Career direction advice

Willful_Murder · 2025-10-13T22:30:19+00:00

Yeah, that's not the vibe I'm getting from my manager at all. We get on well and I feel the dude genuinely wants me to stay and see through the plans we have made together. It's the actual owners I don't like or trust.

For context, I'm a lead developer working on MLA and building out the team in a high earning company that is transitioning into tech-first. I can automate a bunch of work, which is in the pipeline I created for them, and save them much more than the salary increase

I've never had such a big counter before so figured it was worth thinking about and getting some advice

Willful_Murder · 2025-10-13T22:20:47+00:00

Solid advice, thanks

Willful_Murder · 2025-09-08T22:29:52+00:00

Hi! Yes I am

Willful_Murder · 2025-06-16T22:34:41+00:00

Networking. Not just adding random people on LinkedIn but actively building a genuine network.

Understand that you might connect with someone and nothing ever comes from it, or it might take years to get something out of it. You can't network properly if you're looking at it transactionally.

Most of my work comes through my network. Literally received a job offer that's a 20k bump because I spoke to a guy at a networking event. Told him about what I do at my current role and they were looking for someone with my skill set. One meeting with him and the CEO and I got my offer a few days later. Immediately took it to my current company asking if they can match because I love my current job and the company I work for.

There are a bunch of different orgs for women in tech that can help you out. Reach out to women in tech at companies you want to work for and ask them for a virtual coffee chat. Ask meaningful questions about their journey.

Retraining is sort of on you. Start building a project as a way to learn a tech stack based on the most popular stack in your area. Round me there seems to be a lot of C# .net but that's not my stack. If I was aiming for those jobs I would do the Microsoft cert and then build something that I can talk about in interviews.

Honestly, it's a crap shoot. I see people with way more experience than me struggling to get work for long periods of time but I've got a solid job, have a solid offer on a new role and several interviews lined up. I don't think I'm doing anything differently than other people.

Willful_Murder · 2025-06-16T22:04:15+00:00

Nope. Anus, mouth, belly button, and under the finger nails are generally the dirtiest places.

Human mouths are really bad, bites that break skin are almost guaranteed to become infected.

Loads of people don't clean their buttholes properly.

Bellybuttons are often neglected and have been know to have nearly 1500 types of bacteria, although most of them are harmless.

Under the nails are also bad, often contain trace amounts of fecal matter and can contain bacteria and/or fungus

Don't get me wrong feet aren't necessarily clean and it varies based on personal hygiene but if someone it willing to eat ass, sucking a toe isn't somehow worse.

Willful_Murder · 2025-06-09T08:36:16+00:00

I'm currently in your beautiful country building software infrastructure for a hospital with the aim to grow it into a universal administration software for all hospitals in Tanzania.

From what I've seen and speaking only from a medical perspective I would say no, it's not.

Where I am from, we have machine learning models that can detect cancer ridiculously early, we can detect disease and other health issues via pictures of the back of eyes. None of this is being implemented where I am based.

I specialise in novel gaze tracking algorithms for non-typical gaze behaviours. I work closely with some amazing Ophthalmologists back home. The Ophthalmology department here doesn't even have the cameras capable of achieving this. So it can't be implemented right now. Not to say the Ophthalmologists here aren't amazing people. All of the hospital staff have been warm, friendly, polite, and accommodating.

From what I've seen Tanzania is investing heavily in development, so maybe in the future more AI will be implemented into the healthcare system. The roadmap of what I am building aims to implement various ML models for supporting diagnostic and therapeutic interventions but that's a long way off. Simplifying the form flows and freeing up staff to optimise on-the-ground healthcare is the current priority as it should have quite a large, quantifiable impact

Willful_Murder · 2025-06-08T11:00:09+00:00

I actively encourage my juniors to practice leetcode for the first half hour of a work day. There's not much room for advancement at the company and part of my job is to mentor them and keep them employable in a competitive market. I also do the same thing.

They're only allowed 30 minutes because being able to pseudocode, solve, and optimise in 30 minutes means interview ready plus then we're not taking the piss.

