While working at a company, be loyal to your local team (other people just trying to do good work) and yourself (e.g. build new skills you can use). And really, those are variations of the same thing because co-workers that value you can help you get what you want or even your next job.
Blind loyalty to a company means nothing though. First, managers change: any promise, especially a long-term one, is one manager-change away from becoming vapor. Projects are cancelled or relocated or reprioritized. Layoffs occur at times convenient for the company so don’t be surprised when you’re unable to count on stock vesting. Perks go away. Ultimately, treat most company-level things as “sounds nice” and never count on them. For example, I would never buy a house based on stock I should get or a bonus that was promised.
First, managers change: any promise, especially a long-term one, is one manager-change away from becoming vapor
Sometimes, you don't even need a manager-change for your job to be in danger. I know a guy who had a manager who was pretty cool and a good mentor to him. And then one day, something happened to the manager and he stopped mentoring him. No, he stopped interacting with him. Frequent lunching together came to a screeching halt. Eventually he was left out loops, projects and eventually out of job.
He still doesn't know if the cause was one of these:
1. manager broke up with girlfriend (which did happen) and started not caring
2. my friend said something about politics that offended him?
3. the manager saw 1 mistake by my friend, and just decided he didn't want to waste his time on him.
4. The Manager spent too much time investing in your friend but eventually realized that actually it was not your friend but the manager himself who was delivering results and realized that it was not going to change
A consulting company I worked for fired a sales guy who basically built it with the two co-owners. He basically found all the clients to place developers with and found / interviewed a bunch of devs. Then the company grew and they hired a fancy Ivy League / Wallstreet experience guy in his place.
They gave the original guy zero warning. Kind of messed up.
The conversations I've heard on this topic seem to agree that they pull the lever quickly on sales people because they don't want the guy copying all of his contacts and trying to poach customers/sabotage the company.
But I can't see how that would work because only the really bad salespeople don't already know to have their own contact list. Once you've seen it happen to someone else or heck watched certain movies, you should know better.
This happens all the time. In a past company I worked at, I had test email accounts in the CRM, and those fake-contact email accounts would receive blast messages from reps who were now working at competing companies.
I always reported it, but damn, at least have the foresight to scrub your list of stolen accounts for contacts that have the last name "TEST". Pretty obvious where you got the list from if you don't.
I've seen very similar situations. My theory is it's because we have glorified assholes like steve jobs and every executive thinks they are the next jobs.
There are no negative consequences for screwing over employees.
Probably depends on multiple factors such as size of local economy, how many similar employers are in an area, how big the potential hiring pool is, but word gets around. One consequence is you can struggle to hire, at least for a while.
This anecdote further exacerbates the problem with the original article.
The lessons learned should not be: "CEOs need to do this, this, and that" and neither should it be "For employees, how you handle change will affect the trajectory of your career and possibly your net worth"
CEOs don't _need_ to do anything. They don't owe you anything. They can run the company into the ground for all we care, what matters is whether you have the power or not.
What it should be is this: "If you do not have power, you need to plan for the case when you will get screwed".
He who fails to plan, plans to fail.
Power is the degree to which a person has control over their own circumstances. Power is the degree to which we control the directions of our lives.
This does not add up. After they fired you and then had you fight to get your job back, you said they hired a "coach" to help you learn new skills. But at the end of this training, the coach reported to your boss that you "had a long way to go." It certainly does not seem like the coach was hired to help you out. It seems like it was just a backhanded way to get an assessment on you while you had your guard down.
To me, it seems like this company was just taking advantage of you and your youthful enthusiasm until they had no more use for you. By blaming yourself, I feel like you are drawing all the wrong lessons from this experience.
The new CEO didn't fire him, he basically gave him notice that they were hiring a new VP of marketing, and that he could be in the running, maybe with the help of a coach. Then after he didn't get the job, he quit.
It was a foreseeable sequence of events, from the point of view of the CEO, but he wasn't fired.
When you are called into HR to undergo PIP (Performance Improvement Plan), you should just nod as they tell you about how they will help you improve and grow.
But the moment you walk out that door, start resuming, calling old contacts, and do anything to get a new job.
PIP is literally just a formality HR goes through to let you go eventually, and is just an axx covering move by the HR/company. When you are called into PIP, just consider yourself as let go.
edit: And I would NOT feel any gratitude for the company that they are somehow paying your salary even though you are pretty much an ex-employee. They are simply doing PIP only to cover their bottom.
edit 2: I don't know when this trend started, but HR transformed
BEFORE
It kept list of employees, made sure pay checks were handed out, had new hires fill out forms, handle lay off.
