Corporate America – Page 3 – The Renegade Coder

If you've had a chance to read the Military Mentality article, then you know I can't stand the inefficiencies of project management. When I was an engineer, some days I'd buried in work while other days I'd be pretending to work. Despite the volatility, the everlasting exertion never stops. Corporate Culture Values Time Over Results In Corporate America, everyone is required to arrive at the office at some arbitrary time and stay until some other arbitrary time. For me, those hours were typically 8AM and 5PM. If I didn't follow that script, I risked pissing off my team and losing my job. Now, why do these hours exist? Well, the reality is that corporate culture equates time to productivity. In other words, those who put in the time are going to be more successful regardless of their output. As a result, we end up with this culture that praises people for sacrificing their personal time. Unfortunately, that means a lot of kids grow up without attention. A lack of attention is probably what drove a whole host of behavioral issues in people in my generation and younger. It's no wonder millennials take so much heat. It's not like anyone was around to raise us. Millennials and Corporate Culture Naturally, people in my generation aren't prepared for the everlasting exertion of the corporate work environment. We're too independent. We have this entrepreneurial mindset that values performance and efficiency, and we care about our personal time. Of course, we don't want to be strapped to a desk. We've been raised with the luxury of being able to work wherever and whenever we want. Honestly, that's just college in a nutshell. It's effective because it forces us to manage our time wisely. By the time we start our career, we're more than ready to tackle real-world problems. Believe it or not, laptops can be used just about anywhere. Unfortunately, you can kind of start seeing the issue here. People like me value our time, so we don't waste any of it when it comes to completing an assignment. Meanwhile, corporate culture values time over results, so getting an assignment done doesn't mean we can go home. Instead, it means we're stuck doing someone else's work. That's the sort of the harsh reality I was faced with straight out of college. By working hard, I created more work for myself. That's when I realized I had two options: continue the everlasting exertion or slow down to the pace of the team. An Easy Decision Continuing the everlasting exertion is the altruistic way to handle this situation, but I'm not about that life. It's not like I'm lazy. It just wasn't fair to me to have to carry the team on my back. If you've ever been in this situation, you know how bad it can get. Work just continues to funnel down to you until you're suddenly responsible for literally anything that goes wrong. Thinking back, I remember being on a team of primarily mechanical engineers. They had this project that required a bit of software development, so they needed someone with my expertise. After about three months, I had converted all of their hardcoded scripts to libraries which were stored in version control. By six months, the entire build and deployment process was automated. These were tools that the team had absolutely no experience in, so I was happy to share my knowledge. However, around the five month or so mark, something pretty sinister started to happen. The team began taking me for granted as if I was just some code monkey. Everyday, new features were being forced down my throat. Meanwhile, core libraries still needed to be tested. What started as a major increase in productivity devolved into an endless cycle of GitHub issues. Naturally, the team started looking at me like I was the weak link. So much for working hard! It's amazing to me how quickly people forget what you've done for them. Reflecting on the Everlasting Exertion Sometimes I like to think back to before I even joined that team. Would they have been that far without me? I highly doubt it. I'd be surprised if that product ever made it out the door. The preferred keyboard of a mechanical engineer; No wonder I had to teach them version control. Fortunately, about halfway through my time in that role, I moved to Atlanta. This allowed me to spend the next six months doing whatever they hell I wanted; It was great. Since no one was able to watch over my shoulder, I was able to be productive again. Of course, I was still restricted to those hours between 8 and 5, but all I really did was keep my laptop open. From there, I worked my hours. Each day was mine to conquer. To be honest, I was extremely thankful for that move. It allowed me to work in a way that made me most productive. In fact, I could work just about whenever I wanted including nights and weekends—something I never would have done while chained to a desk. On top of that, I could work out, and I could even keep up on errands. No longer was I drained by the everlasting exertion. That little bit of randomness to my schedule kept me energized and alert. It was something I so dearly missed from being in college. Of course, that excitement only lasted so long. Within three months, my manager quit their job. I then spent the remainder of my time on phone calls that ran well beyond my 8 to 5. Would you believe me if I said I barely got anything done under new management? How could I with all these insane meetings? The grind never stops. Finding the Culture that's Right for You Don't let what happened to me happen to you, seriously. Find yourself a company culture that's right for you. I remember back to when I started interviewing for jobs. Everyone always tells you that you need to ask the interviewer a few good questions. This advice really serves two purposes: To show the interviewer you're passionate about the jobTo clarify any doubts you have about the position or company While the advice appears helpful, I find that it's practically useless. After all, if you're a first time interviewee, you don't have any base for comparison. What's worse is that the interviewer is typically a recruiter, so it's sort of in their job description to market their business. As a result, you end up with these prescribed responses from someone who's been drinking the Kool-Aid straight from the source. Create Your Ideal Job Profile My advice? Create an ideal job profile. I don't mean go get a list of the top companies and start digging into Reddit forums. That's not really helpful. Instead, start by determining what you want out of a job. This part is easy. Just close your eyes and think about your ideal job. The following is a list of criteria to consider: Office Layout Size Location Team Size Diversity Work Schedule Position Title Benefits Health Retirement These are just basic topics to start exploring. If this little experiment makes you smile, then you know you've got a nice job profile going. By now, you've determined the type of company culture you desire. That's probably the most important piece. Do Your Research Now, the hard part: take that concept from above and think about the nitty-gritty details: PayHoursCulture Company Team Work Content Programming Languages Frameworks Systems/Hardware Opportunities Training Travel Gym These sort of details matter less, but they do help you narrow down the scope a bit. By the time you're finished, you should have a job profile that will help refine your job search. At this point, Google is your friend. Just start searching for jobs with some of the keywords from your job profile you just created. If you're struggling, you can try posting on Reddit or Quora with a description of your ideal job. People will likely be assholes at first, but you'll probably get a few good leads. Once you have a few leads, start reaching out to the businesses. Be aware that recruiters will try to sell you on their company, so take their advice with a grain of salt. If possible, schedule a visit. You need to see the work environment before you dive into a career. After all, this decision is likely far more important than college, yet you probably visited all the campuses that offered you admission. If you take that same diligence to the world of job exploration, you should feel more confident about getting a job you'll love. My Career Mistakes I mainly write this last bit because I've made several of my own mistakes when it came to starting my career. Naturally, I never did the sort of ideal job exploration activity from above. Instead, I just tried to get a job. That's really all there was to it. Now, most people will probably read this section and think, "Well, jobs are hard to come by. You need to take whatever you can get." Sure, the job market may be more competitive than in the past, but the reality is you just have to be slightly better than your competition. Since the majority of people are perfectly content with taking the easiest job they can get, you shouldn't have to work too hard to get the job you actually want. After all, most people view work as work, so it shouldn't be too hard to show a potential employer that you're actually passionate about working for them. Hell, I was able to do it for a competitive program that I really didn't even want. I took the advice of taking what I could get and ended up screwing myself. Nobody should ever be in that situation, but I imagine it happens all the time. That's why I write this article. Hopefully, it will go toward guiding a few lost souls toward an exciting career away from the everlasting exertion. For me, that means getting the hell out of corporate engineering and into the classroom.