Ask HN: What has been your most rewarding job or project and why?
What has been your most fulfilling job/project and why?
I've been looking to make a change away from typical enterprise development (full stack web developer) as it's not just about the paycheck any more. Recent events have given me a different perspective. Perhaps looking to join a team of great people doing something worthwhile or start my own consultancy helping people solve problems in a sector I can feel good about. Just not sure what that service looks like yet.
The best bit about being a developer I've found is when working directly with the customer who is in some distress and the look on their face when you solve the problem and make their life easier, even if it was easy to solve. I'd love to find something where every day was like that!
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 294 ms ] threadSometimes users will have minor (or major) issues with the way a tool works - database takes 30 seconds to retrieve a certain type of information, there's no clear path from point A to point B in a frequently used business tool, certain jobs take 2x as long as they should, etc.
These issues don't have much of an impact on management or the bottom line, so they won't be assigned to anyone to fix. But if you spend two hours speeding up that tool or streamlining a frequently used process, the 'work done' to 'that look on their face when you make their life easier' ratio is incredible.
I say this because your parent post is "obviously" a great response that directly answers the question.
So, if I want to read your comment charitably: a lot of technical people are poorly in touch with their feelings. Maybe you are right about Liquix, and they poorly report their most rewarding experience.
At a guess what would you say is likely more gratifying (the meaning of rewarding) for Liquix? What would a better answer to the question be?
I really have trouble guessing why you would write this, unless you thought rewarding meant "highest-paid" (not the usual sense of the word.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity
It comes with downsides, too, which I'm sure this community can rant about ad nauseum. But truly, if your primary goal above all other things is to have the experience of making someone's day better as an every day occurrence, one should be doing application support in large corp.
I would argue though that such improvements do not have an impact on the bottom line. Sure, any one of them may improve the efficiency of one or a few employees by say 3%. However, many such small improvements have massive compound effects.
Making a user's job take less time frees them to do other things. Those other things may have value; that value is only captured because of the time saved due to your effort.
Even if that time becomes effectively 'free' time for the user, that increase in happiness and morale makes them more likely to be more productive in other areas, less likely to leave the company (however small an effect), etc.
Don't dismiss something that makes someone's life easier as having no monetary value just because you can't easily quantify it.
My ideals agree and I’ve banged my head trying to maintain boundaries with my managers, now 5 jobs in. Experience is with VC in Bay Area... work life in Minneapolis was pretty chill tho, 2 longer jobs there with good people.
I think it's part of why I like UX(though I do full stack), at the end of the day I like solving problems for people and making software that's pleasant to use. I've seen so many people struggle with an unnecessarily complex interface and it hurts my soul. The relief on people's faces when they can fix their issue quickly is so satisfying.
I am a bit frustrated with how the FE operates with this company, they don't seem to care about ensuring good UX, I'm not even involved in their sprint cycle, they just build things AND THEN ask me to fix the UX if someone points out how terrible the products are. (And obviously with TONS of restrictions saying the codebase/architecture wouldn't allow it - smh)
I understand I'm still new to the company(4months), but this has been by far the worst design-FE collaboration I've ever experienced. I tried to schedule a meeting to address these issues in a professional manner, but they canceled it and said it's not important for the company now.
I really take joy in solving problems for people with good UX but now I just come in to work to design CEO pitch decks in PPT and get paychecks... the pay is alright but it is really not rewarding at all professionally. Should I jump this ship? Do you guys have any advice for me?
I haven't worked in a startup before. But it's strange to me that a start up would have someone on hand who's work is "not important for the company right now." Aren't startups supposed to run lean? If they won't even -talk- to you about it I feel like your options are limited. If you could actually discuss it, then yeah, maybe you could figure out how to move forward. But 4 months is a long time to not be contributing at all. Though I know that security and UX both suffer from being pushed to the side in favor of new shiny features.
I would:
A.) Have not a full blown meeting, but a 2 minute conversation. Figure out a short example of how not planning UX ahead of time has failed and is hurting the business currently. Then explain "We could prevent this by..." Present problem and your solution.
B.) Use this time to study. This would help with the startup(once they get themselves together) and also your career. Maybe you need more FE dev skills to figure out how to fit the UX in with what they are doing.
C.) Yeah, start putting feelers out. I personally would hate to sit there not contributing. Don't just quit(I assume you need to eat), but there's no harm in just talking to people and seeing what's out there if you really can't make it work at the startup.
Too many focus on kissing up to the big-wigs, which works to get them more money and status, but I feel I make a real impact by helping the rank and file.
