Mixing
How to avoid freezing point in my career [closed]
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
I have been working in Software Development since the last 5 years. I had started my career with a small software house, where I have worked for 4 years and 6 months. This company provided me lots of opportunities to learn programming languages, but the pay scale and employee numbers were both small.
Now I have joined a multinational company and I am working here for the last 3 months. I have been given the team leader role here.
They are working on some applications which were developed in 2004. Now they are just maintaining these applications. So I can say from the last 3 months I am doing nothing. I have worked on multiple technologies and different domains, but now I am bound to a single technology.
My thoughts:
If I worked here in the same way after several months or years, I will be far away from software development.
From management or team lead perspective: Still there is no learning platform. For the whole day I am just gazing at my team members.
I am a postgraduate in Computer Science. My first goal was to be a good software architect, currently, I don't know where I am going.
career-development
edited Jul 22 '16 at 14:34
Draken
8,34573847
asked Jul 22 '16 at 7:38
Shoaib Ijaz
1173
closed as off-topic by The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu Jul 23 '16 at 3:06
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions asking for advice on what to do are not practical answerable questions (e.g. "what job should I take?", or "what skills should I learn?"). Questions should get answers explaining why and how to make a decision, not advice on what to do. For more information, click here." – The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
I have been working in Software Development since the last 5 years. I had started my career with a small software house, where I have worked for 4 years and 6 months. This company provided me lots of opportunities to learn programming languages, but the pay scale and employee numbers were both small.
Now I have joined a multinational company and I am working here for the last 3 months. I have been given the team leader role here.
They are working on some applications which were developed in 2004. Now they are just maintaining these applications. So I can say from the last 3 months I am doing nothing. I have worked on multiple technologies and different domains, but now I am bound to a single technology.
My thoughts:
If I worked here in the same way after several months or years, I will be far away from software development.
From management or team lead perspective: Still there is no learning platform. For the whole day I am just gazing at my team members.
I am a postgraduate in Computer Science. My first goal was to be a good software architect, currently, I don't know where I am going.
career-development
edited Jul 22 '16 at 14:34
Draken
8,34573847
asked Jul 22 '16 at 7:38
Shoaib Ijaz
1173
closed as off-topic by The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu Jul 23 '16 at 3:06
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions asking for advice on what to do are not practical answerable questions (e.g. "what job should I take?", or "what skills should I learn?"). Questions should get answers explaining why and how to make a decision, not advice on what to do. For more information, click here." – The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu
1
Being a Team Lead / Manager is almost always about having less development work and more bureaucracy. I don't think you'll see much of a change if you take a similar role in another company. Do you have much leverage in your current position? Perhaps you could form a team to start working on a new product/project? Then you get to choose what languages and technologies you will use.
– Juha Untinen
Jul 22 '16 at 8:18
Why did you join that big company? Was it the prestige of the big name, or did you expect that your job function would be different?
– Dimitrios Mistriotis
Jul 22 '16 at 11:05
When I was interviewed, They told me that Company going to start new projects. But now they said we don't have new projects. :)
– Shoaib Ijaz
Jul 22 '16 at 12:14
Career advice is off topic, voting to close.
– The Wandering Dev Manager
Jul 22 '16 at 13:08
youtu.be/XHY5qsoKMic
– Jim G.
Jul 23 '16 at 0:47
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
I have been working in Software Development since the last 5 years. I had started my career with a small software house, where I have worked for 4 years and 6 months. This company provided me lots of opportunities to learn programming languages, but the pay scale and employee numbers were both small.
Now I have joined a multinational company and I am working here for the last 3 months. I have been given the team leader role here.
They are working on some applications which were developed in 2004. Now they are just maintaining these applications. So I can say from the last 3 months I am doing nothing. I have worked on multiple technologies and different domains, but now I am bound to a single technology.
My thoughts:
If I worked here in the same way after several months or years, I will be far away from software development.
From management or team lead perspective: Still there is no learning platform. For the whole day I am just gazing at my team members.
I am a postgraduate in Computer Science. My first goal was to be a good software architect, currently, I don't know where I am going.
career-development
edited Jul 22 '16 at 14:34
Draken
8,34573847
asked Jul 22 '16 at 7:38
Shoaib Ijaz
1173
I have been working in Software Development since the last 5 years. I had started my career with a small software house, where I have worked for 4 years and 6 months. This company provided me lots of opportunities to learn programming languages, but the pay scale and employee numbers were both small.
