6 ms·

Go work for companies you like. There are plenty of good people out there making useful software. Or make your own opensource software and put your effort where

Go work for companies you like. There are plenty of good people out there making useful software. Or make your own opensource software and put your effort where your heart is. It’s easy in our industry to burn out doing commercial work with no soul. But it’s not the only kind of work out there.

annzabelle 7d ago
I worked for a large unethical company in the US that worked to emulate big tech, and took a page out of Jack Welch's playbook (stack ranking etc). I was miserable working there and thinking of changing careers. I ended up moving to New Zealand and working for a small civil engineering firm that has developers to write internal tools that are used by the engineering team to process their data. The technology I'm working with is a lot more dated, the development processes aren't sophisticated (there are 0 meetings and no attempt at project management) and I took a real pay cut, but I genuinely feel that the software I'm working with is beneficial and has a net positive impact on the world, no matter how small. There is also no on call and I work exactly 37.5 hours a week, on top of all of the workplace culture differences in NZ.
- gregglain 7d ago
  Sounds miserable. Where do we sign up?
- stevepotter 6d ago
  I switched into medical 4 years ago because my top priority was making something that directly improves peoples lives. Early in my career it wasn’t so much of a concern. Now it’s a must. There are many companies like this. Highly recommended if you have the desire
- stasomatic 6d ago
  That's amazing, happy to read comments like this on HN. NZ is on the bucket list! on top of all of the workplace culture differences in NZ. Not sure if I parsed it right, what did you mean? I am a Florida man, by choice but we'll see :)
  - annzabelle 4d ago
    There are a ton of ways, big and small, where the work environment is much more relaxed and chill. For example, sick leave and vacation are separate. Recently I had scheduled to take vacation on a Thursday to go skiing, and then I had a cold and had to take Wednesday off (after my coworkers glared at me for sneezing all day). I figured that my boss would expect me to work that Thursday since I hadn't accrued sick leave yet. Instead, his reply to my slack message letting him know I'd be out sick was "hope you feel better so you can ski tomorrow." People take a lot more vacation and leave, the office shuts entirely for 2 weeks around Christmas, and deliverable deadlines are more flexible.

annzabelle 7d ago

I worked for a large unethical company in the US that worked to emulate big tech, and took a page out of Jack Welch's playbook (stack ranking etc). I was miserable working there and thinking of changing careers. I ended up moving to New Zealand and working for a small civil engineering firm that has developers to write internal tools that are used by the engineering team to process their data. The technology I'm working with is a lot more dated, the development processes aren't sophisticated (there are 0 meetings and no attempt at project management) and I took a real pay cut, but I genuinely feel that the software I'm working with is beneficial and has a net positive impact on the world, no matter how small. There is also no on call and I work exactly 37.5 hours a week, on top of all of the workplace culture differences in NZ.

gregglain 7d ago
Sounds miserable. Where do we sign up?
stevepotter 6d ago
I switched into medical 4 years ago because my top priority was making something that directly improves peoples lives. Early in my career it wasn’t so much of a concern. Now it’s a must. There are many companies like this. Highly recommended if you have the desire
stasomatic 6d ago
That's amazing, happy to read comments like this on HN. NZ is on the bucket list! on top of all of the workplace culture differences in NZ. Not sure if I parsed it right, what did you mean? I am a Florida man, by choice but we'll see :)
- annzabelle 4d ago
  There are a ton of ways, big and small, where the work environment is much more relaxed and chill. For example, sick leave and vacation are separate. Recently I had scheduled to take vacation on a Thursday to go skiing, and then I had a cold and had to take Wednesday off (after my coworkers glared at me for sneezing all day). I figured that my boss would expect me to work that Thursday since I hadn't accrued sick leave yet. Instead, his reply to my slack message letting him know I'd be out sick was "hope you feel better so you can ski tomorrow." People take a lot more vacation and leave, the office shuts entirely for 2 weeks around Christmas, and deliverable deadlines are more flexible.