Journal karniv0re's Journal: I Direct at You, the Seething Hatred of One Thousand Suns! 2
There's trouble in paradise. My once cushy and enjoyable job is clearly nearing EOL. This is due to someone else here, a real "go getter." You see, not only is this individual Machiavellian in nature, but he's tech-stupid to boot. So we have a power grabber who doesn't know shit about what he's trying to manage. This is going to end up destabilizing the company over the long term, making my job much less enjoyable because A.) I will end up cleaning up the mess, and B.) He will slowly suck up more and more power and I could end up working under this fuck.
He's always been this way, but more recently it has become a problem. I got a ping from one of his people on Friday, asking me for some help. I obliged, and I was confused by his question. So I asked to see his code. Lo and behold, it looked nothing like what our core systems look like. This is because they are off-site employees and FuckHead keeps all his people in silos, away from all the other (read: experienced) developers. And now that our Architect has been replaced with a new guy (not me, of course), DickWad has decided to become buddy-buddy with him so he's got the brains in his back pocket (since they're not in his head).
So now we've got Rogue coders corrupting our code base and an architect who has, whether he knows it or not, joined the dark side. Couple this with Asshole's climb-to-the-top-on-the-backs-of-others mentality, and you've got a recipe for disaster. My only option, it seems is to start making an exit strategy. Which sucks. I like it here. I'm really fucking good at this job. I know the code inside and out, and I understand the business. I've been here for 4 years, man. I like my boss and his boss. But I don't see any other option.
And CockKnob is so good at his back stabbing techniques. He never technically "does anything wrong" so it's not like I can nail him on something fundamentally against company policy or anything. It's all the little things. Like how he accepted a Summit Award for a project he had nothing to do with, while screwing someone who had significantly helped the effort out of his award. But you can't really get "in trouble" for accepting an unjust award. It's how he takes credit for other people's work, while putting all the blame for any mistakes on everyone else. It's how he puts people who don't work for him on an org chart under him when he meets with higher-ups. It's not a fireable offense, should he be called out. Hell, it's probably not even a mentionable offense. If all else failed, he could just claim technical oversight and be like, "sorry 'bout that!" But the damage is done, because now that VP sees him as someone who has a lot of responsibility. The seed has been planted.
This is an asshole with no integrity. But integrity is one of those intangibles that have no metrics attached, and as such, has no real bearing on how far JizzGuzzler will go. I've been assured that his reputation will get around, but I know how it works. By the time it gets around, he'll be long gone, promoted to the next level up, where he can inflict more damage on a larger group of people.
So here's where we get to the solution. It's not easy, and it's really not even directed at him. It's a parachute for me, cause when this plane catches fire, I am not hanging around to see if we can put it out. This is why I'm going back to school to get my masters in mathematics. I registered earlier this year, but with less intention of actually doing it. It was kind of an "eh, we'll see" attitude. But now it's a do-or-die attitude. This program can help me right several worries I've had in my head for quite some time. One is the aforementioned NutRubber. But just so as not to give him too much power (more than he already thinks he has), I'm also doing it for me. I've grown comfortable and quite honestly, bored with my job. It's too easy. Same thing over and over. Understand business requirements, architect a system, the copy-paste a bunch of shit and it's done. Very little innovation. I'm not saying I'm not good at it. I am. That's why it's boring. But I know I'm not good at math. It's not easy to me. That's a challenge, and that's why I must do it.
Data Science is the next frontier, and it's already commanding huge salaries at other companies. With a national average salary of $118k according to Glassdoor (which, if I have any hope of being a data scientist, I obviously must question weather that's the arithmetic average, the median, or the mode - but either way...) it's one of the highest paying jobs out there. Developers are a dime a dozen (not good ones, mind you, but job-filling ones). I want to cement my place in the needs of a company. This is the way to do it.
My first class will be Probability Models, and I'm stoked. Every day I go to class, I'll be a step closer to carving out my own path, and kissing ShitStain goodbye.
Good work (Score:2)
Heh, been there, though I think when it happened to me it was actually with the support of upper management to try to get as many of us to leave voluntarily before our pension vested at the 3-year mark ;-) . It was fine, though, I made more than enough money changing jobs to cover that, and at a less frantic pace where I "only" had to work 40-hour weeks with an almost negligible oncall schedule for a change.
While I'd encourage you to put yourself somewhere that you could watch this train wreck from afar..
Re: (Score:2)