I'm taking a break for a month or two. I want to spend this transitional period to learn new craft; python is number one on the list. I should also catch up with frontend, as I have been doing only backend php stuff in the last few years. I also want to learn the basics of video editing, as a hobby. Active recreation, while licking my wounds and trying not to be this very disappointed -- that's the plan. ;)
Versatile software engineer with a background in .NET consulting and CMS development. Working on regaining my embedded development skills to get more involved with IoT opportunities.
I just did this. I was re-hired by a consultancy I used to work at (and almost got fired at) because they needed a strong .NET team lead. I thought I was set...principal consultant and team lead by age 27? I let that shit get to my head way too much. When I was brought in everything was a disaster. The .NET team had been without a lead for several months, and half my team was distributed so I was unable to directly interact with them at all.
A lot had changed in the company and I was thrown into the fray with no training on how to be a manager, what their management methodology was around here, what my roles and responsibilities were, nothing. Instead of the week long orientation employees are supposed to get, I was given a condensed 4 hour version which was basically filling out HR forms.
I had no authority to make clean code a goal or to fight technical debt. We had a "development" manager who had been at the company a lot longer than me (was actually my old supervisor), but on the org chart we were equals and both reported to the VP of Application Solutions. He incessantly micromanaged me and the project teams I was on and would contradict everything I had tried to put in place. "We're just proving this (offshore development model) thing works; you can't be wasting time focusing on things like that." "This sprint has to succeed, how many hours did you just waste fixing bugs? How are we going to win the client's trust if we don't succeed this sprint?" (It was a bug in password generation...)
There was a lot of obsession with "successful" sprints where if all the work didn't get completed, it was a "failed" sprint, as if all the work we had done was in vain. For reasons never explained to me, I wasn't allowed to take tasks off the table even though I was supposedly in charge. I basically had no authority and was constantly getting lectured about how this isn't how a principal consultant acts or I can't blame the client constantly for all the technical debt and lack of documentation, I still have to meet sprint deadlines which were estimated when I had 0 knowledge of the underlying system.
I quit, I did so quite unprofessionally unapparently. But I live in a "right to work" state, so I guess it is unprofessional when I use my rights under that to leave immediately without having to give reason, but it's cool for them when they fire people without warning? I've never been so stressed in my life.
The only mistake I made was I did not have substantial savings for my time off. I actually intended to try and start consulting independently, but my efforts keep failing and I am broke as hell. I found a much more independent job on a team which takes pride in their code instead of passing over half-assed projects to clients and patting ourselves on the pack for how much "business value" we added.
The time off has been really helpful in terms of learning. I am starting to get a grasp on DevOps, I reconnected with embedded devices as a hobby, and realized I don't really want to be a full-stack .NET guy anymore. I've been learning Ruby and am looking for open-source projects to help out on to make a name for myself. Three more weeks and back to the job!
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I'm taking a break for a month or two. I want to spend this transitional period to learn new craft; python is number one on the list. I should also catch up with frontend, as I have been doing only backend php stuff in the last few years. I also want to learn the basics of video editing, as a hobby. Active recreation, while licking my wounds and trying not to be this very disappointed -- that's the plan. ;)
I just did this. I was re-hired by a consultancy I used to work at (and almost got fired at) because they needed a strong .NET team lead. I thought I was set...principal consultant and team lead by age 27? I let that shit get to my head way too much. When I was brought in everything was a disaster. The .NET team had been without a lead for several months, and half my team was distributed so I was unable to directly interact with them at all.
A lot had changed in the company and I was thrown into the fray with no training on how to be a manager, what their management methodology was around here, what my roles and responsibilities were, nothing. Instead of the week long orientation employees are supposed to get, I was given a condensed 4 hour version which was basically filling out HR forms.
I had no authority to make clean code a goal or to fight technical debt. We had a "development" manager who had been at the company a lot longer than me (was actually my old supervisor), but on the org chart we were equals and both reported to the VP of Application Solutions. He incessantly micromanaged me and the project teams I was on and would contradict everything I had tried to put in place. "We're just proving this (offshore development model) thing works; you can't be wasting time focusing on things like that." "This sprint has to succeed, how many hours did you just waste fixing bugs? How are we going to win the client's trust if we don't succeed this sprint?" (It was a bug in password generation...)
There was a lot of obsession with "successful" sprints where if all the work didn't get completed, it was a "failed" sprint, as if all the work we had done was in vain. For reasons never explained to me, I wasn't allowed to take tasks off the table even though I was supposedly in charge. I basically had no authority and was constantly getting lectured about how this isn't how a principal consultant acts or I can't blame the client constantly for all the technical debt and lack of documentation, I still have to meet sprint deadlines which were estimated when I had 0 knowledge of the underlying system.
I quit, I did so quite unprofessionally unapparently. But I live in a "right to work" state, so I guess it is unprofessional when I use my rights under that to leave immediately without having to give reason, but it's cool for them when they fire people without warning? I've never been so stressed in my life.
The only mistake I made was I did not have substantial savings for my time off. I actually intended to try and start consulting independently, but my efforts keep failing and I am broke as hell. I found a much more independent job on a team which takes pride in their code instead of passing over half-assed projects to clients and patting ourselves on the pack for how much "business value" we added.
The time off has been really helpful in terms of learning. I am starting to get a grasp on DevOps, I reconnected with embedded devices as a hobby, and realized I don't really want to be a full-stack .NET guy anymore. I've been learning Ruby and am looking for open-source projects to help out on to make a name for myself. Three more weeks and back to the job!