New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: How to find intellectually challenging work?
Ask HN: How to find intellectually challenging work?
9 by Tainnor | 3 comments on Hacker News.
Hi fellow HN-ers, After working (mostly) as a backend developer since 2013, I was recently burned (or bored?) out a bit, quit my job and went on a sabbatical for half a year. Now I need to start looking for a new job. However, I'm not sure how to find something that feels more meaningful and intellectually stimulating to me. I enjoy programming and also maths, but I found most of the jobs I had before not intellectually challenging in the ways that mattered to me . I'm someone who really likes doing deep dives into a topic and thinking carefully about problems and to me it feels as if the industry isn't rewarding that most of the time - instead, you have to work with 20 different technologies, most of which you barely understand and you never get enough time to really become an expert in anything, and requirements are changing so often that designing an overall architecture of your system seems like an exercise in futility (and is often ridiculed, maybe rightfully so given the constraints). The best job I had was when I worked on a mathematical problem solver for two years. It was something I have never done before or since, it was very challenging (and rewarding), given that it was something very few other people were doing, and I had a great team full of very smart people. Unfortunately, we were all let go in the end. I'm still not sure whether that was just a once in a lifetime opportunity or whether there is a change that I could find something similarly challenging (and off the beaten track). When I quit, my boss told me that I would maybe be happier in an R&D type of job. I'm just not sure how to find such jobs, given that I don't have a PhD in anything (I merely have a BSc in mathematics and a MA in a totally unrelated field). Another idea of mine would be to look for a job in a typed FP language (like Haskell, Scala, etc.), as I feel that the engineering culture could be a better fit (and I do enjoy type systems and FP languages), but I guess these jobs are also few and far between (I'm also in Europe with no intention to relocate, which might affect the number of open positions significantly). I'm aware that I'm in a privileged position as a developer, and of course, if push comes to shove I'll just take a "regular" dev job (and maybe work on an attitude adjustment?). But I feel as if I should at least try to see what's out there. I'm looking for opinions of people who have felt similarly. What did you end up doing?
9 by Tainnor | 3 comments on Hacker News.
Hi fellow HN-ers, After working (mostly) as a backend developer since 2013, I was recently burned (or bored?) out a bit, quit my job and went on a sabbatical for half a year. Now I need to start looking for a new job. However, I'm not sure how to find something that feels more meaningful and intellectually stimulating to me. I enjoy programming and also maths, but I found most of the jobs I had before not intellectually challenging in the ways that mattered to me . I'm someone who really likes doing deep dives into a topic and thinking carefully about problems and to me it feels as if the industry isn't rewarding that most of the time - instead, you have to work with 20 different technologies, most of which you barely understand and you never get enough time to really become an expert in anything, and requirements are changing so often that designing an overall architecture of your system seems like an exercise in futility (and is often ridiculed, maybe rightfully so given the constraints). The best job I had was when I worked on a mathematical problem solver for two years. It was something I have never done before or since, it was very challenging (and rewarding), given that it was something very few other people were doing, and I had a great team full of very smart people. Unfortunately, we were all let go in the end. I'm still not sure whether that was just a once in a lifetime opportunity or whether there is a change that I could find something similarly challenging (and off the beaten track). When I quit, my boss told me that I would maybe be happier in an R&D type of job. I'm just not sure how to find such jobs, given that I don't have a PhD in anything (I merely have a BSc in mathematics and a MA in a totally unrelated field). Another idea of mine would be to look for a job in a typed FP language (like Haskell, Scala, etc.), as I feel that the engineering culture could be a better fit (and I do enjoy type systems and FP languages), but I guess these jobs are also few and far between (I'm also in Europe with no intention to relocate, which might affect the number of open positions significantly). I'm aware that I'm in a privileged position as a developer, and of course, if push comes to shove I'll just take a "regular" dev job (and maybe work on an attitude adjustment?). But I feel as if I should at least try to see what's out there. I'm looking for opinions of people who have felt similarly. What did you end up doing?
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