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Re: Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm

by delirium (Chaplain)
on Feb 24, 2004 at 13:47 UTC ( [id://331377]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm

Currently in my spare time, I'm going deeper into things I'm interested in -- Perl, OpenGL, Linux stuff, etc -- and learning some new things I didn't pay too much attention to before -- CSS, functional programming, more AI, etc.
This is the same path I took, and it led to a job in a better environment (that includes a little perl coding). My bio has a brief description that sounds similar to what you just described. Doing extra techie stuff in your spare time can help keep you creative and interested in technology.

Your experience working for a (faceless?) corporation may be valuable, though, so don't discount the things you learn by just being exposed to the business world. It may not be 100% tech, but it's still problem solving. Psychology, time management, peer relations, how to let a manager think he's managing you, etc. All valuable skills to take with you when you land the dream job down the road.

Lastly, you shouldn't code 100% of the time anyway. I code like mad when I get inspiration, but go to all the meetings I can when I don't feel inspired. I don't think the human brain was designed to be creative 100% of the time. It's designed for about 20 years of figuring out how to sharpen a spear and where to find food. You can brain drain yourself by trying to squeeze too much coding into every single day.

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Re: Re: Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm
by flyingmoose (Priest) on Feb 24, 2004 at 14:51 UTC
    I guess what I'm saying is that, if I'm not careful, I'll be management in 3 years. I'm essentially pseudo-project management already. I have a technical title but I don't get to do anything even remotely interesting in the technical side (and it's a Java/C++ shop and our code is in stone with little changes). I'm awesome at this 'non-technical' stuff -- good leadership skills, great communication/planning skills, plenty of experience dealing with major OEM players, although siting on telecoms is leaving the analytical side of my brain turning to mush. You don't get to become a Damian or a Larry like this -- you get to become a drone. It seems "spare time" is the only way to keep the wheels turning -- it's going to be hard to find that anywhere. I don't care about salary -- I want to use my brain cells. That's why I went into what I did. Business-programming is not what is exciting about the field. That's usually just grunt-work which anyone can do. Innovation...where is that at? It's not nearly as common as it should be.

    Some time I want to give a talk to my old ACM chapter about what the real world is really like. To break up everyone's illusions :) Ok, not really, that would be cruel... but all the theory and fun and games isn't what you get to do "out there", regardless of whether you work for IBM (I have) or smaller shops (which I also have).

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