The workflow was pretty unique and there wasn't much out there that could tackle it in the right manner with price constraints in mind. I set off to rebuild something from the ground-up but tailored exactly to what the users wanted (I kept track of all the complaints of previous solutions). Because this is specific to the company, I was able to make many of the routine tasks automated and reduce time users needed to spend with the tools. Now they actually enjoy when they do! There is no gimmicky extra stuff, it's just software that solves their day-to-day problems. The application I built is super boring, nothing groundbreaking or inventive, but it works.
Seeing it run smoothly in production and having people enjoy the UI/get to spend more time on other things has been quite gratifying.
I think if you pick a nonprofit with a mission that you feel passionate enough about to really give it your all then there's a good chance for you to quickly become a double-digit percentage of global technical productivity in a particular charitable domain.
For me it's been developing tools (mobile app and website) to help people with substance abuse issues communicate with their loved ones, themselves, and medical professionals.
1. Colleagues. The fact that non-profits are underserved by tech works, also means that you're less likely to have talented colleagues to learn from. 2. When they're not tech organisations. There might be a lack of understanding of both the opportunities and challenges for tech in their specific area, and I'm not sure I'd have some influence in helping with that. I really don't want to be the person who maintains a Wordpress site for a non-profit, and don't think I'd actually be that effective in contributing to their mission that way either.
What are your reflections on that?
Cool factor is just working on cutting edge stuff or with some tech I'm super excited about.
Recognition comes from the community your are doing the project for (team, manager, etc.) recognizing its importance. This typically only happens if you pick projects which solve a business need and communicate that. Preferably lead to higher revenue.
Process is the end to end process of systematic identification of the problem via concrete quantitative metrics, formulating a solution using a scientific process, building the system following sound design principles, etc. It's kind of difficult to concretely define. What it is not is putting out fire after fire everyday.
This is the recipe of successful project I enjoy nowadays.
The recipe changes from person to person and time to time. The way to figure out your recipe is to introspect. Cut out the noise of FOMO, hyped tech, etc.
A good article I have read recently about deciding what you want is https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html. This will explain how to introspect in great detail.
I started as an iOS dev 7 years ago, and on the job I've gotten back-end Java experience, learned everything I know about SQL, and gotten my hands dirty in firmware development, and learned a ton about EE in general. We design all our hardware in house, and between the 3D printers we use for building cases and housings, and my boss being an EE, we've done the cycle of:
Customer idea -> Prototype Board -> Firmware Development -> Customer Testing in the field
in under 3 weeks. It obviously comes with the occasional stress, but honestly when the alternative in my area is writing Insurance or Healthcare software, I'll take this any day. We're a mature company that has startup tendencies and a startup size. I'm not afraid to make mistakes, I'm not afraid to suggest new idea/technologies, and we're constantly evolving. We rarely say no (within reason), and we'll always give an idea a shot.
Maybe you need to find situation like mine? I know others exist, just dig into a niche, especially ones that are in an industry where others aren't using technology to the fullest potential.
The set of products were quite visionary and "ahead of their time". I came to see equivalent products years later when I moved to a global company, so that gave me a special feeling that, back then, I was working on something really futuristic, and that is in some way rewarding.
I worked from home, and it was just when my first kid was borne. Work-life balance was great, and I have no doubt it helped me stay motivated and productive.
Later I ported it to the Raspberry Pi and added a price tag. Surprisingly people started purchasing the software and I slowly build a complete hosted service around it. Today it's a real company and profitable. Why is it rewarding: It's fully boot-strapped and as such there there's no need to rush new feature in the hope of finding a working business model eventually. Instead I can focus on quality and that alone is fun already. The other aspect is that it requires a vast range of different technologies properly working together: From the custom built Linux distribution for the Pi, the visual software that controls the output (written in C/Lua) up to the Website/Service/Cloud stuff. And of course building custom solutions based on the platform together with customers and see those running in production. I'll never get bored as a result and always learn something new.
Open-source projects like Hylang and Arch Linux that super satisfying when you contribute parts like code, packages or projects that supplements the ecosystem.
Working as a volunteer on one of the largest dataparties called The Gathering. Helping to create a creative environment for participants of all ages in the form of mentors that help you learn new skills in programming, digital paining and music. Lectures with interesting speakers, and workshops that gives you hands-on experience on a broad array of topics with experienced people.
This also turned into helping create events for IT students in Bergen where you can socialize with other students across colleges and program.
It's just great honestly. And i really love doing this kind of work.
I was following a group (it.comp.console) at the time using thunderbird but I didn't like google groups so I wrote my own nntp web frontent to follow the group on my smartphone. I contacted some usenet server admins and asked them if I could peer with them (one here on hn), so I set up an nntp server (inn2) and wrote a node/express/js app to read and post to the group.