Now I have joined a multinational company and I am working here for the last 3 months. I have been given the team leader role here.
They are working on some applications which were developed in 2004. Now they are just maintaining these applications. So I can say from the last 3 months I am doing nothing. I have worked on multiple technologies and different domains, but now I am bound to a single technology.
My thoughts:
If I worked here in the same way after several months or years, I will be far away from software development.
From management or team lead perspective: Still there is no learning platform. For the whole day I am just gazing at my team members.
I am a postgraduate in Computer Science. My first goal was to be a good software architect, currently, I don't know where I am going.
career-development
edited Jul 22 '16 at 14:34
Draken
8,34573847
asked Jul 22 '16 at 7:38
Shoaib Ijaz
1173
edited Jul 22 '16 at 14:34
Draken
8,34573847
edited Jul 22 '16 at 14:34
Draken
8,34573847
edited Jul 22 '16 at 14:34
Draken
8,34573847
8,34573847
asked Jul 22 '16 at 7:38
Shoaib Ijaz
1173
asked Jul 22 '16 at 7:38
Shoaib Ijaz
1173
asked Jul 22 '16 at 7:38
Shoaib Ijaz
1173
1173
closed as off-topic by The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu Jul 23 '16 at 3:06
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions asking for advice on what to do are not practical answerable questions (e.g. "what job should I take?", or "what skills should I learn?"). Questions should get answers explaining why and how to make a decision, not advice on what to do. For more information, click here." – The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu
closed as off-topic by The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu Jul 23 '16 at 3:06
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions asking for advice on what to do are not practical answerable questions (e.g. "what job should I take?", or "what skills should I learn?"). Questions should get answers explaining why and how to make a decision, not advice on what to do. For more information, click here." – The Wandering Dev Manager, Chris E, gnat, Jim G., scaaahu
1
Being a Team Lead / Manager is almost always about having less development work and more bureaucracy. I don't think you'll see much of a change if you take a similar role in another company. Do you have much leverage in your current position? Perhaps you could form a team to start working on a new product/project? Then you get to choose what languages and technologies you will use.
– Juha Untinen
Jul 22 '16 at 8:18
Why did you join that big company? Was it the prestige of the big name, or did you expect that your job function would be different?
– Dimitrios Mistriotis
Jul 22 '16 at 11:05
When I was interviewed, They told me that Company going to start new projects. But now they said we don't have new projects. :)
– Shoaib Ijaz
Jul 22 '16 at 12:14
Career advice is off topic, voting to close.
– The Wandering Dev Manager
Jul 22 '16 at 13:08
youtu.be/XHY5qsoKMic
– Jim G.
Jul 23 '16 at 0:47
suggest improvements |Â
1
Being a Team Lead / Manager is almost always about having less development work and more bureaucracy. I don't think you'll see much of a change if you take a similar role in another company. Do you have much leverage in your current position? Perhaps you could form a team to start working on a new product/project? Then you get to choose what languages and technologies you will use.
– Juha Untinen
Jul 22 '16 at 8:18
Why did you join that big company? Was it the prestige of the big name, or did you expect that your job function would be different?
– Dimitrios Mistriotis
Jul 22 '16 at 11:05
When I was interviewed, They told me that Company going to start new projects. But now they said we don't have new projects. :)
– Shoaib Ijaz
Jul 22 '16 at 12:14
Career advice is off topic, voting to close.
– The Wandering Dev Manager
Jul 22 '16 at 13:08
youtu.be/XHY5qsoKMic
– Jim G.
Jul 23 '16 at 0:47
1
1
Being a Team Lead / Manager is almost always about having less development work and more bureaucracy. I don't think you'll see much of a change if you take a similar role in another company. Do you have much leverage in your current position? Perhaps you could form a team to start working on a new product/project? Then you get to choose what languages and technologies you will use.
– Juha Untinen
Jul 22 '16 at 8:18
Being a Team Lead / Manager is almost always about having less development work and more bureaucracy. I don't think you'll see much of a change if you take a similar role in another company. Do you have much leverage in your current position? Perhaps you could form a team to start working on a new product/project? Then you get to choose what languages and technologies you will use.
