Is there any joy left in this industry?

[david-8uUts6sDVDvs2Lz0fTdYFQ at public.gmane.org (David Kramer)]

On 10/27/2010 10:40 PM, Mark Woodward wrote:
> Here's my rant.
> 
> I've been a software developer for over 25 years. When I started, it was 
> a cool profession. We were creative and we had options. We got paid well 
> and we did amazing things.

Most things made for 25 years become commoditized as the hard problems
get solved, eh?

> 25 years later.....
> The "cloud echo chamber" makes it impossible to do anything that make 
> sense.
> 
> The "agile" development process is nothing more than code for 
> micro-management.

Wholeheartedly differ from you here.  It's kinda the opposite of that.
Agile done right is about self-directed teams who have a say in the
decision-making process, shared ownership, and transparent processes.
It's the freedom to say "No we can't cram this in this iteration unless
you remove an equivalent number of story points, because the numbers
need to add up based on our current velocity, but the next iteration
starts in just two weeks, and we can plan for it then".  It's the
freedom to say "This is going to take 5 story points, and these other
developers agree with me, so we win Planning Poker.".

It's true that there is frequent reporting, but frequent reporting !=
micromanagement.  Frequent reporting == you can't go too far in the
wrong direction without finding out about it, even if "the right
direction" changes.  Less time writing code that gets thrown away
because requirements changed.

Disclaimer: I am a member of (and on the Board of)
http://www.agilebazaar.org

I will agree that a lot of very stupid things are being done in the name
of Agile that are not Agile at all, but that's not the fault of Agile.

> Are there any good places to work? Are there any really interesting 
> projects to work on? If so, how does one find them?

*Generally speaking*, innovation is inversely proportional to number of
employees, so smaller companies where you can wear more hats and have a
closer association with the decision makers is a good thing.  Also look
for R&D companies or companies that do project-based work,

At the last Agile Bazaar meeting I met Mike Attill, VP of Software
Development at Fluidnet Corporation (http://www.fluidnet.net).  They're
looking for embedded C++ developers.   They are a startup trying to make
IV fluid pumps with embedded controllers.  I was very impressed by him.
 Is that interesting enough for you?

I used to work at Aptima (http://www.aptima.com/careers.php) and they're
almost all interesting R&D project work, for NASA, DOT, DOD, etc.
Everything from heavy modeling work to language processing to team
dynamics.  The company has just as many Scientists as Software
Engineers, and they're hiring at several different levels.

The Museum of Science is looking for a SysAdmim.  *That's* gotta be fun.
http://www.mos.org/visitor_info/about_the_museum/jobs&d=4615

TripAdvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/careers/jobs) has about a dozen
software jobs in the area, and they solve very difficult problems with
their product (heavily optimizing DB, localization, unit conversion,
least cost routing,..)


How does one find them?  Networking!  Running into interesting people at
events, posting interesting content on LinkedIn or your own website to
attract them to you, ...