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Which day job would you choose ?

6 points by pavlina ↗ HN
So about a year ago I took a job at Big Internet Company that was advertised as design of brand new back-end architecture, blah, blah. Reality is mostly support of legacy codebase, operational work and requisite lip service to various "initiatives". ("16 is the minimum, ahkay?")

Startup (had a blast at "school" - thanks PG!) is not an option at the moment due to family situation, but I have an offer to join a different, very technical team within B.I.C. that is working on a new, fairly substantial networking product. No frills, heavy-duty C systems programming in Linux (which I am good at and enjoy).

However: hideously boring job #1 is really only half-time, leaving good chunks of time for hanging out at Chochky's and playing with (and quite possibly sneaking into production) bits Erlang, which I am presently in love with and want to learn inside out.

I suspect job #2 would be pretty much all-consuming, at least for the foreseeable future, leaving no such opportunities to play.

Which would you choose ?

11 comments

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nazgulnarsil
i'm lazy. I'd rather get paid the same for 1/2 the work and leave the creative stuff for my own time.
tomh
Job #2. With incredibly boring work, you burn out, your quality becomes sloppy, you lose your edge.

Luckily for you the boring job is only 1/2 time, but what if the politics change and you are forced to work there 60-80 hours a week?

brlewis
Is this a fair summary?

Option 1: Spend half your time at a hideously boring job, half your time hanging out and exploring Erlang.

Option 2: Spend all your time doing something you are good at and enjoy.

aggieben
Assuming pay is the same, I think I'd choose job #1.
missizii
I must agree with brlewis. Another way to look at it is Option 1: Spend 50% of your time honing your skills, gaining valuable experience Option 2: Spend 100% of your time honing your skills, gaining valuable experience Another thing to consider is how awesome it is to work with people who are as good as you (or better), love what they do, and have things to teach you. Even if option 2 pays less, take the cut and get the experience that will propel you into a higher pay bracket. BTW, none of the supremo hackers I've worked with have begrudged me time to play with some cool new tool - as long as I willing to share my knowledge.
gills
Job #2. I don't know about your Big Company specifically, but turning down good opportunities often leads to them not being offered in the future. Besides, performing well may put you in a position to use Erlang with more authority down the road.
Xlp-Thlplylp
Gee, I routinely ignore queries from Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
gaius
If I were you I'd go for the hardcore job AND sneak some Erlang in there. Working without quantifiable goals will make you sloppy in the long term, even if it seems liberating in the short term - dangerous.
simplegeek
It's not about us, ask yourself? Listen to your inner-voice? If nothing helps then as they say "Fast, easy and good. Pick two." :)
jrockway
How about option #3: look for an Erlang job and apply for it.
softbuilder
Everything I've read here has some validity. Some additional questions:

If you're already not happy at BIC, how do you know you'll be happy in a new department in the same company?

Also, how do you know the technical level of the "technical" team you'd be working with? Have you spoken to a few people on that team? Sometimes the alpha geeks in an organization turn out to be less impressive than you thought.

And what kind of timeline are you looking at? How long would you stay in either position? Months? Years?