I make zero money from it, but people liked it and started using it, and now i have about 100 users on the website. I made it mainly for myself as a hobby, but I like that some people like what I made.
https://fcku.it/comp.misc
Nevertheless the most inspiring project was a private project which I did with a friend some years ago. We thought about an Android App where people could post incidents (like terror attacks, fights or whatever) on an app and all the people around get a push notification as well as could see on a heatmap which areas have a high density of crimes. This was at a time where the "refugee crisis" started and there was a public attention in terms of terror attacks etc.
If you are interested, you can look at it here: * https://www.riskahead.net/ or directly on the google app store: * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.deke.risk....
The project was not succesful but I learned A LOT. It was my first android app so I did not only learn to build an App from scratch on Android but also * Setting and maintaining a web-server with own hosted e-mail server * Implementing a rest-api with PHP and SLIM-framework * Running Apache and a MySQL-Server * Hosting and creating a web-site with WordPress, doing some SEO * Little bit or marketing (while not very succesful) * tons of more lessons learned
I finsihed my work, went home and started programming. Had a high workloard for around half a year but it was very inspirational and I learned a lot. Probably because I normally focus on a specific topic @work but for this project I had to do everything on my own (in terms of technical development and maintainance).
Would definetely do it again. But no good idea so far :-)
The charts had a very steep slope the first time that I ran them with a large gap between the best and worst centers. The top centers keep improving every year, but there has been a huge improvement at the other end of the graph and the slope is almost a flat line at this point.
Obviously the care teams deserve 100% of the credit for the hard work to improve the medical care they are providing, but I can't help but smile every time I see one of those charts online or in a report.
Anyhow, really inspiring story and great job!
There was nothing complicated in what I did, but there seems to be such a backlog of worthy projects that just someone that can write some simple loops and conditional statements. There just has to be a way to empower more people to code.
It was a heavily graphical development tool and runtime with a very approachable scripting language. At one point, Apple included it with new Macs. At another point, they tried to charge money for it, which I think pretty much ruined it.
Nothing I've seen since really filled the role it did. There were, of course significant limits, but it was universal (if you had a Mac at a certain point in time) and had an amazingly low barrier to entry.
But more importantly as time went on I got to rediscover my love of music and start a really cool community. Most of the people I meet on there tell me they have been looking for something like this for years and that because of JQBX they've been able to reconnect with some of their past music buddies. So that's pretty rewarding.
That being said I've tried starting some other fun projects that didn't flesh out- but it's always worth the experience IMO. So if I were you I'd ask "what do I really like" and then "how can I apply my knowledge to enter that space somehow" and then start hacking away. Goodluck w/ the new projects :)
Also, where did you get the data? Was it free?
Allez, allez allez, allez Montréal!
It was surprisingly simple to set up, cost basically nothing (github handle hosting & process, and like the concept).
Possibly helps people out :). Although it was built to fill the gap of the python.org job board that is now working, so we're not promoting it actively
In terms of what's most gratifying though, honestly, giving workshops or volunteering in a way that empowers others. I give workshops to trans and gender diverse individuals. I've volunteered with Technovation to get young women into tech. I've done one-on-one mentorship. That's the stuff that makes me feel better and none of that is paid work.
If you are interested in making a similar switch, here are some resources:
* https://www.idealist.org/ * Look at career pages for any nonprofit listed here: https://www.ctosforgood.org/
(Disclaimer: I work at GlobalGiving.org, but we're not hiring. I'm just keen to get more talented people in the nonprofit sector! AMA!)
When our customers (and prospective customers) saw the new products, they said things like, "Oh, thank God!" It was pretty rewarding, to say the least.
It did set my graduation back by a year since I was there full-time and didn't focus on my study program anymore. But now they don't operate in The Netherlands anymore, so I can go back to my studies and finish it.
A) The whole team was responsible for the project, if the framework broke we took the blame as a team rather than crapping on individuals
B) PRs got seriously reviewed, there were strict rules about what was a quality PR and our team lead ensured that they were enforced. At the start of the project I lost several days of work because my PRs weren't of sufficient quality.
C) We got a start a project with no legacy code, building everything from the ground up. We had architecture meetings, everyone's input was vetted and valued.
Since then I haven't worked on a team where I felt that things were as cohesive. People make shitty design decisions and are not receptive to criticism. Lots of rubber stamping "approve" on PRs without actually reviewing the code, or accepting PRs without unit tests. Inheriting legacy code which was written poorly, but still has to be maintained. Nothing quite has the same feeling as that first project.