Ask HN: I Need more work, what to do? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I Need more work, what to do?

1 pointpreordained7 comments

Dilemma I never expected to find myself in. As a dev, I've always prided myself on doing a good job on (or at least making a good dent in) whatever is put in front of me. In my current role, I initially got plenty of opportunities to do just that, which ended up with me being promoted and other boons to my career trajectory. Then, somehow or another, projects on my team just dried up. Only been here about two years and not sure if these sort of dry spells really happen naturally, but nothing substantial has come to (or been solicited by our team lead) in about 2-3 months. There has been the odd snack-sized project, and some trivial tickets to pick out of the backlog, but we seem to be twiddling our thumbs a lot. Other teams (appear at least) much busier, and what's more we added a new team member in the midst of this!

I actually like my job and work (when it's available), I'd like to try and get out of this "jam" without doing something drastic. My initial ideas are:

1. Talk to my team lead about getting more work. 2. Talk to my manager (who oddly leads other teams) about the situation/options

3. Scrounge and dig for any meaningful work I can, concocting some if I must (been doing this...sucks)

Admittedly, I'm not great with people and I've never been in a spell like this that didn't resolve itself naturally (didn't have to force some issue). I'd like to accomplish 1/2 without making things weird if at all possible. Is there anything else I should know about these things to avoid stepping on a land mine? Are there options I haven't considered?

I think that 3 (finding what needs to happen yourself) is the most "get-go" approach. As an engineering manager, the best message I get on Slack are "I noticed our X isn't great, and thought that I can do Y to improve it. I think it'll take me Z time. Can we prioritize this?"

Sorry to hear about it. You seem like a very competent person. I've coached people who explain their work situations the way you do and I know it's hard.

> Admittedly, I'm not great with people

It's good that you admit this, in fact if you're more of a just-business, get-it-done kind of person, it gets us access to some new questions. I'd start with this one:

- Is it possible you're working at a business centered around affinity culture or work-tradition culture, rather than business-economic culture?

In these environments it can be really frustrating to find that you've outworked your incoming projects pile, with no promise of future projects that you can see.

It can feel very foreign to realize that the implicit purpose of working there is either 1) building relationships and integrating with the culture or 2) syncing with the traditional pace and style of work, and looking backwards/listening to seniors' hints.

If it's the former, it may be worth spending time figuring out if you've inadvertently harmed any work relationships through lack of attention, i.e. people who matter to your success don't really care about your solo-competence, but they do care about what you're doing together with them, starting with how you're relating to them, and how that vibe is supporting sustainable work.

If it's the latter, it could be worth your time to relate to those with ideally 1Y+ on you, listening closely to what they say about the workplace, the employer, and its history.

Some other possibilities include a really speculative workplace, where new employees are gathered by the employer out of a perceived duty to the work-prospecting process: Get the people, throw them at the work (implies less attention to individuals and their status), adjust. It's more of a big-picture style. These organizations tend to procrastinate the care for what individuals are doing until they can't avoid it anymore, and then they often call in consultants to interview and analyze. Your competency could be really helpful here in the long run, but also your patience would be needed on the day-to-day.

In any case, the move here is to look at the company itself as an organism and understand what it's metabolizing well over time. The day-to-day move is more like managing your energy and ensuring that your need to feel competent is taken care of through successful & sustainable day-management practice, rather than closing tickets / chasing productivity unicorns based on someone else's work efficiency.

Good luck, I hope that helps a bit, this kind of situation can feel pretty frustrating.

Wow, that was deep. I appreciate your insight. You've picked up on the toll managing this has take on me. Just reading your understanding response makes me feel better, honestly. Thanks.

You're welcome!

Skillset? Interests? Strong suit? Passions?

Without a dropping a resume...I do back-end in Java/Clojure, React based front end. Domains include automated file transfer and telephony. I can learn whatever if it doesn't require a PHD.

Honestly, my passion/interest/strong suit is tackling problems that matter, and if that involves using a broad swathe of my skillset, all the better. Clojure is probably my favorite language, but I don't fetishize any particular technology. For what it's worth, I don't mind/actually like working on crunchy old legacy code. Often a lot of the business value is tied up in that, and someone has to know how to get in there and make it work.

If you have these skills, a vague passion, and some time/cycles -- its your best interest to:

1. More learning

2. Seek out a local group aligned with your passions that can benefit from your skills See #1.

3. Contract work.

4. Side Hustle project per your passions, or whats gleaned from #1

5. Create a new thing, with your skills, and your passion, what can be built around such - where you require minimal inputs to output MVP/A Thing/etc

6. And finally - or even #0 --> build portfolio New Job. If you would like some side-project ideas just for portfolios sake, based on the zero I know of your backend cap[abilities, Id be happy to provide some starter ideas - which are needed, but may not result in revenue - but can showcase your skills.

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