NOW
It sends emails about good sounding fun activities, request for filling out surveys, etc.
What really bugs me is, all the surveys (we want to hear from you so we can do better for you as a company), activities is just a smoke screen to not pay employees more.
Do you know how to make an employee feel happier? Pay more money. You know, the same thing CEO/major-shareholders/owners also like to get more of.
Agree on PIP, but HR is often your friend actually, it's just a pretty broad field that tends to be behind the scenes. A significant amount of HR is aimed at making a company great to work at - pay, benefits, culture, recognition, career growth, learning & development, etc
I'm founder and CEO of a company with over a hundred thirty employees now and I have a strict policy not to hire anyone as a team lead or manager or executive from the outside. I always promote within and always reward people who've been committed. If no one is ready to be a team lead or manager, I have the team operate with that one until I spot someone who is ready.
I would highly recommend to everyone out there to never work for a hired gun CEO. Companies that are run by their founders are far more likely to succeed.
This is too broad and general of a statement to make. Depending on the size of the organization, the work you're trying to do, the pipeline and network of employees you've worked with at other places, bringing in a leader from outside not only could be important for growing the company in a new direction but also provide an outside and objective perspective on a team that isn't performing. I have seen managers promoted from within with negative results and brought in from outside with great success. Don't remove a tool from your toolbelt as a leader unnecessarily.
If no one is ready to be a team lead or manager, I have the team operate with that one until I spot someone who is ready.
I've never been a ceo or a vp or team lead (probably never will be), but to me, it seems if an organization has no one inside being groomed to be the next team lead, manager, vp, I feel the ceo has failed at his job.
seems like it would beneficial to occasionally bring in fresh blood from different companies because they might bring ideas and strategies you hadn't thought of yourself
I’d caution against jumping to conclusions. The author did say that he was emotionally shut down and wasn’t intaking any of the coaching sessions. It’s very possible that the CEO/Coach knew that it wasn’t going to work out, but it’s also very possible that they wanted to see the author succeed and prove them wrong.
There's another question to ask: Do you actually want to keep your job as your company grows?
This is not to imply "yes" or "no"; it's a very personal answer. At the companies I've been in, there are some who thrived moving into new roles as the company grew, and there were others that would have been happier and more successful taking their skills to the next startup.
The fundamental principle-agent issue here, is that startup-y people, who thrive on small teams getting stuff done, are essential for getting a startup up the ground; however it is exactly the point where startups hold the least cash to compensate with.
This generally leads to stock-option based compensation; which, in turn, expires 30 days after employee leaves.
This economics -as practiced presently- strongly implies for savvy startupy people to work only on startups of their own; which in turn makes early hiring extremely difficult.
There are 2 points of equilibrium here:
* The current one is people leading less savvy people on. This leads to a lot of resentment; see rest of HN for that.
* a much less wrong solution would be to have secondary markets set up significantly earlier in the game (post series a); which would make stock & options immediate liquid. Despite sales difficulties(for finding counter parties for that), this can be a huge advantage during hiring, as employees don’t have to take on lottery tickets; and allow early employees to resign with much less resentment.
I've mostly worked in small companies with tiny engineering teams but I've had a go at some larger companies as well. Personally I thrive in the small companies and wither in the large ones. In the small companies I tend to spend a large part of my day writing code (which I love), meetings are rare and typically to the point. In the big companies I've found it hard to find stuff to do and the meetings are many and repetitive. It seems to me that the bigger companies hire for redundancy. In the largest company I worked for (~3k ppl) I typically received >100 emails/day + dozens of slack channels. In my current job we're 8 ppl and I rarely get more than 1 email/week :)!
I've given this thought before, and generally I think the answer is, "yes".
There's something to be said about riding the growth wave in a company or industry that is on the up-and-up, and it usually involves more career opportunities, fatter project budgets, and just a general sense of optimism from everyone else you work with. Of course there are exceptions/outliers, but in general, "yes".
The inverse of this is, "Do you want to be working at a company that is shrinking?" and I think the answer is generally, "no".
At least a company ostensibly shrinking won't be shrouded in hypetrain fumes. Maybe it's actually a great idea for those with the know-how to navigate it, jumping around stabilizing wounds, maybe you can become an hero.
