August 22, 2016 at 11:52How I avoided burnout, having worked as a programmer for more than three decades
- Transfer
After reading many posts about the current "burnout" of programmers, I began to think how I managed to maintain interest in this profession even after such a long career - since 1981 (!). Why is my interest in the code still not fading?
Of course, I partially explained this in my post “Yes, I still want to do it in my 56” , which became famous almost three years ago. But that post was about the side of a professional programmer’s life related to the programming process itself; here it’s not about writing the code itself, but about how I can still withstand "programmer being." What kind of work is it that is so exciting that in the morning you wait until you open a text editor or IDE or you are awestruck at the thought of sending your ass to the office?
Looking back at my places of work — those that I liked, those that I hated, and those that I could just live with, I think what is the difference between them? What did I do that allowed me to take this path for so long?
Let's start with a simple description of all the employers in the chronological order for which I have worked to date. Please note that I do not indicate real names if this is not the case. There are no time periods when I worked for myself in different directions; something will be mentioned later.
You don’t see anything strange - how, for example, have I never worked in the same industry twice? Consulting company projects also varied drastically.
Probably only these two of my startups were connected: both were in the field of software for Mac. But in the first we acted as our publishers ourselves, and in the second we wrote for other people. Doing something substantial that belongs to you is both good and great torment. Everything was beautiful and wonderful, while things were going well. But the first startup ended when it became clear that we did not have such capital to compete with Microsoft. And at the second startup, after 5 years at Deltagraph, the publisher wanted to move in a different direction, and the Mac market closed for us.
So, I launched both companies and was not only the leading programmer there, but also the president, I conducted everything related to business, and in the first startup I also gave interviews to the press, held shareholders meetings and took care of profit. After two attempts, I realized that I didn’t want to do this, and I just worked for other people. By that time (almost 21 years ago or so), I only worked for a company that I didn’t manage.
Over the past two decades, I have worked mainly in self-employment - as a programmer, or as some kind of developer / programmer; sometimes I had to fulfill other roles, but I never acted as a pure manager. And, of course, after all, the question arises, how am I still holding on?
(1) I do not work overtime, except sometimes at the end of a project. I wrote about this in my famous post “Why I don’t do unpaid overtime work and advise you to do the same . ” Some employers (often consulting firms) insist on almost endless hours of work; they don’t care what you burn. And it makes no sense to work for them. It’s just unreasonable to break your passion for programming, making you reluctant to keep writing code.
(2) I am trying to find a place that matches my idea of how I feel comfortable working. The problem is that you do not always know when you start whether the new workplace corresponds to those aspects that you consider important. For example, a process, a way to organize the implementation of projects, even those expectations that people place on everyone. I would rather work in a place where people don’t impose on me what I should do, where I can maximize my contribution using all my abilities. Everyone has strengths, experience and ideas, and the best thing is to find a place that allows you to be yourself. The difficulty is to try to correctly assess the place before starting work, or at least find a reasonable way to leave without leaving people in a difficult position. Life is too short to put up with its inconvenience
(3) Do not think that you should always do the same thing over and over again in the same industry or, worse, never leave your first job and constantly stay on it. I know people who have worked in the same company for 25 or 30 years, because they were afraid to leave the comfort zone. You find yourself completely immersed in the familiar and do not realize that there are much better places to work. I did not always leave a company just because I wanted something new; sometimes they just closed! But a new place means new opportunities, new challenges and the prospect of learning something new. “New” is not always “better”, but if you always do the same thing, then it certainly won’t get any better.
(4) Sometimes you just have to stop and do something simply because you want to. Several times I did something, because I had a special interest or for a while I wanted something very unusual. After the second startup, I researched and created a futures trading system precisely because it was interesting to me. I didn’t make a lot of money (at least not enough to trade then), but I really enjoyed the process of mastering the new one. I played one of the MMO FPS for 10 years, but I was never satisfied with its quality. The company never had enough money to fulfill all that was required, and the corrections they made were of little use. And since the company’s office was nearby, I worked for them for more than 2 years. It was the hardest job I've ever had to do and they paid me almost nothing. But its complexity - the gigantic code base of a 3D engine on two platforms and OpenGL with thousands of problems that need to be solved - was a challenge for me and required all the efforts. I felt like a child who suddenly got into a candy store. Unfortunately, I had to leave, because I needed money for a living!
