7 ms·

is it that bad? maybe that is a secret for a long life. I want a job that never disappears :)

phrotoma 6mo ago
Man ... this question hits me really hard. I was absolutely miserable by the end of my years at the bank, and the part that really fucked me up was that (at the time) I could not understand why all my colleagues weren't. Huge generalizations incoming, there are exceptions to every rule, but in my experience there are no nerds who love tech for tech's sake in the banking world. It's entirely staffed by the "C's get degrees" crowd who just want to clock in, clock out, keep their head down, and retire with a nice pension. I wanted to work on sexy technology, wrangle clouds, contribute to open source, and hack in modern languages. I have many friends who are still at that bank 20 yrs later. They're all directors of this that or the other thing, still just grinding out some midlevel whatever career and cruising comfortably. If that ticks all your boxes then by all means go hit up a bank job. By the time I left I couldn't drink enough liquor in a day to rinse the stench of that job off me. If I hadn't managed to slip that place I'd be dead of liver failure by now. It's the secret for a long life for some folks, but it ain't for everybody.
- progmetaldev 6mo ago
  Fresh out of college, I had an interview for a job working with COBOL. There were classes being held to teach people development, as well as how to maintain existing COBOL software. It was between myself and another recruit, and that other recruit already had COBOL experience. Naturally, I was not chosen, over someone who already have knowledge of the working language being used. Although I probably don't make nearly as much as that COBOL developer over 20 years later, I would be willing to bet that I am happier and haven't locked myself into a specific technology the way that developer probably has. Money is great, but if you actually care about what you do, I expect that being stuck on the same codebase for years isn't too satisfying (at least on code you didn't have a hand in creating from the very start). Too many people translate money into happiness, and I guess there is a balance there, but usually it's not possible to maintain happiness based off money when you do the same thing day in and day out.
nineteen999 6mo ago
You don't want to work for IBM unless your life is already over. Been there, done that, never again. It's depressing as hell. Your manager doesn't understand what you do, and they think that once your contract expires you'll be sitting around for weeks waiting for them to renew it.

Man ... this question hits me really hard. I was absolutely miserable by the end of my years at the bank, and the part that really fucked me up was that (at the time) I could not understand why all my colleagues weren't. Huge generalizations incoming, there are exceptions to every rule, but in my experience there are no nerds who love tech for tech's sake in the banking world. It's entirely staffed by the "C's get degrees" crowd who just want to clock in, clock out, keep their head down, and retire with a nice pension. I wanted to work on sexy technology, wrangle clouds, contribute to open source, and hack in modern languages. I have many friends who are still at that bank 20 yrs later. They're all directors of this that or the other thing, still just grinding out some midlevel whatever career and cruising comfortably. If that ticks all your boxes then by all means go hit up a bank job. By the time I left I couldn't drink enough liquor in a day to rinse the stench of that job off me. If I hadn't managed to slip that place I'd be dead of liver failure by now. It's the secret for a long life for some folks, but it ain't for everybody.

progmetaldev 6mo ago
Fresh out of college, I had an interview for a job working with COBOL. There were classes being held to teach people development, as well as how to maintain existing COBOL software. It was between myself and another recruit, and that other recruit already had COBOL experience. Naturally, I was not chosen, over someone who already have knowledge of the working language being used. Although I probably don't make nearly as much as that COBOL developer over 20 years later, I would be willing to bet that I am happier and haven't locked myself into a specific technology the way that developer probably has. Money is great, but if you actually care about what you do, I expect that being stuck on the same codebase for years isn't too satisfying (at least on code you didn't have a hand in creating from the very start). Too many people translate money into happiness, and I guess there is a balance there, but usually it's not possible to maintain happiness based off money when you do the same thing day in and day out.

nineteen999 6mo ago

You don't want to work for IBM unless your life is already over. Been there, done that, never again. It's depressing as hell. Your manager doesn't understand what you do, and they think that once your contract expires you'll be sitting around for weeks waiting for them to renew it.