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Need some career advice

7 points by kraorh ↗ HN
I'm working on maintaining a legacy application written in C++. But I'm not really interested in what I'm doing right now. I'm having absolutely no scope for learning here. There is only stress instead of challenges.

I'm interested in being a part of something nice, working on projects that requires using my intelligence. But if you ask me what I want to do, I don't really have an answer. Need some help/advice to figure out my true calling.

PS: I love programming. Learning ROR from 'Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial'

10 comments

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timje1
It may depend on what you can afford.

Pick up a smattering of modern web technologies (python, node.js, ruby is a nice idea) and join a small company / start up. This can be a shot in the arm; you'll have to wear many hats, and you might find one of these inspiring you better than the others. In a smaller company you might find yourself blogging for the company, writing copy for the website, doing a bit of design, a bit of requirements analysis, all sorts...

But this is only available to you if you're prepared to take a hit to salary - a start up that's prepared to take on someone switching paradigms won't pay as well as a C++ developer job.

sharemywin
Build a ROR site for business contact. go to networking events. Go interview for something more interesting.
adammichaelc
Shoot me an email. We are hiring iOS dev's and are willing to train the right folks. adam@mokriya.com
idoh
iOS is really hot right now. Maybe parlay your C++ skills into learning Objective C and make some demo iOS apps.
jurgenwerk
I was in exact same situation, only difference was C# instead of C++ ;). Man that job sucked, I often get very happy when I wake up in the morning simply because I don't work there anymore.

My advice: Leave that job as soon as possible.

I started attending various developer meetups and made some small projects that I could fit in my CV and talk about them. Career opportunities, new contacts and friends started to happen. RoR has an awesome community and the work these guys do is often interesting and engaging. Broaden your horizon, find like-minded people and soon you will find something nice that you could be a part of.

_random_
RoR is cool but it narrows down your career opportunities. I would learn a modern mainstream language as well, e.g. Scala or C#, they can be used outside of scope of small/medium size web apps.
jobmatchbox
That is not good advice. Ruby on Rails is widely used. Java would be a good option, but it would probably not be something that could be picked up as easily or as quickly as something with RoR, Python, PHP or JavaScript. C# would narrow your options much more because it would lock you into the proprietary MS world. Something with iOS or Android would be preferable. Note: I'm not saying C# is bad, I have used it and will again. I'm just pointing in the direction of what could be picked up and then turned into a career move skillset in self study timeframe.
_random_
Actually C# is the best option if you want to cover both iOS and Android.
dome82
It seems that you have already decided to leave that job. You are not enjoying it and you should not waste your precious time in boring stuff.

Too many exciting challenges out there. It is nice that you are learning other programming languages and it will open you many possibilities in future.

Do you have any side project that you are working on?

jobmatchbox
Have you considered doing some mobile stuff, maybe iOS? That might translate better for you.

Are you near a major city? If so, which one? The job market there will shape the opportunities available to you there.

Just getting something built that you can show people is about as important as the language or framework that you choose to do it in. That said, the mainstream is Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python (usually with Django), and mobile stuff. You could do something with JavaScript paired with another scripting language and that would be good. If you don't have time to do any of that, maybe pick up a book on HTML5 Game development and build something with it. There is a lot you can do there.