Comment by tucaz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tucaz | Hacker News Reader

In my personal experience this kind of boredom means that he wants to play and not to work.

I have seen more than 10 or 15 cases of developers who were hired to develop and evolve a product and get "bored" after they learn the new tech that brought them to the company/project and use this as an excuse to not finish the project or keep running the product/company.

I'm not saying that keeping working with new tech or new projects is a bad thing, but it is usually a bad thing for companies to keep such people when what they need is someone to help the company grows and move forward.

I would suggest you to offer him a position where he could use his intelligence and tech skills to help solve real problems for the company and not only program. A few examples:

* Put him in touch with your operational people - If you an e-commerce that ships physical products, let him known and learn how logistics works and what pain points they have

* Make him participate in marketing/product growing meetings and let him help bring more money in

* Enable him to help other developers or fix major problems in the product - not technical problems by themselves, but real problems that slow down the development

If he doesn't want to help maybe he is not a keeper and should be better off doing consultancy/freelancing projects where usually there is not much responsibility once the project is finished.

I see great value on being technically safe and capable, but most of the time what is most valuable is people eager to work and make things go forward for the company.

It's a problem with our industry. Devs want to spend time on activities that enhance their career. Because there is almost no internal career progression this means focusing on transferable skills.

Without loyalty, or at the very least aligned incentives, you will never get the most business value out of developers.

Early on in my career I was the sole dev looking after a large legacy system. For 4 years I worked really hard and added a lot of business value. I was not rewarded at all; No promotions, minimal pay increases, no respect etc. All the while my tech skills were getting out of alignment with what the industry was paying well for.

That sounds like a situation that a lot of developers find themselves in. Do you have any recommendations for people in similar situations?

How did you end up getting your next job?

I was in that situation once and the main reason that I was able to make the next move was because I was working on a side project which gave me the experience.

It's your problem that you couldn't convince them of your worth and get fair compensation. And I don't mean that you hold the keys to the kingdom and ask the king for ransom. Simply quantify the benefits that your system provides and prove that it's in their best interests to have you working there.

"It's your problem that you couldn't convince them of your worth and get fair compensation."

If a company doesn't respect, value, and trust their developers it is very difficult to change their minds (as a developer). I tried for over a year.

I've found it is far simpler and more profitable to focus on the skills the market values rather than focusing on what is best for a specific business.

> I have seen more than 10 or 15 cases of developers who were hired to develop and evolve a product and get "bored" after they learn the new tech that brought them to the company/project

My guess is that those developers saw the clusterfuck in your company. And instantly decided "Fuck this bullshit. I don't get paid enough to care.".

Sorry for not mentioning it, but it was in more than one company.

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