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[–] TheBuddha 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

If a customer disrespected my employee, their company had one opportunity to make it right with my employee - to my employees satisfaction. I have no qualms about firing a customer and it was a rider in every contract we had after the first incident.

I opened my business in 1991 and sold in 2007. It's telling that I had zero employees leave without giving notice and doing an exit interview. I take some pride in how I treated those who worked with me. I only call them employees because it is shorter. Really, they worked with me - not for me. Without them, I'd have had nothing. I hired them because I needed them. If I didn't need them, I'd not have hired them. I treated each one like that.

It disgusts me what the industry has become. I was a scientist but worked in tech. I modeled traffic and wrote things like the algorithms today's software uses. The tech industry has become a horrible shadow of what it used to be, and yes I employed plenty of females and paid them accordingly.

Don't even get me started on salaries.

I'd not recommend most people get into tech today, I really wouldn't. If you are, be very smart and get into AI. Otherwise, fuck it. I see the horror stories and I don't know what happened. I used to employ passionate programmers who did things like refuse to commit any more code until after I agreed to give up my commit privileges. Trust me, I can technically write a program but you don't want me to. Their decision was for the best AND I respected it. I don't think that'd fly in any of today's companies. They'd all be fired, or not have had the courage to stand up to me - and we'd have been worse because of it.

I'm rambling but I write this because others may read it.

The hardest part was learning to let go. It was just myself and a comp sci guy, at first. All the code was mine and he mostly handled the hardware side. Real comp sci, not programmer comp sci. This was 1991 and tech was the wild west. This was my baby and learning to let it go was hard. Learning to not micromanage was hard. Eventually, I realized that I'd hired good people because I'd wanted the best. I learned to shut up and listen because I'd hired experts.

When I type this out on Slashdot, I get asked if I'm hiring. I'm retired and there are a few companies left that trust their employees. Look for the small ones and ask lots of interview questions. Remember, you're interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you.

Sorry for the long post, but I figure I might as well include all that in case someone else is reading this and is in a management role. Learn to trust your employees, treat them with respect, insist others treat them with respect, and learn when it's time shut the fuck up and listen to the experts you pay to be experts.

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[–] mineMineMINE [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I see the horror stories and I don't know what happened.

I've actually been tracking this one a lot. It basically boils down to outsourcing.

So, early on as the story goes, there were not that many programmers in the US. https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/csedegrees1.png And, programming was covered by people who had a passion for it. On the graph you can see that there's a peak of cosc grads directly after a bubble bursts (much like me they went in with a promise of fortunes to be made, then everything collapses). With more graduates in the field then are required a downward trend in salaries comes about.

We also have to compete against the H1-B Indians and their oversees counterparts (I work in a foreign consultancy firm, the extent that my company works across the board is absurd). Who will produce what you ask for (they don't push back) at three times the speed you would get from an American firm (because they offshore the bulk of the work, even if you're working with an American face). This is partly because the real money from their point of view is not in good products but in maintaining ok products. It's well known that the more bugs you catch in production are hundreds of hours not having to hunt them down when the program is live. Well, they know this and purposefully do not do a good enough job to catch them all. This then creates a requirement that the software has to have a babysitter (that's where I sit currently).

To the bean counters this is a fine thing because they don't understand how buying a good product is better then buying a cheaper one. I've started to see the entire industry move towards producing what they call modular software (easy to take parts out and replace as specifications change). Really, this is a stopgap method. Yes, customers want new things fast, but that's primarily because the old ones are not well made.

So, that bit covers the salary. But, when it comes to how we're treated. Most large companies (I'm contracted to one of the largest currently) see tech as a profit sink. The bean counters see us as fucking up their margins. And, in many regards this is true. We don't directly lead to a profit, but without us their information flow would come to a screaming halt. So, they try to downsize and get skills we have for cheaper. Indian companies game this.

My actual resume vs what my company has me build are ridiculously different. You would think I'm master of everything that I had a weeks training on. They have the policy of get the foot in the door and you'll pick it up when you're there. This puts the training costs on the client company as uptake time is expanded. My favorite line from my managers is that the Indians will give support. That would be true if I was Indian. They hate my team, racist little shits (HA, we've played that back on them several times). But, in the long run (4-5 years) it is true that they cost less. They don't produce nearly as good of results, but that doesn't bother the client because the margin has shrunk on the books (initially).

But, with that sword of Damocles hanging over our heads management has taken into their head that we can be treated like shit and they can get away with it (till, oops their profile is having an issue and ohh how wonderful it is that you saved us - HAHAHAHAH BOFH taught me nothing).

You also have smaller firms needing a tech now. To these people we are tech-wizards that magic anything into existence and can do it for free on a salary of $30k. I wouldn't even look twice at these stories if it wasn't for the fact that there's some youth that will actually apply for these. WTF? I know that to them this is a step up in the world. But, that's doing just as much damage to the field as the H1-Bs are.

Anyway, that's me rambling all over the place. Basically, tech field is flooded, management doesn't understand us or our value.

Given that I've seen Coding Bootcamps pop up all over the place, I'm not expecting this problem to get any better any time soon. Need to find a new field or get an MBA.

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[–] TheBuddha 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Basically, tech field is flooded, management doesn't understand us or our value.

That's very similar to what I've read from Slashdot - thanks for the briliant write-up!

It's why I'd absolutely not tell kids to get into tech today. Take the T right out of STEM - with one exception. If they can handle the grind, web development still seems viable, if you're willing to learn a new framework every six months. If you want to do ST then, I'd absolutely recommend AI/ML/NN/GANs, etc... However, that's a very rapidly moving target and you're going to want a PhD. But, a PhD commands huge money in that sector! HUGE! Tencent, out of China, is paying hundreds of thousands or dollars - like up to a half mil, per year. Those are USD rates but paid in China.

Yeah... If I weren't retired, I'd be all over that. My doctorate is in Applied Mathematics, but I can probably come up to speed in 2 to 4 years.

If you've got the brains - maybe see if you can get in somewhere on the ground floor? You seem to be mostly a sys admin, but DevOps is big right now. That might get you in at an entry position doing ML somewhere. I'm posting a ton of resources in the AI sub, if you're interested. I see resources daily and many of them are pretty good. I've actually started to get a bit of a grasp on the subject.