Ask HN: Best way to advance your programming career only with small companies? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best way to advance your programming career only with small companies?

8 pointsdjellybeans4 comments

As a programmer, I have always worked for smaller companies. Mom & pop places, web agencies, early stage startups, you name it. Typical size is 10-20 employees. The largest company I worked for has 250+ employees among their offices, and it also had the most regimented work environment. I didn't stay there long for an unrelated reason (very long commute times).

While I'm not writing off applying to large companies, they're also the least likely to give me job offers, so I gotta be a realist and think about how to advance my career with small companies only.

That is, as a programmer, I want to develop the skills to become more of a leader and go-getter. At 35 and with 10 years of experience, I don't feel like I really grew much in my career. I have never lead a project, never guided less-experienced programmers. Or never even participated in interviewing others. Also, I am not interested in starting my own business, or doing another less technical role such as product/project management.

It doesn't seem as easy to move up the programmer ladder with smaller companies, because you can become a big fish in a small pond, but your responsibilities and capabilities could still be dwarfed by what lead programmers at larger companies have.

But it isn't impossible to do, right? Using small companies, to grow your skill set and reputation so you are actually growing in your career? What would you do in this situation?

I'm pretty sure the "programmer ladder" you refer to looks like this:

  manager 
  |     |
 programmer

Smaller companies don't really have the budget for a team of programmers, so if you continually work for only those kinds of companies, you're going to be either the only programmer, or one of a few. If you're one of a few, then you have an opportunity to offer guidance.

On the other hand, you say that you're "not interested ... in doing another less technical role ...". But leadership is not technical. SOoOooo.... you're in a bit of a conundrum, but I think it's because of the way you've defined your terms.

Also, in your reply to jingnanzhou, you complain about being "out of the loop." Here's the thing: No one in a "superior" position to you is ever going to share financial information about their business with you, their lowly programmer. That's what they have accountants for. So you've got to stand up for yourself.

And I think that's really what your post is getting at. You're not being respected for your work, and you're feeling stifled. You've got to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and be willing to engage in some low-intensity conflict at your job to get your needs met.

In the immortal words of Jim Henson, "You've got to put down the ducky if you want to play the saxophone."

It does not matter if you work for small or large companies. It matters what problems you solved. Highlighting the solution experience is more important than the size of a company.

I feel like the jobs I worked at were mostly thankless and was left out of the loop about what positive financial impact my work produced. All I get is a proverbial pat on the back and "looks great", and move on to the next ticket item, or project.

I feel like this is something you need to avoid at all costs. It's what keeps you down, subservient, and monotonous. You need to always be asking why, and proposing better solutions if what they are proposing doesn't address their why. Often times, you may realize that they don't have a good reason for why. In either case, you need to show that you are a decision maker, not just a pawn.

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