What a fantastic read. As a CEO who has grown my company from 6 to almost 100, this is one of the hardest discussions to have with someone. It's not that they did anything wrong, they're just no "right" for the position in its current state.
He suggests that it's impossible to retain employees through such changes. I haven't found this to be the case. One technique I've used is to keep the company title-light, so that changes in title aren't as stark. I've also had a few people who have gone from IC->manager->IC, which shows the company that I value people no matter what their role is. Retaining people after hiring above them requires a lot of careful, honest conversations not just with the affected employee, but with messaging to the broader team.
I'd love to know how you approach the messaging to the broader team about hiring above someone (perhaps if they've always been an IC, or if they tried management and weren't performing). In my view it seems quite difficult to maintain face in such a scenario, and it's not obvious how one can alleviate that.
Great post. The author is polite enough to avoid drawing attention to a mistake of the CEO, but I thought it was worth mentioning. (Assuming the boss already knew the lessons learned.)
Believe the CEO would likely have received a much better response had phrased the same idea as:
- Great job!
- Business is changing, we need to take it to next level.
- Let's improve our Plans, Vision, Strategy
- I've got a coach on retainer to help get us there.
Then Plan B, where early employee can't make the transition and is replaced, can be left unsaid. If it happens the employee will be a lot less surprised, and have a greater chance for retention.
Well, you have to have seen it from the point of view of the CEO. Playing devil's advocate, what would you do if you jumped onboard, and the first thing you saw was that all your clients were interacting only with your VP of marketing/Sales on a personal basis? ...well, granted, if it was that exactly he would still be employed to this day :D but you get the picture, maybe it was bad enough that what the CEO did was already above and beyond.
I don't think there is any real way to plan that. Keeping your ear to the wall, schmoozing can help, if that's your forte. But it's a lot of work. I've seen people who seemed irreplaceable get chucked out because of dirty politics and the team suffer because, the person in question was a fantastic worker, not merely someone who had tribal knowledge. I am not loyal to a company, am loyal to an ethical code that says that I try to do by best, but not at the cost of my health or time. No matter what, don't stop learning, if your job allows you to, then great, otherwise just find time in your schedule to do it. Eventually, you are the master of your destiny.
You definitely have to be aware which way the wind is blowing when re-orgs are happening. The closer the re-org is to you, the more you should pay attention.
I was recently in one of these situations where I came out on top and was able to assist my department head in a favor to a friend. None of what happened was ever made explicit but the summary of the subtext (in hindsight) was: "We're pushing out so-and-so and you're up for a promotion, ostensibly to his role. However, I have a friend whose contract is ending soon and needs a new job. Would be you interested in this other role that's a promotion but also allows me to make a future org change I see as necessary?" All the players and pieces were mentioned. I had to infer the game plan.
I took the alternate role and the rest played out. It was definitely a learning experience, and as you advance in your career these types of soft skills matter just as much as any hard skill.
disclosure: i dont work in software, im an engine mechanic whos learning python.
ive worked for small shops from the ground up, starting with mostly off the shelf hand tools and paper records, and moving into automated and well run repair businesses. The key i think is to find a company that realizes when they are squandering your potential and takes action before you're gone.
I went from brakes to suspension in 3 months and from there with consistent demonstration of talent, became the shop lead, then master mechanic, after 4 years. Im not so much a guy who twists oil filters anymore, but I'll still walk the floor and see whos doing what. I'll check our ticket queue to see what hasnt moved, or if parts in the crib need stocking. In my line of work we call it 'old timers.' guys who know and have the experience to guide, but dont necessarily care to leave the comfort of a comfy chair very often. Not a manager, but the first line of defense against having to talk to one.
I go out to fleets and take part in bids for maintenance jobs, not because Im a good mechanic, but because I know which mechanics I work with that are good for certain things. Im also known for bringing in a bucket or two of fried chicken for lunch on the weekends. I still have a workbench in the repair area, but my coworkers mostly leave weird parts I might enjoy or tricky problems to solve that nobody else has figured out.
> disclosure: i dont work in software, im an engine mechanic whos learning python
You don't work in software. Yet.
Good luck with learning! Find fun problems to work on, like making games or programming your lights. Perhaps scraping web pages for content and emailing you. Automate some small things. If you keep having fun, you'll stay motivated.