(5) If you are not the owner of the company or do not have serious options or stocks, do not be afraid to leave. You must provide the employer with only the best work you can do for what you are paid. And they pay you for 40 hours a week. You are not a slave, and you have no other duty of loyalty beyond the obligation to do the work properly. Find a good place and work for a while. But if it turns out to be not very good, or not inspiring, or boring, or people will annoy you, or the leadership will seem dull, or anything else, then do not be afraid to go in search. I know that this is not always easy (there were difficult times in the zero years), but look around and never be afraid to talk to recruiters or buddies or on the Web, even if you currently feel quite comfortable. You never know,
(6) Starting your own company is not always possible, but if it works out, this is a great opportunity to see what a business is. Often this way you can get a new look at the actions of your employer. Additionally, you will learn a lot of new things (for example, about sales and profits) that would otherwise pass by you! I managed two companies for 9 years, and almost constantly - except for the period when their operations ended - I enjoyed it a lot. I was lucky to work with wonderful specialists and write something that was really useful to people! I never aspired for money to what went beyond the limits of a good salary, but it was an experience that I can not exchange for anything. You can seize the opportunity to work in someone's startup, where you need to do a bunch of different responsibilities, but keep in mind that it does not always make sense to plow to death.
(7) Do not be afraid of new technologies or changes in the industry. You must continue to study at least every day. My favorite metaphor - the “steam rink of technology" - must be constantly in my memory. New ideas, new languages, new frameworks, new platforms - you never know what will lead you to the technology that you like more. The new, of course, is not always better; sometimes new things happen too fast (fortunately, I’m not a Javascript programmer), but new things always bring some opportunity. If you do not study constantly, then in the end you will not only dislike your work, but simply remain without it!
Hope something on this list is helpful to you. At least, these considerations helped me manage my rather long and still ongoing career. I want to add that keeping this blog for almost a decade turned out to be a wonderful thing for me: it became possible to contact experienced and understanding people (and sometimes get answers from them) who, apparently, find something useful for themselves when reading , and of course I get a lot of comments.
Remember that your professional career is completely up to you. Manage it as if it is your whole life, and perhaps then it will be so. Never work where you do not like it (of course, if the conditions allow you to leave), and always carefully look into life. Only then will you be able to retire one day and say: “It was wonderful!”
Of course, I partially explained this in my post “Yes, I still want to do it in my 56” , which became famous almost three years ago. But that post was about the side of a professional programmer’s life related to the programming process itself; here it’s not about writing the code itself, but about how I can still withstand "programmer being." What kind of work is it that is so exciting that in the morning you wait until you open a text editor or IDE or you are awestruck at the thought of sending your ass to the office?
Looking back at my places of work — those that I liked, those that I hated, and those that I could just live with, I think what is the difference between them? What did I do that allowed me to take this path for so long?
Let's start with a simple description of all the employers in the chronological order for which I have worked to date. Please note that I do not indicate real names if this is not the case. There are no time periods when I worked for myself in different directions; something will be mentioned later.
- Defense contractor
- My startup number 1
- My startup number 2
- Company, Technical Support Software
- Email Company
- Apple (before Steve Jobs returns to the company)
- Consulting firm
- Consulting firm
- Financial operations
- Digital printing
- Healthcare
- 3D online games
- Tourism
- Construction
You don’t see anything strange - how, for example, have I never worked in the same industry twice? Consulting company projects also varied drastically.
Probably only these two of my startups were connected: both were in the field of software for Mac. But in the first we acted as our publishers ourselves, and in the second we wrote for other people. Doing something substantial that belongs to you is both good and great torment. Everything was beautiful and wonderful, while things were going well. But the first startup ended when it became clear that we did not have such capital to compete with Microsoft. And at the second startup, after 5 years at Deltagraph, the publisher wanted to move in a different direction, and the Mac market closed for us.
So, I launched both companies and was not only the leading programmer there, but also the president, I conducted everything related to business, and in the first startup I also gave interviews to the press, held shareholders meetings and took care of profit. After two attempts, I realized that I didn’t want to do this, and I just worked for other people. By that time (almost 21 years ago or so), I only worked for a company that I didn’t manage.
Over the past two decades, I have worked mainly in self-employment - as a programmer, or as some kind of developer / programmer; sometimes I had to fulfill other roles, but I never acted as a pure manager. And, of course, after all, the question arises, how am I still holding on?
