djellybeans

How would you describe it? Our work cycle is dominated by context switching between clients and billable hours. Very often we don't get enough billable hours to resolve technical debt. With this billing model keeping clients in a good mood becomes more important than doing what's best for them, and the former is difficult to quantify.

I try to answer these questions so I can better update my resume. As one marketing agency web dev to others, I'd like to see how others figure out what makes our contributions uniquely ours, in terms of value we create for the company.

Or rather, how close was it like Silicon Valley to be working in tech in the UK during that time? For their time, lot of name brand products in computing came from the UK, and even though the market today is not very lucrative, the nation still left a legacy to the computing industry as a whole. So when this sort of activity was in great flux in the 80s I can only assume it must've been really great to work as a software engineer, comparatively speaking.

From someone outside the UK who doesn't understand the economics of the nation it's sort of a mystery to me that they had quickly become a shadow of what once was.

I haven't worked a full-time web dev job since 2014, and from 2015-19 was doing freelance work with technology mostly stuck in 2014. I am aware of how much the web dev game has changed since then, but have lacked the will to catch up with the tech on unemployed time. The drive and curiosity that led me to learn web dev in my early 20s isn't there anymore.

I found out about returnships and they appear to be aimed towards people like me, getting back into the workforce after a long term leave.

However, information on returnship experiences is sparse and can't find a good guide on how to pick one that is a good fit to restart my career. I'm guessing that returnships are niche because of the circumstances one must be in to join one. How do I weigh the pros and cons of a company's returnship program and make sure I am going to get the proper experience and training and not be up the creek without a paddle?

I'm unemployed and have been job searching for a while (though I took a recent break due to burnout). Recalling the common questions I get asked like, what tech stacks I have worked on, and then realizing when my experience is far from what they're doing. But, I learned that, sometimes, saying that I am willing to learn these technologies at home can turn a so-so outlook to a good one for the interviewer. I want to learn new techs without it making it seem like I am just "paying my dues" or doing an unpaid trial version to show the companies what I got.

It's become a tricky tightrope to walk with the pro-side of self-learning is that it's necessary to stay attractive in the job market, but one downside is that it can feel like unpaid work because you're unemployed but learning these things for your career, and not for personal enjoyment or passion.

I have no job for which to learn new things on paid time- all my time right now is unpaid, and sometimes I can't help but think that any sort of career improvement when you have no job still needs to be compensated in a more immediate, consistent fashion.

And why do I rarely seen any context of transition states between the two? For instance: When does a small-scale but growing app no longer qualify as "small", and does it make it automatically large-scale at that point? (maybe it's similar to the heap paradox?) Another sample topic: Companies that prefer to hire for experience in large-scale web dev. Small-scale devs want to learn but lack the means in their current job. And they do not know whether the best approach for their software is a gradual change or you turn it on like a light switch.

Providing more context in when and how small turns into big could be especially useful for professionals who only know small-scale dev practices but are trying to bridge the gap.

Digital agencies seem to get a lot of criticism in the tech world but I wouldn't mind working for one again if the job culture is right. Plus you get the opportunity to use many front-end and back-end web skills to stay well-rounded.

But what I want the most is having an incentive to actually fulfill positive outcomes for the clients. And actually see my work make a difference. I don't care for the "churn and burn" mindset where agencies just sign off contracts and only care that they are paid for deliverables. I want agencies that actually care about creating profits for their clients. Are there any out there that operate in this fashion? I'd like to discover some.

As an addendum, this other question: My resume and LinkedIn profile show no work since 2019- why have no companies or recruiters targeted me with returnships- only regular jobs?

I'm in a position where I could use a returnship and I think many more people are now in that position because of the climate of the tech jobs market. But returnships are still rather uncommon. I've found that it's mostly big, high-profile companies that offer them but I would like to seek more options in other places in order to increase my chances of getting hired. What are some other online resources that I might be overlooking for returnships from more unlikely companies and organizations?

More a vent than anything else...

I am 40 and sort of stumbled into a weird "comfortable but still poor" loop which for me meant working low paying developer jobs on and off, until one final job three years ago where I got laid off, no longer able to get hired again and now just living frugally off the small savings from my jobs.

As far as catching up with others in the field, I have put that aside and given up for now. I'm only learning new stuff for personal recreation projects so long as I still have money left.

Been applying for jobs and practicing interview for 2 years in my 3 year unemployment gap and still got nothing so far. I even took a $5k interviewing course. The 3 year gap is surely a killer at this point.

Also, don't take the title too seriously. I don't plan to retire indefinitely, and I'm just living this way as long as I have personal funds. I estimate about 10 months before my savings run out so long as monthly expenses continue the way they are now.

Some key things about my development "career":

- Graduated with an unrelated degree, so I started with jobs at local small companies, not aiming for big names

- Got fired from my first two junior-level jobs for performance-related reasons

- Majority of jobs are contract or so-called permatemp jobs, the business' intent being to cut corners in product development as much as possible

- Save for one jump from an agency to a startup, I always lose my current job before finding a new one

- My highest annual compensation was $50k

I get that a 3 year gap looks really bad, but all suggestions to fix that lead down a path of solitary effort with structure that you must set up yourself, and that sounds just as depressing. Nothing in the way of having someone else to keep you accountable, as I am single and the closest contacts I have are a few family members over the phone and occasionally meet in person. They are unable to help my job search because they're completely removed from the tech industry.