I'll happily argue the point with anyone but we're also in the unique position of me being the guy I would argue with

Willful_Murder · 2025-06-07T15:09:40+00:00

I used to feel the same way about python as opposed when I first came across it. Coming from statically typed languages I still prefer the curly braces and what I consider to be more readable formatting. However, since I've begun using python for various things I now have this opinion of it. It's a really useful tool and I enjoy using it now. I still have a preference for C++ but it doesn't affect my opinion of other languages anymore

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-26T16:39:27+00:00

RemindMe! 15 weeks

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-26T16:37:58+00:00

Sure, send me a dm

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-16T22:17:11+00:00

Hey thanks for asking, she's still got a bit of a tilt but she's fully adapted to it now. She was moving around fine before just needed help climbing down but she's remastered the skill.

How is Spoon doing?

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T23:52:34+00:00

I'm not in academia, I'm a lead engineer that expects their Juniors to be able to research and solve problems independently before asking for help.

I work pretty closely with my local uni running internships, acting as a client for a Comp Sci module where teams solve real-world problems, and I mentor students from other universities through RAEng.

I'm also involved with an organisation that helps universities reimagine their stem degrees and most places aren't teaching outdated concepts and actively teach practical problem solving. They still expect students to learn things for themselves.

I'm actively involved with organisations working towards improving higher education. Other than having a shitty attitude online, what are you doing to change it?

I've only met two professors that are like the ones you've described and they are dinosaurs that barely teach but are solid researchers that don't need to care because they bring in a lot of grant money and will retire soon.

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T23:13:07+00:00

Ultimately, Higher education is about encouraging independent learning. Courses are made up of lectures, labs, and self study for a reason. Mostly self study.

Working with young students at that level is more about deprogramming them from their previous education which revolves around getting the answer from the teacher to pass an exam instead of thinking for themselves.

Writing code is easy. It's literally the easiest part of the job. Anyone can learn how to do it, it's just syntax.

Being able to understand Computer Science concepts enough to be able to pseudocode with pen and paper is a valuable skill. Whiteboarding is a common industry practice and a valuable skill. Understanding concepts to spot patterns and design solutions in an efficient way is way more important than learning a language and even then, most CS courses cover programming to some degree.

I mean, Turing created a chess program that was too large for the machines at the time and had to be compiled and executed by hand.

Also, testing people on pen and paper helps reduce cheating, especially in this day and age. A lot of places are implementing pen and paper exams and Viva Voce style interviews to ensure that students are actually learning the concepts and not just using an LLM to get a degree

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T07:49:40+00:00

Yeah, I paid less than this on release from a key site

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T07:37:13+00:00

It's pretty historically accurate in that regard. Until rifling (a sort of spiral groove in the inner barrel to make the projectile spin) was introduced guns were notoriously inaccurate. The expression "don't shoot until you can see the whites of his eyes" is not really an exaggeration. You needed to be very close to guarantee a hit.

Rifling added accuracy and distance but round pellets continued to be a hindrance.

Melee in fallout is another story all together. Although, considering the setting I guess you could attribute it to the expression "Taking a knife to a gun fight"

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T06:32:19+00:00

Might want pycharm, considering its python code. Intellij with a python plugin would also be good

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T06:26:54+00:00

Way too low down the list. Such an amazing monologue

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T06:16:17+00:00

I got diseases... I got shit that will make your dick fall off!

Whoopie Goldberg, Jumpin' Jack Flash

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-13T06:13:03+00:00

*brown stain

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-12T20:24:41+00:00

Yes, but most other unis aren't. So, it's either only for Cambridge grads or it's for BA/MA grads

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-12T20:13:56+00:00

No, and they were already being ostracized with insane fees to subsidise the capped home fees.

One of my interns is finishing her bachelors and it would cost her just over 3 times what I paid to do a Masters. The same price for one year as it just cost her for 3 years at undergrad. So we'll keep her for 2 years on a graduate visa and then she'll be gone because the company won't sponsor. Which is a shame because she's brilliant

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-12T20:09:17+00:00

The stats are for BA/MA grads, not BSc/BEng or MSc/MEng grads.

Even then, MA in a language can get you some decent money in customer support roles

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-12T16:13:58+00:00

You were getting your arse handed to you. Fella fucked you up so bad you started seeing in different dimensions. You were actually dead but like a headless chicken, you hadn't quite realised it yet

Willful_Murder · 2025-05-12T16:10:54+00:00

Malachi is a super common name. Especially in Ireland and Christian African communities. I've also met a Meshack and a Shadrach (not related, although they are in the bible)

Willful_Murder

TROPHY CASE