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From Slashdot Apple Story | How To Get a Job At a Mega-Corp

Re:Freelance decker (Score:5, Insightful)

by plover (150551) * on Saturday January 16, @01:45AM (#30788366)
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It’s also really good advice :D
I’ve worked for megacorps for over 15 years. It’s soulless.

I’m not quite sure I agree with your soulless comment. I’ve been at a Mega-Corp for almost 25 years now, and I really still enjoy my job. I got lucky when I was hired, and got in with a development group that has always had work to do. I also got lucky and worked for a pretty good boss for the first 8 years (he knew how to shield his people from crap.)

Since then I’ve had bosses who range from follow-the-3-ring-binder-plan type to some who have more of a sense of humor. Managers have come and gone as they follow the corporate advice to “move around to get ahead”, and there’s a definite correlation between the ones with longer tenures being the most effective. And I’ve had co-workers ranging in talent from “So, wet paper bag, you’ve thwarted me once again, but next time I shall escape!” to “Rock Star!” (seriously, he’s a wicked fine coder AND he plays guitar in a metal band.)

So why do I stay? I *choose* to enjoy it. If I chose to hate it, I would hate it, and it would suck, and I’d leave. Instead, I have a very positive attitude about it. Life is too short to work at a job I hate, and if I didn’t have an income the rest of life would be pretty damn hard. So if I have something I like to do, something I’m good at doing, something I choose to find rewarding, and I get paid to do it, well that’s a winning hand. I’m deliberately going to appreciate it.

Sure, not every day is great, and there are corporate tragedies and comedies, and sometimes the penthouse office gets a bee in their bonnet and hands down their stupid ideas that if we just had one more re-org, everything would be all better; but that’s all noise I simply choose to ignore. Let the managers run around all panicky about how many people they will or won’t have after their re-org. I don’t care. At the end of the day, I’m still doing basically the same thing; maybe for a different boss, but that’s almost an inconsequential detail.

Soul exists only when you put it there yourself. And sure, I know it’d be damn hard to remain positive if I worked under a smothering micromanager, or a screaming executive director. But if you report to someone who’s fairly reasonable, the only reason you can’t thrive is your own choice.

I appreciate your position (Score:4, Insightful)

by Weaselmancer (533834) on Friday January 15, @08:57PM (#30786904)

And it’s good Subgenius rant. But I have to point out something.

I’ve worked at large companies as well as small ones. There *is* slack to be had at larger companies as well. Think Wally from Dilbert. Sometimes you can land a position where your job is to warm a chair. I had a job like that for 3 1/2 years. I was a chair warmer. Sure they gave me work. And I did the work. But. None of it went anywhere. I knew that about 3 months in – a co-worker told me how 99% of the things they make get buried, and my project would definitely be one of them. At hire there were lots of big promises about the new product line and spearheading a new effort and taking the company in new directions and territories. But it became obvious that my job really was to justify the amount of management the company had. A sickly symbiotic relationship began.

And once I had learned that, I had some pretty serious slack.

I used to sneak out to the parking lot and nap in my van, or work on projects from home. I had a laptop pc. I’d run the AC in the big van and just hang out. I even soldered an electronics project in my van. Mostly to see if I could do it. Yes, I could.

Now I’m not saying that every corporate cube has that much ease. But. You shouldn’t discount larger companies out of hand. Some of them are so large you simply “get lost” and people just leave you alone. When that happens you are on your own. Just show up at 8:30, make sure the boss sees you…then sneak out and go to the park or take a 3 hour lunch. When you’re lost in a large company, it’s almost fun to see how much you can get away with. Bring in a portable HD and play games with Portableapps DOSBox, or WinUAE (nothing that installs files on the work PC is the rule). I taught myself Java from downloaded PDF books. And snuck out to take the exam.

Yes, I’ve actually done all of those things. Not every day, not all the time…but I have had some absolutely excellent slack at big company jobs.

How did it end? I got bored and ran out of stuff to do, the economy turned around…so I found a real job. I actually do prefer to work and I do like what I do. But it was an excellent place to lay low and ride out the dotcom bubble. A lovely paid vacation, I like to think of it.

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