fooboy

Hey all, back with an anon posting. I posted this a while ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6375141

Things have improved in some ways and worsened in others. I've had a chance to grow, but my work is becoming increasingly managerial. After failing to ship a project earlier this year, my boss made the comment in the title, citing it as a reason I would not be promoted this year.

I do not disagree with the criticism, but have decided to move on, believing that opportunities to improve and grow at this firm are limited to managerial tracks. I'd like to move into management a few years from now, but not immediately.

How can I get better at designing solutions? I'm often overwhelmed by the space of possible solutions, and freeze up when thinking of an approach.

EDIT: by "solution" I believe my boss meant either a feature or product that solves the desired problem.

Hey all, posting under an alias since my normal nick is linked to me IRL. I'm a pretty novice developer (1-2 years professionally, 3-4 since I first learned Python), and as my previous questions might demonstrate, I have very concrete career goals.

At my current job, I'm working on things that I believe have little or no impact on where I want to be in a few years. I need quantitative/statistical experience to do what I want to do, and I'm not getting it at work. At the same time they're very accommodating when it comes to my part-time education (walking in late after morning class, taking time to study, helping me with math theory questions), and I'm also building some general dev experience, which is always good.

So HN, I need a dose of reality here. Am I expecting too much for someone with my experience? Should I swallow my pride a bit, take advantage of my job's accommodations and work on this boring, semi-relevant work? Or do I need to leave as of yesterday?

EDIT: In the past I've "aimed high" for gigs, and I'm worried about getting rejected based on my (potentially inflated) view of my skills. Should that complicate this question at all?

Hey all, alt name since my real account is heavily linked to my IRL self.

I've expressed interest in transitioning from my current role (engineering) into something more aligned with my background (applied statistics & machine learning). Both my manager and my boss's boss speak about my interest in this role very cautiously, and either (a) offer suggestions on preparing for this role (stating it could take me "a year or two" to get there) or (b) mention others on our team who are more qualified for this role.

Both are extremely non-committal about this potential shift, despite assuring me I could "easily fill" the role at another company.

I don't know what to make of this. I'm definitely taking my manager's advice on preparing (my previous comments will show you that I've overextended for positions before). Should I read more into this and start thinking about other options, though. or just get to work on improving my skill set?

Thoughts?

(Using my favorite throwaway account.)

The title says it all, HN. I can't ship.

This isn't about shipping the first version of my nascent startup's web app, though. This is about completing anything in life, putting a big bow on it, and calling it done. I'm terrible about finishing things in all areas of my life, whether it's chores around the house, libraries I need to finish at work, or OSS bugs I've promised -- but failed -- to patch.

I hate it, too, because it is a particularly flaky behavior characteristic of people who are "big talkers" or commit to doing too much. I don't want to be unreliable, but I really just struggle to finish things up.

Has anyone solved this problem for themselves? Have you gone from someone who underproduces to one who knocks things out of the park? I'd love to hear your advice.

Throwaway account.

I did not study CS in undergrad, but I've been admitted to a graduate CS program. What advice do you have for me? This question is intentionally open-ended and vague, since HNers are overflowing with experience + advice.

If you'd rather not share in public, I would love to hear from you on Gmail (fooboyHN).