly underpaid for my local area, living in a big city.

My objective and description: Web developer of ~10 years experience with Arts degree seeking low level embedded work, and gradually working into a semiconductor company to do work that's more interesting to me. I'm super burned out on web development and want to get away from it.

With my experience, several people have told me that going back to college is a waste of time. But I don't know about that. My applications get ignored in certain roles and departments I'm targeting. These companies go ahead and hire entry level CS graduates for these departments. People with little real world corporate experience get picked over me. I feel like a washed up NBA pro that loses 1-on-1 to many college rookies.

But I see "Experience trumps college!" being parroted around a whole lot, as if your length of job experience is the only relevant variable. People should really stop saying that. They place zero recognition of other variables that affect the individual's chances to land their target job, or even to get the first interview.

So is my inadequacy grounded in reality? Is it really true that I am as bad as I think? I can't tell what is dominating me more, impostor syndrome or real lack in ability.

Looking for a system that makes it as easy to refund money just as it allows purchases. This will greatly reduce inconveniences that come from fraudulent purchases or purchases made on your own but decided to renege later. I don't like the whole asymmetry of instant payments and waiting several days to process refunds.

Also the payment system must be able to link to bank accounts (retaining the same swiftness to update balances via refunds), and not use cryptocurrency. What payment systems would fit this criteria?

I'm a mid-level software engineer myself, and have had troubles applying to MS which is one of the big tech companies I'm interested in joining. But I've been having some odd experiences with them, and asking people who are familiar with the Redmond WA jobs, or have worked there before, to help shed some light on it. I've drawn interest from MS recruiters to apply to the company, but could never get into the interviewing rounds.

In mid 2016 I was contacted by a Talent Acquisition Specialist from MS. First via LinkedIn, then it went to email. The TAS told me to do three things: RVSP to a company hiring event (in the Redmond WA area) from a link she sent to me, apply to some positions at departments of my choice, and fill out a pre-screening form. I did all three, and when I asked when I could expect a response, but I never got one.

This scenario repeated itself again in 2017, with a different TAS, except there was no pre-screening form. But he was late in replying, to the point where the hiring event already ended before they could move me into the interview process. There is no phone number listed in their emails to call them at, and they just keep failing to reply to my messages via email and LinkedIn. (and yes they still work in Microsoft last time I checked)

So why is this happening, and what can I do to make sure they reply more quickly to me and I won't get forgotten?

I'm not talking about switching professions at some point in your life. More specifically, doing your career over again in the same profession, in order to redeem your past failing career.

Either you got "too comfy" in your job, didn't learn much, then found a very tough time being a good fit for other jobs. Or you simply have stopped being a good hire for other reasons. What did you do to redeem yourself in the eyes of your respective industry?