– Juha Untinen
Jul 22 '16 at 8:18
Why did you join that big company? Was it the prestige of the big name, or did you expect that your job function would be different?
– Dimitrios Mistriotis
Jul 22 '16 at 11:05
Why did you join that big company? Was it the prestige of the big name, or did you expect that your job function would be different?
– Dimitrios Mistriotis
Jul 22 '16 at 11:05
When I was interviewed, They told me that Company going to start new projects. But now they said we don't have new projects. :)
– Shoaib Ijaz
Jul 22 '16 at 12:14
When I was interviewed, They told me that Company going to start new projects. But now they said we don't have new projects. :)
– Shoaib Ijaz
Jul 22 '16 at 12:14
Career advice is off topic, voting to close.
– The Wandering Dev Manager
Jul 22 '16 at 13:08
Career advice is off topic, voting to close.
– The Wandering Dev Manager
Jul 22 '16 at 13:08
youtu.be/XHY5qsoKMic
– Jim G.
Jul 23 '16 at 0:47
youtu.be/XHY5qsoKMic
– Jim G.
Jul 23 '16 at 0:47
suggest improvements |Â
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
up vote
8
down vote
A lot of software engineering work is maintenance and incremental development. That is simply the nature of large companies - greenfield projects are relatively rare as they are much bigger risks to the business than sticking with proven sellers, and why reinvent the wheel until there's pressure to do so? And as you've discovered, with startups there's plenty of new stuff to be dealing with, but at the expense of poorer salary, small teams having to fire-fight much more, and bigger risk of company failure. And learning new languages may seem cool but it's a waste of time unless you can use them profitably.
However it's a bad sign when you say
Whole day I am just gazing my team members.
If you're going to survive you need to get doing something positive. You could leave for another small company, but you clearly had reasons to join this MNC. You're a team lead, as well, so you clearly have some standing. You can't change the company overnight but what you could do, for example:
push forward on maintenance projects that will reduce your team's overall workload, so you can spend more time on real development in future
push new technologies that will make measurable improvements to your established products (not just for their own sake)
come up with feature ideas
And most of all, change your mindset - working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch.
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
+1 for "working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch". Often they are the greater technical challenge as you are relatively constrained in what you can do safely (unless you do happen to have a complete end-to-end regression UT pack).
– toadflakz
Jul 22 '16 at 14:46
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Based on the answer on your comment (you got told that new projects would come, but they haven't):
It can be the case of hiring you now because they will have a project at some point in the near future. Don't be surprised if they use 2004 technology to implement it. This could explain your under utilization.
Alternatively they did not have a new project nor intended to, just HR was saying that to attract people. Some of them would eventually stay not wanting to risk a hole in the CV, some would leave. I have seen it / experienced it somewhere: "Why do you use 90s tech?" answered with "It's temporary, we will shift for new projects to contemporary tech within the year" which they did not.
It's up to you on how to act on it. I've seen people leaving on the spot (job description/ reality mismatch), staying a bit so that the CV will be concrete and be more thorough next time, or staying and going with the internal flow. I think you need to put your career in perspective (what I didn't do) and then act based on your long term goals (which is a bit of generic advice).
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
suggest improvements |Â
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
8
down vote
A lot of software engineering work is maintenance and incremental development. That is simply the nature of large companies - greenfield projects are relatively rare as they are much bigger risks to the business than sticking with proven sellers, and why reinvent the wheel until there's pressure to do so? And as you've discovered, with startups there's plenty of new stuff to be dealing with, but at the expense of poorer salary, small teams having to fire-fight much more, and bigger risk of company failure. And learning new languages may seem cool but it's a waste of time unless you can use them profitably.
However it's a bad sign when you say
Whole day I am just gazing my team members.
If you're going to survive you need to get doing something positive. You could leave for another small company, but you clearly had reasons to join this MNC. You're a team lead, as well, so you clearly have some standing. You can't change the company overnight but what you could do, for example:
push forward on maintenance projects that will reduce your team's overall workload, so you can spend more time on real development in future
push new technologies that will make measurable improvements to your established products (not just for their own sake)
come up with feature ideas
And most of all, change your mindset - working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch.
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
+1 for "working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch". Often they are the greater technical challenge as you are relatively constrained in what you can do safely (unless you do happen to have a complete end-to-end regression UT pack).