The more you build, the better you'll get. It just happens naturally. You'll think, "I could have done this better by doing X instead", or, "I could have organized this more efficiently".
Before you know it you'll be ready to make a career jump (if you want to). A lot of people in our industry never went to university and studied on their own.
A few recommendations:
Learn lists (aka vectors, arrays) and dicts (aka hashmaps, maps, etc.) These are the core data structures in scripting languages like Python. Knowing how to use them effectively with looping constructs is key to becoming a good programmer.
Next learn how to organize your code. Functions, classes, and files where appropriate. You'll learn this naturally as you continue to build things. You'll also learn by reading other code.
Use libraries to accomplish work that other people have conveniently made easy and packaged for reuse. Image processing, HTML scraping, game engines, website frameworks, etc.
When you graduate this and want to become more "academic", you'll want to look into two areas especially :
- data structures, which are things like arrays, linked lists, hashsets, etc.
- algorithm analysis, which will teach you how to write efficient code (big-O notation and analysis, etc.)
You don't necessarily need these, but they're a huge leg up. Mastering them can get you into FAANG.
If you like web stuff and servers, look at distributed computing. Also look at principles of operating systems to understand how threading, virtual memory, etc. etc. work.
Hopefully this helps. It's not stuff you need to jump on right away, but it can be a roadmap for the next few years.
Best of luck! Hope you enjoy everything you're doing and never feel discouraged. There are always people out there that are better than you, and it doesn't mean you aren't good yourself. Don't doubt what you're doing.
It was nice of you to put all of this effort into writing up this post, but what gave you the idea that GP wanted to do software full time for a living when they've got a great job already? Seems like they have autonomy, efficacy, respect from their co-workers, and enough money to share lunch.
I’m not who you replied to but I really needed this.
I’m working on getting out of being a headhunter (a decent, honest, technically minded one who actually listens, but still with all the bad actors it’s hard to have prod in my career) into software development. I’ve always been fascinated with computers ever since programming my BBC micro first in basic then assembly.
Family reasons meant i needed a short term job (12 years ago!) so I put off learning and dropped out of university.
I’m able to spend the evenings and weekends learning now -I’m fascinated by iOS development, Swift and learning all the apis.
Motivation hasn’t been too hard to find but seeing light at the end of the tunnel has and this post resonated with me because I understood a lot of it and thought that I have come a little way after all.
Mechanic turned dev here. Writing Software is similar to working on cars. Youll do well as long as you keep your detective skills honed. Email me if you ever need any help. I do python as well.
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Blind loyalty to a company means nothing though. First, managers change: any promise, especially a long-term one, is one manager-change away from becoming vapor. Projects are cancelled or relocated or reprioritized. Layoffs occur at times convenient for the company so don’t be surprised when you’re unable to count on stock vesting. Perks go away. Ultimately, treat most company-level things as “sounds nice” and never count on them. For example, I would never buy a house based on stock I should get or a bonus that was promised.
Sometimes, you don't even need a manager-change for your job to be in danger. I know a guy who had a manager who was pretty cool and a good mentor to him. And then one day, something happened to the manager and he stopped mentoring him. No, he stopped interacting with him. Frequent lunching together came to a screeching halt. Eventually he was left out loops, projects and eventually out of job.
He still doesn't know if the cause was one of these:
1. manager broke up with girlfriend (which did happen) and started not caring
2. my friend said something about politics that offended him?
3. the manager saw 1 mistake by my friend, and just decided he didn't want to waste his time on him.
They gave the original guy zero warning. Kind of messed up.
But I can't see how that would work because only the really bad salespeople don't already know to have their own contact list. Once you've seen it happen to someone else or heck watched certain movies, you should know better.
I always reported it, but damn, at least have the foresight to scrub your list of stolen accounts for contacts that have the last name "TEST". Pretty obvious where you got the list from if you don't.
There are no negative consequences for screwing over employees.
Probably depends on multiple factors such as size of local economy, how many similar employers are in an area, how big the potential hiring pool is, but word gets around. One consequence is you can struggle to hire, at least for a while.
Very much an intangible though.
The lessons learned should not be: "CEOs need to do this, this, and that" and neither should it be "For employees, how you handle change will affect the trajectory of your career and possibly your net worth"
CEOs don't _need_ to do anything. They don't owe you anything. They can run the company into the ground for all we care, what matters is whether you have the power or not.
What it should be is this: "If you do not have power, you need to plan for the case when you will get screwed".