As someone who's often been told I have basically junior-level skills with senior-level years, the idea that you should up-skill on unpaid time in order to get hired again is laughable to me. That's like trying to climb up in rank when you're not even participating within a hierarchy. I'd rather get re-hired at the bottom and make my most impactful decisions on the job. But as long as my gap and experience continues to scare off employers, so must this "FIRE" continue for now.

I came across a post of a photo of a question from a online job application. The question asked what your catchphrase would be if you played a neighbor character, in a sitcom, whose backstory takes from your real life.

Aside from the roundabout way of trying to draw more information from your past, I also think, this question is something I'd expect to get in face-to-face or onsite interview, not in an online application. And I've seen more and more questions regarding soft skills, in things that are now being "front-loaded" in a form instead of saved for a live interview.

To my knowledge, interviewing has never been a dedicated job but something that different employees might need to do from time to time. Seems like online applications and assessments like these are an impetus, maybe helped by HR or others, to diminish the role of interviewing so that employees can perform their main role more often. Does it follow a goal of trying to reduce and streamline the time employees spend on face-to-face interviews? I find it a problem because a lot of useful data from interviews is not just in the initial question but in the follow-up that can lead to other interesting tangents to learn more about the candidate, something that can't be done well with online forms.

I have never interviewed others for hiring so I lack this perspective. I'd like to hear what interviewers see in these types of approaches of moving more interview questions to online questionnaires, if it's reduced your role as an interviewer, and other ways that tools might be reducing that role, if any at all.

Most internships being accessible/important only to students, anyways. Doesn't apply to all of them (but won't fit in the title)

A very cynical take I've heard is that it acts as a class filter, just as is higher education. A somewhat less cynical view is that it's favoritism and trust, just like how people from certain top schools tend to hire those from other top schools with less harsh judgment.

However, I am really more interested in the apparent paradox that most internships present, in their accessible to students, people already in a better-off position to enter the professional world. But having the majority of them being inaccessible for those not in school, who actually need more help to get in a similar good standing for a career. In this comparison a student is getting a "double serving" of benefits. Is it as simple as risk factors that companies don't want to take into consideration with self-taught people?

As implied in the title, I'm currently unemployed and been so for about a year. But I also still need to be around other live professionals, and burying my head in books and YouTube tutorials isn't enough for me. I repeat, I do not want to continue self-learning alone. Sometimes you gotta practice interviews with people who know how to interview developers, and learn under the guidance of a cohort that can link you up with better job prospects.

Plus, I actually hope there is something similar to what Amazon is doing with tech career training, only it's training for existing developers that are finding themselves falling behind and becoming less hire-able, sort of like a pick-me-up rehab program. If such a thing doesn't exist I would be surprised given how many resources some companies have.

The first couple years of my career were relatively normal. Full-time software development work involving teams, not always local or in-house teams, but I had at least a couple of other engineers to work with. After 2015 work was sparse. I couldn't catch a break most of the time with interviews and had to settle for solo freelance work to tide me over. It helps fill a few holes in unemployment, though.

However, I am always applying to full-time jobs, and want to know what to expect going back to work with a team of developers.

My past team experiences:

There was no unit testing and engineers weren't really expected to own their testing. The philosophy in every workplace I've been was "that's what manual QA is for". I hear manual QA testing is on the decline- is this true?

Code commits are like throwing an update over a wall and let the lead developer worry about it. You submit a PR and lead reviews your code. No automated CI as far as I know.

In fact I don't recall anything that was heavily automated. There was not a lot of big oversight with the dev process as everyone above senior or lead level was completely non-technical.

When off-shore devs were involved it was usually handled poorly. A miss in communication could mean losing a day of work because one overseas dev might accidentally un-do the merge by the time we step into work in the morning.

I feel like a fraud in the tech industry. But I'm not someone who's getting paid well and with a high job title who thinks I don't deserve it.

I'm someone who feels like they've been working like a dog and still not making ends meet, and it's making me think I don't deserve working in the industry in general.

I'm not an inexperienced person struggling to find their first developer job, but have at least a few jobs under my belt as an SWE, and a couple of freelance gigs. Yet most of that stuff I was doing apparently can't help me find a job today. I'm looking like a hard sell now, with the mix of bad skills and bad interviewing.

I am now doubting my abilities and my legitimacy in the field because of all the rejections for jobs at interviews. Is this what impostor syndrome feels like? But most people who say they feel impostor syndrome are actually doing far better than me.

I am curious about digital nomading in the future and almost always they're traveling internationally, but I am more interested in hearing of digital nomad experiences that involve traveling within the US. There's still plenty of room to stretch your legs in a country of this size. Lots of beautiful locations that I'd like to visit and sight-see without me needing a passport.

Digital nomads somehow became more synonymous with air travel across the globe but for some reason I don't hear much about the ones who are backpacking and road traveling without leaving the US. Is it mostly because of the appeal to live more cheaply in many other countries?