– toadflakz
Jul 22 '16 at 14:46
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
8
down vote
A lot of software engineering work is maintenance and incremental development. That is simply the nature of large companies - greenfield projects are relatively rare as they are much bigger risks to the business than sticking with proven sellers, and why reinvent the wheel until there's pressure to do so? And as you've discovered, with startups there's plenty of new stuff to be dealing with, but at the expense of poorer salary, small teams having to fire-fight much more, and bigger risk of company failure. And learning new languages may seem cool but it's a waste of time unless you can use them profitably.
However it's a bad sign when you say
Whole day I am just gazing my team members.
If you're going to survive you need to get doing something positive. You could leave for another small company, but you clearly had reasons to join this MNC. You're a team lead, as well, so you clearly have some standing. You can't change the company overnight but what you could do, for example:
push forward on maintenance projects that will reduce your team's overall workload, so you can spend more time on real development in future
push new technologies that will make measurable improvements to your established products (not just for their own sake)
come up with feature ideas
And most of all, change your mindset - working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch.
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
+1 for "working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch". Often they are the greater technical challenge as you are relatively constrained in what you can do safely (unless you do happen to have a complete end-to-end regression UT pack).
– toadflakz
Jul 22 '16 at 14:46
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
8
down vote
up vote
8
down vote
A lot of software engineering work is maintenance and incremental development. That is simply the nature of large companies - greenfield projects are relatively rare as they are much bigger risks to the business than sticking with proven sellers, and why reinvent the wheel until there's pressure to do so? And as you've discovered, with startups there's plenty of new stuff to be dealing with, but at the expense of poorer salary, small teams having to fire-fight much more, and bigger risk of company failure. And learning new languages may seem cool but it's a waste of time unless you can use them profitably.
However it's a bad sign when you say
Whole day I am just gazing my team members.
If you're going to survive you need to get doing something positive. You could leave for another small company, but you clearly had reasons to join this MNC. You're a team lead, as well, so you clearly have some standing. You can't change the company overnight but what you could do, for example:
push forward on maintenance projects that will reduce your team's overall workload, so you can spend more time on real development in future
push new technologies that will make measurable improvements to your established products (not just for their own sake)
come up with feature ideas
And most of all, change your mindset - working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch.
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
A lot of software engineering work is maintenance and incremental development. That is simply the nature of large companies - greenfield projects are relatively rare as they are much bigger risks to the business than sticking with proven sellers, and why reinvent the wheel until there's pressure to do so? And as you've discovered, with startups there's plenty of new stuff to be dealing with, but at the expense of poorer salary, small teams having to fire-fight much more, and bigger risk of company failure. And learning new languages may seem cool but it's a waste of time unless you can use them profitably.
However it's a bad sign when you say
Whole day I am just gazing my team members.
If you're going to survive you need to get doing something positive. You could leave for another small company, but you clearly had reasons to join this MNC. You're a team lead, as well, so you clearly have some standing. You can't change the company overnight but what you could do, for example:
push forward on maintenance projects that will reduce your team's overall workload, so you can spend more time on real development in future
push new technologies that will make measurable improvements to your established products (not just for their own sake)
come up with feature ideas
And most of all, change your mindset - working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch.
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
answered Jul 22 '16 at 8:19
Julia Hayward
12k53438
12k53438
+1 for "working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch". Often they are the greater technical challenge as you are relatively constrained in what you can do safely (unless you do happen to have a complete end-to-end regression UT pack).
– toadflakz
Jul 22 '16 at 14:46
suggest improvements |Â
+1 for "working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch". Often they are the greater technical challenge as you are relatively constrained in what you can do safely (unless you do happen to have a complete end-to-end regression UT pack).
– toadflakz
Jul 22 '16 at 14:46
+1 for "working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch". Often they are the greater technical challenge as you are relatively constrained in what you can do safely (unless you do happen to have a complete end-to-end regression UT pack).
– toadflakz
Jul 22 '16 at 14:46
+1 for "working with old applications and making them fit for the future can be every bit as rewarding as building something from scratch". Often they are the greater technical challenge as you are relatively constrained in what you can do safely (unless you do happen to have a complete end-to-end regression UT pack).
