HN Explorer

Seeking advice: Cush job without much learning

17 points by Andy320 ↗ HN
I have been working as a data scientist at a large healthcare company for a few months. The pay and benefits are great, but there is nothing to do. Days go on without a project, or an email or a meeting.

In some ways it is great. Since I work from home, everyday is like a holiday. I have small kids at home and I am making good use of this flexibility.

My career is stalling though. I started doing Kaggle competitions and code challenges to stay sharp, but without stimulus, I am losing motivation for that.

What would you do in my situation? Change job? keep quiet and enjoy the ride while it lasts? Reach out and ask where I can be useful?

24 comments

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hizxy
Depends on your mental health and your desire to “advance” (whatever that means to you). No shame in riding it out and chilling but, also, it’s ok to move on.
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imperistan
I would ask where I could be useful. Bore-out is bad, I think it can give you real mental health struggles
matt123456789
Great pay, benefits, time to spend with your family. Nice gig. Investors can’t shovel money into life sciences companies fast enough right now, all of which are hiring data science and data engineering. So look around if you must, but I would just enjoy the balance while I can, you’ll be ok in the end.
rizzaxc
you can brainstorm ideas for a project related to your work, then take it up management. if good enough booom you've just promoted yourself and have stuff to do at the same time
jpau
I'd start with goals. Take some time (you have it available!) to think about what you'd like to achieve at different levels, such as: - In your career - In this field - At this company

Then break them down, and then break them down again. What can you do, in bite-sizes pieces, to move towards them?

But I wouldn't stress too much. Remember back to when you were busy, and how much of that became growth. If you're like most people, it wasn't very much.

Use the time to achieve what _you_ want, but don't forget to enjoy it too :)

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jstx1
The answer hinges on the expectations that the company has from you.

If you and/or your work somehow slipped through the cracks and you know this but you're keeping quiet and staying low while there's actual work to be done - stop and find the most tactful way to start doing some actual work.

On the other hand, if the company is aware of how little work you're doing and they're happy to keep you on[1], in that case you can look for extra projects at work (they don't need to fill all of your time), spend time learning things you're interested in (related to work or not) and spend time with your kids completely guilt-free.

If you're early in your career, at some point it might make sense to leave and go somewhere where you'll learn more from actual work.

[1] Yes, this really happens. Maybe they expect future projects, or still building the team, or there are some org changes coming up, or they care about appearances and want to be able to say that they have a data scientist on a given team.

jonahbenton
Would echo this.

It is quite common in general for junior specialists in large orgs to have nothing to do for periods of time- weeks to months to quarters- in the hierarchy/project to which they are assigned.

Best to find ways to understand the larger and smaller scale business context in which those specialist roles exist. Whether it is ok, and how to move forward, is dependent on that business context and the expectations it brings of you/your team/area.

Gaining an understanding of those expectations in the absence of a direct flow of communication is a valuable skill in its own right, the acquisition of which takes care and discretion but will serve you well, both with advance notice of opportunities and warnings of detrimental changes.

teknohippy
Get a second job, give that one 90% effort and retain the 10% effort on the current one. Not entirely serious. But I did read a story the other day that this has been going on during lockdown.
nickd2001
If I were in your situation, I'd stay put because that's a very good place to be with small kids, and I'd stay sharp by doing either free online courses e:g MIT has a load of online comp sci, and/or , contribute to an open source project (obviously commit the code outside official work hours. ;) ) Might help if you ring fence X number of hours a week to learning time, to force yourself to focus
hazza_n_dazza
Keep quite, get a second internet connection and spend the time upgrading skills and seking for your next step. Also spend time with your kids, you only get one chance at that and it is very underrated. Luck you.
giantg2
Enjoy it. Maybe come up with an idea that will help the company. Even if it doesn't get used, it's good practice and shows initiative. It also shows that you were doing something.
brianmcc
Being chronically under-stimulated (bored) can be very harmful to your wellbeing, just as being consistently over-stimulated (stressed) can be.

I would look for a change, for sure, be it in your current place or elsewhere; long term you simply can't go on indefinitely without a bit more "spark". Good luck!

apohn
One thing to remember is that being busy is not equal to learning or moving a career forward. Lots of tech and data science jobs are people doing basically the same thing everyday. Or worse, you are forced to work on half-baked stuff you don't agree with and it's moving your mental health backwards. Don't assume that being busy equals moving your career or skills forward.

Especially in Data Science, it's easy to feel like the work you are doing isn't fancy enough to get your next job. But in reality, most people spend more time dealing with data issues and less time doing Deep Learning stuff.

With small kids, I'd just keep quiet and enjoy the ride until your youngest kid is old enough to be in daycare/school. As far as your work, is the work you have gotten something you thought was good? I only ask because for your next job, nobody is going to ask if you were busy all day. They are only going to ask to discuss one or two projects, so that's all you need.

notahacker
This is a key point. Instead of using his data science skills to do pretty routine/repetitive stuff or asking for support with editing marketing material or teach other staff how to set up spreadsheets, the OP's company is essentially permitting him to use company time to sharpen the data science skills he most want to sharpen (and if he actually wants to sharpen up his copywriting or teaching they might accept volunteers for that too!). That's not a bad place to be in for career development.
ceilingcorner
While lotta stuff you can learn by studying that you won’t learn on the job. Why not use your free time and go through some higher level CS stuff?
cardosof
If I were you I'd keep a low pace, 6h a day, helping the company and my direct coworkers/bosses/reports succeed however I can. The other time would be split between family and self improvement (not really coding, it may be health stuff) and community work or something spiritual.

Life is not only about work.

natalyarostova
Be super careful that you don’t end up at your 1 year review, and when they ask for your portfolio of work, you show nothing.
mikewarot
You should have a written job description... review it very carefully, and make sure you're doing everything required.

Next, ask for feedback on the quality of your work. If everything is good, then ask if there are other task they would like you to handle.

dave_sid
Enjoy it. You’ll miss it when it’s gone.
[dead] meadowy
Are you planning to make use of this flexibility to create something good?