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MixedNuts comments on Advice On Getting A Software Job - Less Wrong
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I already know how to program (Python, C/C++, web dev, Matlab). I'm a physics undergrad and I intend to remain one, but I'd like either a part-time gig or a short-term one (about a month). Advice?
As a student in a similar situation who wishes I'd picked a different short-term gig than the one I have now: Ask them what your first assignment will be on the job. I think if I'd gotten an accurate answer to that, I would have been able to figure out that this job wouldn't be too great.
Seems there are a lot of crappy programming jobs out there, and I'm still not sure how to filter those out. ("Avoid government contract work" as an algorithm also would have prevented me from taking this job, though I don't know how generalizable it is.)
How I got this job: University jobs postings. My school has a ton.
What don't you like about the job you have now?
1) it's boring, lots of sitting around waiting for my crappy slow computer to do things 2) I don't see much progress on what I'm doing and get a lot of frustrating errors 3) what I'm working on feels trivial and non-meaningful 4) even a half hour commute feels like too much (I took it thinking this job would be fun and worth it compared to other options, though I'm aware of the commuting research - I was wrong) 5) working full time still feels really annoying compared to school, because I don't have any time to work on my own projects. This might be solved by a) having a job that feels meaningful, b) being allowed to work on my own stuff at work, and/or c) getting used to it (seems less desirable than the other options).
Thank you -- this is the scary part, because my reason for asking is that I've become interested in the question of what the best kind of job would be to support a person who wants to work on their own projects (assuming the projects themselves are not job-related --think Einstein in the Swiss patent office). Programming seems at first glance to be a natural candidate (at least if the person is technically inclined, such as a contemporary Einstein would presumably be) and I'd like to find out how correct this assumption is.
So, if I can probe a bit further: is the reason you don't have time to work on your own projects that (a) your job requires an exorbitant amount of time (more than 40 hours per week, say); (b) it is so stressful or unpleasant that "recovery" uses up all your leisure hours; or (c) your non-job time is otherwise committed ( e.g. a second job, school, family responsibilities, etc.) so that any projects could only be done during job time?
I work for 8 hours a day, but am at work 8.5 hours (to eat lunch). I prefer to sleep 9 hours a night. It takes me 1 hour to get ready for work in the morning, and 30 minutes to get ready for bed and fall asleep. I typically commute for 1.5 hours per day. After that, I have 3.5 hours left, about 1.5 of which are devoted to chores, dinner, and interacting with other human beings. I spend about 0.5-1 hour walking outside (exercise is important), and have an hour, maybe an hour and a half left for working on my own stuff. And that's on the days when I don't have laundry to do.
There are weekends, and I get some stuff done then, but those are also the best opportunity to hang out with other people who I don't live with, so they often are half occupied already.
I'm not really sure if I could find this situation tolerable under other circumstances (not having to do as many chores, shorter commute, etc.). I could probably be using my time at least a little more effectively than I am. It feels like a huge bottleneck in free time compared to college, though. That may also be related to the fact that in college, I can more easily choose when my free time is.
Thanks for the info. So it seems to be mostly a case of (c).
While it's unfortunate that your own specific situation doesn't seem to allow for much free time, it doesn't seem to undermine the general hypothesis that programming is about the best sort of "day job" a prospective independent researcher could hope to get. (Such a person would of course have to be careful about maximizing the use of their non-job hours, but that would be true in any case; the worry would be about jobs that had too many hours, or soaked up all of one's cognitive energy for the day.)
Maybe. There is the time when your code is compiling, for one. But then, my job isn't the most cognitively demanding software job- or even, I would guess, the average- so it might not be the most useful sample.
I have heard, however, that programmers can be quite successful working as part-time consultants. That might be a good avenue for you to look into.
What about some kind of online employment like the one offered by e.g. oDesk? Some time ago I stumbled upon this recommendation that also gave a few tips on how to approach this kind of work.
I haven't yet found the time to try it out, but since I'm also in a similar situation (finishing a CS degree then planning to find a job that'll pay the bills and use my free time for personal projects) I treat it as one of the most promising alternatives...
Interesting tip, seems like it might work out well. That also looks like an interesting thread in general.
(Welcome, just Your posts made me to grab a pen and register here) crappy jobs, yes. Avoid those where your work will be trashed after some months - those are most meaningless ones. Also those works which will ripoff people are no way to go.
If you have great skills then you should focus on more peaceful projects and avoid government (especially military) and commercial sector areas, yes. :)
Well, when reading your other posts here about programming work, it seems that You are dealing on a wrong work if the recovering from the work takes too much time and is not at all fun. Special warning sign is that if you feel it meaningless, not developing, boring, non-inspiring. Its time to take a pause and think -- what I really need just now? But what makes me happy? Pehraps You were distracted in the beginning what made You to apply for the job?
Fortunately, I don't have to make any special effort to stop working here, because it's a short-term job. Mostly I didn't spend enough time on the job application process, and was happy to have found something...