Obviously you do you and you do not owe anyone anything (least of all your employer).
However, something does not sit well with me about the fact that we’ve created a system where the most driven and ambitious people are removed from the production process as quickly as possible.
Yes. I have worked in a financial company and a lot of teams in that particular company were structured with 2 or 3 Americans with no skills other than exposure to internal company info, the kind of stuff that should just be written down in a wiki somewhere. And when real work needs to be done they (metaphorically of course) drag an Indian contractor out of a cage who actually knows what’s going on and how to do anything. And they do it with disdain as if being a contributing member of society is a bad thing.
Just being in a meeting with some of these teams made me feel like I was a Harkonnen from Dune.
I’m probably a freak, but I can’t stand working on something complex, being pulled away from it for a week or two, and not being able to pick things back up because it’s not documented well. Especially when I’m the only person to blame.
I also make scripts and programs with the goal to hand them off when I’m done. I’ve got more than enough to keep me busy at work without having to be the only person able to support my projects forevermore. Ultimately I’m still the go to, but I never want to be so critical that I can’t take time off, or that I’m effectively on call 24/7. I want the credit, but the whole point is to reduce responsibility by making shit more efficient and easy.
I’m always astounded how eager the average software engineer is to trade away actual coding work for busybody overhead crap jobs.
Guess which one pays better and gives me more free time to work on my own passion projects.
Obviously you do you and you do not owe anyone anything (least of all your employer).
However, something does not sit well with me about the fact that we’ve created a system where the most driven and ambitious people are removed from the production process as quickly as possible.
It says A LOT about what we value as an industry.
Yes. I have worked in a financial company and a lot of teams in that particular company were structured with 2 or 3 Americans with no skills other than exposure to internal company info, the kind of stuff that should just be written down in a wiki somewhere. And when real work needs to be done they (metaphorically of course) drag an Indian contractor out of a cage who actually knows what’s going on and how to do anything. And they do it with disdain as if being a contributing member of society is a bad thing.
Just being in a meeting with some of these teams made me feel like I was a Harkonnen from Dune.
Oh, you’ve misjudged my drive and ambition.
Often the only way to progress is to take a role where you spend hours each day edging middle management.
What is “progress”?
Higher salary, usually
The corollary is - I’m surprised how many programmers are opposed to documenting what they’re doing?
I’m probably a freak, but I can’t stand working on something complex, being pulled away from it for a week or two, and not being able to pick things back up because it’s not documented well. Especially when I’m the only person to blame.
I also make scripts and programs with the goal to hand them off when I’m done. I’ve got more than enough to keep me busy at work without having to be the only person able to support my projects forevermore. Ultimately I’m still the go to, but I never want to be so critical that I can’t take time off, or that I’m effectively on call 24/7. I want the credit, but the whole point is to reduce responsibility by making shit more efficient and easy.
That’s not what I meant. You know that.