(1) I do not work overtime, except sometimes at the end of a project. I wrote about this in my famous post “Why I don’t do unpaid overtime work and advise you to do the same . ” Some employers (often consulting firms) insist on almost endless hours of work; they don’t care what you burn. And it makes no sense to work for them. It’s just unreasonable to break your passion for programming, making you reluctant to keep writing code.
(2) I am trying to find a place that matches my idea of how I feel comfortable working. The problem is that you do not always know when you start whether the new workplace corresponds to those aspects that you consider important. For example, a process, a way to organize the implementation of projects, even those expectations that people place on everyone. I would rather work in a place where people don’t impose on me what I should do, where I can maximize my contribution using all my abilities. Everyone has strengths, experience and ideas, and the best thing is to find a place that allows you to be yourself. The difficulty is to try to correctly assess the place before starting work, or at least find a reasonable way to leave without leaving people in a difficult position. Life is too short to put up with its inconvenience
(3) Do not think that you should always do the same thing over and over again in the same industry or, worse, never leave your first job and constantly stay on it. I know people who have worked in the same company for 25 or 30 years, because they were afraid to leave the comfort zone. You find yourself completely immersed in the familiar and do not realize that there are much better places to work. I did not always leave a company just because I wanted something new; sometimes they just closed! But a new place means new opportunities, new challenges and the prospect of learning something new. “New” is not always “better”, but if you always do the same thing, then it certainly won’t get any better.
(4) Sometimes you just have to stop and do something simply because you want to. Several times I did something, because I had a special interest or for a while I wanted something very unusual. After the second startup, I researched and created a futures trading system precisely because it was interesting to me. I didn’t make a lot of money (at least not enough to trade then), but I really enjoyed the process of mastering the new one. I played one of the MMO FPS for 10 years, but I was never satisfied with its quality. The company never had enough money to fulfill all that was required, and the corrections they made were of little use. And since the company’s office was nearby, I worked for them for more than 2 years. It was the hardest job I've ever had to do and they paid me almost nothing. But its complexity - the gigantic code base of a 3D engine on two platforms and OpenGL with thousands of problems that need to be solved - was a challenge for me and required all the efforts. I felt like a child who suddenly got into a candy store. Unfortunately, I had to leave, because I needed money for a living!
(5) If you are not the owner of the company or do not have serious options or stocks, do not be afraid to leave. You must provide the employer with only the best work you can do for what you are paid. And they pay you for 40 hours a week. You are not a slave, and you have no other duty of loyalty beyond the obligation to do the work properly. Find a good place and work for a while. But if it turns out to be not very good, or not inspiring, or boring, or people will annoy you, or the leadership will seem dull, or anything else, then do not be afraid to go in search. I know that this is not always easy (there were difficult times in the zero years), but look around and never be afraid to talk to recruiters or buddies or on the Web, even if you currently feel quite comfortable. You never know,
(6) Starting your own company is not always possible, but if it works out, this is a great opportunity to see what a business is. Often this way you can get a new look at the actions of your employer. Additionally, you will learn a lot of new things (for example, about sales and profits) that would otherwise pass by you! I managed two companies for 9 years, and almost constantly - except for the period when their operations ended - I enjoyed it a lot. I was lucky to work with wonderful specialists and write something that was really useful to people! I never aspired for money to what went beyond the limits of a good salary, but it was an experience that I can not exchange for anything. You can seize the opportunity to work in someone's startup, where you need to do a bunch of different responsibilities, but keep in mind that it does not always make sense to plow to death.
(7) Do not be afraid of new technologies or changes in the industry. You must continue to study at least every day. My favorite metaphor - the “steam rink of technology" - must be constantly in my memory. New ideas, new languages, new frameworks, new platforms - you never know what will lead you to the technology that you like more. The new, of course, is not always better; sometimes new things happen too fast (fortunately, I’m not a Javascript programmer), but new things always bring some opportunity. If you do not study constantly, then in the end you will not only dislike your work, but simply remain without it!
Hope something on this list is helpful to you. At least, these considerations helped me manage my rather long and still ongoing career. I want to add that keeping this blog for almost a decade turned out to be a wonderful thing for me: it became possible to contact experienced and understanding people (and sometimes get answers from them) who, apparently, find something useful for themselves when reading , and of course I get a lot of comments.
Remember that your professional career is completely up to you. Manage it as if it is your whole life, and perhaps then it will be so. Never work where you do not like it (of course, if the conditions allow you to leave), and always carefully look into life. Only then will you be able to retire one day and say: “It was wonderful!”