It is often not possible to get all three
1. job satisfaction and meaning
2. money
3. lifestyle
Most jobs can give you 2 out of 3. You may have to adopt a side hustle to fullfil the missing piece.
Tag: career
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Last week a senior software engineer who has deep knowledge in a very specialized and high value skill (Machine Learning) for our company asked me for advice on getting more exposure and impact for her work. She was in a situation where her skills and opinions are sought after by senior leaders in engineering, product management and individual contributors.
I suggested that she start drafting up a 2 year plan, pretend that she has already been promoted 2 levels higher than she is now, and when she meets people at different levels, she can talk to them about that specific level that fits the audience. The most interesting part of my proposal is that she mentally get over the hump that she is not senior enough. I have seen very high potential individuals who are not as qualify as her really shine by operating in the next level. She is uniquely qualify because she is so deeply knowledgable in her area.
The artifact of this 2 year plan, is that she is able to pull it up and talk to product mangers to plan what the next step is, it’s a way to communicate an idea and roadmap clearly, it’s a great way to talk with VP of engineering about what to invest in and an anchoring document to validate whether new architectures align well with the plan. The plan should spell out very clearly the gap between where the company wants to be and where we are now. It should also spell out the level of investment that is needed to get from point A to point B.
I do hesitate whether this is way too bold. Whether this is even possible to operate at 2 levels removed. I personally have not done it, but I also never process the skills needed to be deep in one area. My suggestion would collaborate with someone who is the right place organizationally and also already operating at 2 levels above.
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I have been mentoring several engineers and a common theme has emerged.
We often don’t spend enough time actively managing our own career.
These are the positive steps you should ask yourself.
1) The things I am working on right now, are they important and will they help further my career?
2) If they are not, perhaps I should stop doing them or hand them off to a junior person who wants that responsibility
3) Who in the organization would give me an honest opinion besides my manager?
4) What do I want to be in 3 years and is what I am doing getting me there?Another good exercise is to write your year end review in the beginning of the year and you will notice what is glaring obvious.
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I have been getting the same question recently. Wow, you have been around for 8 years at Yahoo News? What makes you stay?
I think I’ll have to write it down to clear it up for myself.
- The grass is not always greener over at Google, Amazon, the next startup. Look yourself in the mirror when you start to complain about the company. You are most likely the culprit.
- There is a certain amount of trust and influence I can leverage because I’ve been around for so long.
- There is still so much more to do at Y! News, the game is just starting to get interesting as we scale up the number of engineers and number of users
- I’ve been through ups and down of being on call 24×7, working my ass off coding, launching products, mentoring new engineers, influencing and convincing others to follow. It’s always been challenging in different ways. Now my job is less about coding, more about helping other succeed and it’s even more challenging. I think I take pride in being able to stick to something long term and seeing successful outcome of my commitment
- The goal of reaching 100 million users in 5 years?
- It’s odd, but I can find enjoyment in the various parts of my job. From the mundane, to the heart pounding excitement of launching a product, troubleshooting an urgent issue, figuring out a solution to a long term engineering problem. I simply still enjoy my job.
- I see a bright future for Y! News and Yahoo!
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1. there is so much potential upside to the stock and for the company. It’s still the #1 (2008) web property in the world and lots of new projects and direction changes only can mean good things in the future
2. there is so much to do, for someone who can take the initiative, he can still make a lot of contributions.
3. the founders are getting their hands dirty and building safeguards in place to keep their key employees happy
4. the microsoft deal is just a validation of how valuable Yahoo! is. Whether the deal go through or not, it’s really not important. Yahoo! is very valuable as a standalone entity or as a part of any other company.
5. users still love love Yahoo! it’s been proven over 13 years, period. People vote with their clicks.You should read If I were a Google employee and ‘My Perspective On Working‘
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I worked for SGI from 1993-1999 and was bleeding SGI blood. I was the cheerleader for the company and our group. I left SGI when the company just couldn’t deliver the financial results it promised.
A friend from SGI mentioned to me that when I left SGI, I swore I would not be emotionally involved with a company again. I don’t remember saying that, but I’m sure I did. Now looking at where I am, I’m very positive about Yahoo! and many words have been used to describe me. the lifer, old timer, company man, ancient timer, true yahoo.
