The Glade 4.0

Lex, just keep your ears open. Opportunities will appear, whether you choose to pursue them or not. Getting the occasional practice interview keeps your skills sharp, and you will want to promote occasionally even if you stay where you are.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

People don't realize the value of this until they are faced with a layoff and are desperatly attempting to make themselves stand out from the other resumes on a desk. But hey failing to plan is planning to fail. I love that mentality. Love it so much I drop change into their cups as they sit on steam grates watching their student loans default.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

How hard, exactly, do you slam one of those?

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The Dude abides.

Depends on the shithouse, but less hard than that.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Maybe I have a rosey view of the past, but it seems to me society has gone backwards if even well-educated and proven-capable workers put themselves at risk if they don't show constant ambition.

I thought a friend of mine was crazy when out of the blue he mentioned the idea of getting a new job in a few years, despite absolutely loving his current one. Perhaps I was wrong, though. Would be yet another sign I am not at all fit for living in today's society I guess.

A lot of retirees now seem to have worked decades with the same company. Am I not seeing the full picture, or is it just that society is changing now? Cause if in 25 years people aren't working even a decade at a company before switching, I definitely find that to be moving backwards.

I don't think it's different, really. You don't need to move to a new company, but a new position can be the same. It's always been this way.

Think about it, if I want a new manager, am I going to pick the ambitious guy that knows how to get things done, even if he's not the most technically competent, or the highly technical guy?

Of the two, I'd promote the ambitious guy and put the technical guy under him. I need the manager out shaking hands and working through problems. The tech. expert can deal with his shortcomings in that area.

(obviously, I don't mean he's technically incompetent, just not as good as the other guy)

This is the conclusion I've come to for myself.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I rarely say it, but ... This.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I'm in with Noggle, Kaffis and Aethien...

I'm nearly 50 and I've had what amounts to two jobs in my life. 20 years on active duty, and 10+ at my current company.

I've exhausted all of the promotion possibilities within my career field. I even tried (and didn't care for) the management track.

If someone were to tell me I could still be doing exactly what I'm doing now for exactly the same amount of money (with some COLA increases) for another 5-10 years (until I decide it's time to retire), I'd be quite content with that.

Unfortunately it's what you have to do to stay on top.
6 month stint in a job = too movey, not good for hiring
2-3ish year stint in a job = ambitious and fast learner, good for hiring
4+ years stint in a job = slow learner, stable, not good for promotions

At least thats the culture and advice I have been given.

It's fine to move positions within a company, and it's not always an upward shift. People have been known to move side ways or even backwards to gain area experience to move into area management, but the key is to constantly move.

If you've been in the same position for over 10 years, you're just considered a permanent fixture and no one considers you for promotion anymore.

So in a way, the young nowadays are either forced to be ambitious or have a stigma attached to them which makes them less desirable. (at least in my experience)

The thing is, I don't care about what title I have. I just want to contribute as much as I can to a new OS that'll possibly be around for 20 years. It'll be cool if people are looking at the code a decade from now and see my name everywhere.

Do you want to stay on with the company after the OS is released and they scale back to a maintenance effort instead of a building effort?

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Also you would need a very very good manager to get your name on anything. More than likely you'll be a passing note for a couple of years, but in 20 years time, there would only be a very minor handful of developer's name associated with an OS. Even more likely, by than you're developed enough in your career that it wouldnt even matter.

That's a very good question. That'll be 3 or 4 years from now so I'll have some more time to think about it.

Whenever I make a new source file my name goes on the top, and it stays there forever.

You either plan to succeed or you plan to fail. The way you plan to fail is by not planning to succeed.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

There will be other projects to code?

This is about on par with my experience as well.

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The Dude abides.

There almost definitely will be (for me). I doubt I'll get laid off because I get really strong performance reviews.