– toadflakz
Jul 22 '16 at 14:46
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Based on the answer on your comment (you got told that new projects would come, but they haven't):
It can be the case of hiring you now because they will have a project at some point in the near future. Don't be surprised if they use 2004 technology to implement it. This could explain your under utilization.
Alternatively they did not have a new project nor intended to, just HR was saying that to attract people. Some of them would eventually stay not wanting to risk a hole in the CV, some would leave. I have seen it / experienced it somewhere: "Why do you use 90s tech?" answered with "It's temporary, we will shift for new projects to contemporary tech within the year" which they did not.
It's up to you on how to act on it. I've seen people leaving on the spot (job description/ reality mismatch), staying a bit so that the CV will be concrete and be more thorough next time, or staying and going with the internal flow. I think you need to put your career in perspective (what I didn't do) and then act based on your long term goals (which is a bit of generic advice).
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Based on the answer on your comment (you got told that new projects would come, but they haven't):
It can be the case of hiring you now because they will have a project at some point in the near future. Don't be surprised if they use 2004 technology to implement it. This could explain your under utilization.
Alternatively they did not have a new project nor intended to, just HR was saying that to attract people. Some of them would eventually stay not wanting to risk a hole in the CV, some would leave. I have seen it / experienced it somewhere: "Why do you use 90s tech?" answered with "It's temporary, we will shift for new projects to contemporary tech within the year" which they did not.
It's up to you on how to act on it. I've seen people leaving on the spot (job description/ reality mismatch), staying a bit so that the CV will be concrete and be more thorough next time, or staying and going with the internal flow. I think you need to put your career in perspective (what I didn't do) and then act based on your long term goals (which is a bit of generic advice).
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Based on the answer on your comment (you got told that new projects would come, but they haven't):
It can be the case of hiring you now because they will have a project at some point in the near future. Don't be surprised if they use 2004 technology to implement it. This could explain your under utilization.
Alternatively they did not have a new project nor intended to, just HR was saying that to attract people. Some of them would eventually stay not wanting to risk a hole in the CV, some would leave. I have seen it / experienced it somewhere: "Why do you use 90s tech?" answered with "It's temporary, we will shift for new projects to contemporary tech within the year" which they did not.
It's up to you on how to act on it. I've seen people leaving on the spot (job description/ reality mismatch), staying a bit so that the CV will be concrete and be more thorough next time, or staying and going with the internal flow. I think you need to put your career in perspective (what I didn't do) and then act based on your long term goals (which is a bit of generic advice).
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
Based on the answer on your comment (you got told that new projects would come, but they haven't):
It can be the case of hiring you now because they will have a project at some point in the near future. Don't be surprised if they use 2004 technology to implement it. This could explain your under utilization.
Alternatively they did not have a new project nor intended to, just HR was saying that to attract people. Some of them would eventually stay not wanting to risk a hole in the CV, some would leave. I have seen it / experienced it somewhere: "Why do you use 90s tech?" answered with "It's temporary, we will shift for new projects to contemporary tech within the year" which they did not.
It's up to you on how to act on it. I've seen people leaving on the spot (job description/ reality mismatch), staying a bit so that the CV will be concrete and be more thorough next time, or staying and going with the internal flow. I think you need to put your career in perspective (what I didn't do) and then act based on your long term goals (which is a bit of generic advice).
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
answered Jul 22 '16 at 13:01
Dimitrios Mistriotis
1,815817
1,815817
suggest improvements |Â
suggest improvements |Â
1
Being a Team Lead / Manager is almost always about having less development work and more bureaucracy. I don't think you'll see much of a change if you take a similar role in another company. Do you have much leverage in your current position? Perhaps you could form a team to start working on a new product/project? Then you get to choose what languages and technologies you will use.
– Juha Untinen
Jul 22 '16 at 8:18
Why did you join that big company? Was it the prestige of the big name, or did you expect that your job function would be different?
– Dimitrios Mistriotis
Jul 22 '16 at 11:05
When I was interviewed, They told me that Company going to start new projects. But now they said we don't have new projects. :)
– Shoaib Ijaz
Jul 22 '16 at 12:14
Career advice is off topic, voting to close.
– The Wandering Dev Manager
Jul 22 '16 at 13:08
youtu.be/XHY5qsoKMic
– Jim G.
Jul 23 '16 at 0:47