My perspective on work is that whatever company I am in, make the best of it. Don’t complaint too much, put my energy towards something that I can make a difference. Look at the mirror when I want to complaint and see if I am making things better. Find something I want to change and keep on pushing for it.
Like Chris (co-worker) says, it’s like pushing jello uphill. But if I don’t tackle it, no one else will. While I’m getting paid good money, I vow to keep on pushing the jello. Until one day for whatever reason I part with the company, my next company, I’ll be pushing jello again.
Read ‘My Perspective On Working‘
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Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want in life or at work, you will be surprised how many times the answer is YES or even maybe. Just prepare for the NO answer, and that is ok.
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It has happened to me so many times now I think I’ll just have to accept it and just go with the flow.
Trying to explain what a software engineer does for Yahoo! News to people I meet or family members has been interesting. Here is a sample conversation with a friend I met.Friend: “So what do you do for Yahoo!?”
Me: “I’m a software engineer for Yahoo! News”
Friend: chew on some noodles..
Me: “Well, I write instructions for the machines so that everything is automated and even when I’m not at my desk the web site is updating”
Friend: “oh! you don’t type up the news for them?”
Me: I start cracking up.. No no, I don’t. News comes from satellite or from the internet, I write…. I see the blank stare..
Me: Here is my usual answer: You ever watched The Matrix? You know that green screen where all these non sense characters are flowing by? That is the screen I usually stare at all day long except the characters does make sense
Friend: Hmm, ok, continue chewing noodles
Me: I’m a highly paid equivalent to a VCR programmer. Thought bubble: “It’s not that hard to understand, someone has to write the software for you web surfers to use web site”
Friend: I’m sure you are good at what you do. Is that your pager going off? Are you tech support or something? I know what they do, they fix my Windows machineMakes for funny conversations if the blank stare doesn’t come on too early.
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The photo is of my holding my Treo phone, my daughter Cate was taking a photo of me taking a photo of her.
My dad was the person who pushed me into software engineering in college (I was drifting a bit with no goals)
But after working for 5 years in SGI, my dad saw how crazy my hours were and commented to me to start preparing myself to exit the industry and find another line of work because I couldn’t sustain the long hours.
He thinks that the new grads from college will just take over my job because they can work faster and longer than I could at 30 years old.
Then came the reports of the jobs moving overseas to India, he again told me to prepare myself to be replaced.
Now I’m 34 years old, he tells me I’m over the hill and how I can possibly compete with the young kids coming out of college?
I could see his point, does experience really matter in software engineering? Since we are supposely working in the bleeding edge of technology, does what I learned 10 years ago really matter now?
Yes and no is my answer
- experience matters because you know what worked and what doesn’t work and you can make a decision quickly
- software engineering is still stuck in the dark ages, every project pretty much starts from the ground up usually. in C I still have to start with main(). I still use my editor to start writing code
- you would think that software engineers like to change, but NO! How many engineers are still using variants of VI, Emacs, using GNU? my guess is 90% of yahoo engineers. I don’t know why, but we are very set in our ways, especially when we get old. I guess we are all human :-)
- I am an optimist and I do hope that new grads can come in a bring all the new cool stuff they learn from school and jump in and be able to replace me. But given the large number of resumes we go thru trying to hire someone, that is not happening any time soon
- coding fast doesn’t make you a good engineer, usually coders are not the most important members of the team. Planning, architecting, explaining your ideas is more valuable skills. coding can always be farmed out once the design is finalized
- writing software has not changed since I was college (1992) 13 years since I graduated. The programming languages have changed but they have gotten simpler not harder. Today software systems are more connected, bigger, more complex, but the language is simpler. Think assembly, pascal, c++, c compare with PHP, Perl, Java. If you ever programed for the Atari 800XL (PEEK and POKE)
- It seems like everything I learned in the last 13 years has only made me better, every year I grow as a software engineer. I guess experience does matter. One day when I’m not longer growing, then a young stud will come along and tell me to get lost. Then I’ll head over to live in France. Can’t wait!
Tony Tam 