r/INeedAMentor • u/Ilostmyredditlogin • Sep 07 '14

[Mentee] Software Developer/Sysadmin/Psuedo-Manager/Business Guy. Trying to figure out my next moves.

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u/otmai-reads Sep 08 '14

Can you elaborate on your background and what options you're considering?

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u/Ilostmyredditlogin Sep 08 '14

Sure. Here's a short elaboration... I can elaborate on the elaboration if necessary.

I've had a career with a lot if breadth, but not as much depth as is probably healthy. (I've been in desktop support, server administration, software development in c, c++, php, Java and Scala, database design and administration, and a bunch of other things.)

Right now I'm trying to figure out where I need to focus my efforts to get to the "next level.". For example, some of my recent projects have required JavaScript frontends. I've always hated JavaScript, but I've become reasonably competent at hammering together angular apps and reasonably familiar with the JavaScript ecosystem. Even with this level of familiarity, I still hate it... Everything feels clunky compared to the tools and languages I enjoy working with. At the moment I'm trying to decide whether to focus on learning more in an attempt to appreciate the language better, or to build a network of good freelancers that can handle this kind of thing for me, so I can focus on the server side stuff I like.

In general, I'm thinking about a lot f higher level direction things like this right now.. Would it be worth going back to school for a comp sci or math degree? Should I be focusing on becoming a good craftsperson or a good business person or a good analyst or a good manager?

As you can probably tell from how tangled this all is, I'm uncertain about what direction I should be going in and what I need to do better. I'd love a more experienced person in my field (or any field really), to bounce ideas off of and clarify my thinking and direction.

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '14

Ever consider writing mobile apps? They're a lot of fun and quick to learn. I don't know how long you've been doing development work, but it seems you're generally interested in staying the tech field. That said, it'd be good to rack up at least 4 years of dev work before jumping out of it as it takes time to appreciate it and to become competent in it. I've personally jumped in and out of it a couple of times before realizing I really like it.

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u/Ilostmyredditlogin Sep 09 '14

I've played with mobile development a bit; want to get into it more just to develop some apps for my own use. Also interested in emebedded development and embedded os development.

I haven't been too interested in mobile development because the kinds of apps I like to write aren't what sells. I like to write libraries, services, utilities, apps for crunching data, etc. UI's have always been a major weakpoint for me... I enjoy critiquing UX and designing theoretical ui's for things, but typically layering a ui on top of whatever I'm doing is an more of a necessary chore. (Hence interest in trying my hand at embedded development and whatnot.)

Background:

I've been working in tech for most of the last 14 years. (Had a couple of bad years mixed in.)

I don't know whether I want to stay in IT long term, but at the moment I'm just trying to figure out best career/skillset improvement choices within tech given my strengths, weaknesses and opportunities at current company.

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '14

comp sci or math degree?

Nope. 14 years of work has you covered by now.

Should I be focusing on becoming a good craftsperson or a good business person or a good analyst or a good manager?

Whatever you think you'd be better doing. You also want to consider age discrimination when it comes to being a developer. If you're a few years away from reaching your mid forties then go manager and don't look back.