He who fails to plan, plans to fail.
Power is the degree to which a person has control over their own circumstances. Power is the degree to which we control the directions of our lives.
The capitalism horror stories I read every day on this website are astonishing and depressing.
Deleted Comment
This does not add up. After they fired you and then had you fight to get your job back, you said they hired a "coach" to help you learn new skills. But at the end of this training, the coach reported to your boss that you "had a long way to go." It certainly does not seem like the coach was hired to help you out. It seems like it was just a backhanded way to get an assessment on you while you had your guard down.
To me, it seems like this company was just taking advantage of you and your youthful enthusiasm until they had no more use for you. By blaming yourself, I feel like you are drawing all the wrong lessons from this experience.
It was a foreseeable sequence of events, from the point of view of the CEO, but he wasn't fired.
HR is never your friend.
But the moment you walk out that door, start resuming, calling old contacts, and do anything to get a new job.
PIP is literally just a formality HR goes through to let you go eventually, and is just an axx covering move by the HR/company. When you are called into PIP, just consider yourself as let go.
edit: And I would NOT feel any gratitude for the company that they are somehow paying your salary even though you are pretty much an ex-employee. They are simply doing PIP only to cover their bottom.
edit 2: I don't know when this trend started, but HR transformed
BEFORE
It kept list of employees, made sure pay checks were handed out, had new hires fill out forms, handle lay off.
NOW
It sends emails about good sounding fun activities, request for filling out surveys, etc.
What really bugs me is, all the surveys (we want to hear from you so we can do better for you as a company), activities is just a smoke screen to not pay employees more.
Do you know how to make an employee feel happier? Pay more money. You know, the same thing CEO/major-shareholders/owners also like to get more of.
I'm founder and CEO of a company with over a hundred thirty employees now and I have a strict policy not to hire anyone as a team lead or manager or executive from the outside. I always promote within and always reward people who've been committed. If no one is ready to be a team lead or manager, I have the team operate with that one until I spot someone who is ready.
I would highly recommend to everyone out there to never work for a hired gun CEO. Companies that are run by their founders are far more likely to succeed.
I've never been a ceo or a vp or team lead (probably never will be), but to me, it seems if an organization has no one inside being groomed to be the next team lead, manager, vp, I feel the ceo has failed at his job.
This is not to imply "yes" or "no"; it's a very personal answer. At the companies I've been in, there are some who thrived moving into new roles as the company grew, and there were others that would have been happier and more successful taking their skills to the next startup.
This generally leads to stock-option based compensation; which, in turn, expires 30 days after employee leaves.
This economics -as practiced presently- strongly implies for savvy startupy people to work only on startups of their own; which in turn makes early hiring extremely difficult.
There are 2 points of equilibrium here:
* The current one is people leading less savvy people on. This leads to a lot of resentment; see rest of HN for that.
* a much less wrong solution would be to have secondary markets set up significantly earlier in the game (post series a); which would make stock & options immediate liquid. Despite sales difficulties(for finding counter parties for that), this can be a huge advantage during hiring, as employees don’t have to take on lottery tickets; and allow early employees to resign with much less resentment.
I've mostly worked in small companies with tiny engineering teams but I've had a go at some larger companies as well. Personally I thrive in the small companies and wither in the large ones. In the small companies I tend to spend a large part of my day writing code (which I love), meetings are rare and typically to the point. In the big companies I've found it hard to find stuff to do and the meetings are many and repetitive. It seems to me that the bigger companies hire for redundancy. In the largest company I worked for (~3k ppl) I typically received >100 emails/day + dozens of slack channels. In my current job we're 8 ppl and I rarely get more than 1 email/week :)!
There's something to be said about riding the growth wave in a company or industry that is on the up-and-up, and it usually involves more career opportunities, fatter project budgets, and just a general sense of optimism from everyone else you work with. Of course there are exceptions/outliers, but in general, "yes".
The inverse of this is, "Do you want to be working at a company that is shrinking?" and I think the answer is generally, "no".
He suggests that it's impossible to retain employees through such changes. I haven't found this to be the case. One technique I've used is to keep the company title-light, so that changes in title aren't as stark. I've also had a few people who have gone from IC->manager->IC, which shows the company that I value people no matter what their role is. Retaining people after hiring above them requires a lot of careful, honest conversations not just with the affected employee, but with messaging to the broader team.
Believe the CEO would likely have received a much better response had phrased the same idea as:
- Great job!
- Business is changing, we need to take it to next level.
- Let's improve our Plans, Vision, Strategy
- I've got a coach on retainer to help get us there.
Then Plan B, where early employee can't make the transition and is replaced, can be left unsaid. If it happens the employee will be a lot less surprised, and have a greater chance for retention.
I was recently in one of these situations where I came out on top and was able to assist my department head in a favor to a friend. None of what happened was ever made explicit but the summary of the subtext (in hindsight) was: "We're pushing out so-and-so and you're up for a promotion, ostensibly to his role. However, I have a friend whose contract is ending soon and needs a new job. Would be you interested in this other role that's a promotion but also allows me to make a future org change I see as necessary?" All the players and pieces were mentioned. I had to infer the game plan.
I took the alternate role and the rest played out. It was definitely a learning experience, and as you advance in your career these types of soft skills matter just as much as any hard skill.
ive worked for small shops from the ground up, starting with mostly off the shelf hand tools and paper records, and moving into automated and well run repair businesses. The key i think is to find a company that realizes when they are squandering your potential and takes action before you're gone.
I went from brakes to suspension in 3 months and from there with consistent demonstration of talent, became the shop lead, then master mechanic, after 4 years. Im not so much a guy who twists oil filters anymore, but I'll still walk the floor and see whos doing what. I'll check our ticket queue to see what hasnt moved, or if parts in the crib need stocking. In my line of work we call it 'old timers.' guys who know and have the experience to guide, but dont necessarily care to leave the comfort of a comfy chair very often. Not a manager, but the first line of defense against having to talk to one.
I go out to fleets and take part in bids for maintenance jobs, not because Im a good mechanic, but because I know which mechanics I work with that are good for certain things. Im also known for bringing in a bucket or two of fried chicken for lunch on the weekends. I still have a workbench in the repair area, but my coworkers mostly leave weird parts I might enjoy or tricky problems to solve that nobody else has figured out.
You don't work in software. Yet.
Good luck with learning! Find fun problems to work on, like making games or programming your lights. Perhaps scraping web pages for content and emailing you. Automate some small things. If you keep having fun, you'll stay motivated.
The more you build, the better you'll get. It just happens naturally. You'll think, "I could have done this better by doing X instead", or, "I could have organized this more efficiently".
Before you know it you'll be ready to make a career jump (if you want to). A lot of people in our industry never went to university and studied on their own.
A few recommendations:
Learn lists (aka vectors, arrays) and dicts (aka hashmaps, maps, etc.) These are the core data structures in scripting languages like Python. Knowing how to use them effectively with looping constructs is key to becoming a good programmer.
Next learn how to organize your code. Functions, classes, and files where appropriate. You'll learn this naturally as you continue to build things. You'll also learn by reading other code.
Use libraries to accomplish work that other people have conveniently made easy and packaged for reuse. Image processing, HTML scraping, game engines, website frameworks, etc.
When you graduate this and want to become more "academic", you'll want to look into two areas especially :
- data structures, which are things like arrays, linked lists, hashsets, etc.
- algorithm analysis, which will teach you how to write efficient code (big-O notation and analysis, etc.)
You don't necessarily need these, but they're a huge leg up. Mastering them can get you into FAANG.
If you like web stuff and servers, look at distributed computing. Also look at principles of operating systems to understand how threading, virtual memory, etc. etc. work.
Hopefully this helps. It's not stuff you need to jump on right away, but it can be a roadmap for the next few years.
Best of luck! Hope you enjoy everything you're doing and never feel discouraged. There are always people out there that are better than you, and it doesn't mean you aren't good yourself. Don't doubt what you're doing.
You got this.
seems like a good gig, imo.
I’m working on getting out of being a headhunter (a decent, honest, technically minded one who actually listens, but still with all the bad actors it’s hard to have prod in my career) into software development. I’ve always been fascinated with computers ever since programming my BBC micro first in basic then assembly.
Family reasons meant i needed a short term job (12 years ago!) so I put off learning and dropped out of university.
I’m able to spend the evenings and weekends learning now -I’m fascinated by iOS development, Swift and learning all the apis.
Motivation hasn’t been too hard to find but seeing light at the end of the tunnel has and this post resonated with me because I understood a lot of it and thought that I have come a little way after all.
Thanks for taking the time to write this.
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is a fancy course if you're interesting in something fun.