On Mon, 16 May 2011, Chuck Cole wrote:

> Something sounds off-base about your ideas of "hacker-centric" cultures.  Doesn't sound like something to aspire to at any stage of
> your career.

Yeah, why would anyone want to have Google on their resume.

I'm pretty sure that's the kind of "hacker-centric" environment the OP 
meant. Sure, it's no longer the 90s, and there aren't THAT many places 
that have pool tables and on-site laundry anymore, and where you're 
encouraged ot take one day a week just to work on your own projects. Heck, 
I'm not even saying you should really pin your hopes on a place like that, 
and that if you DO really want something like that you should either A) 
Invent a time machine, or B) Move to California.

But places liek that /do/ still exist, and you can /still/ luck out and 
get in on the ground floor of the next Google/Facebook/Twitter/Whatever it 
might be. It's not super likely, and again, original poster, I would NOT 
count on it, but there IS a middle-ground here.

There are plenty of places you can work where your ability to improvise a 
solution RIGHT THE HECK NOW for a problem nobody ever anticipated would be 
valued. Even high-visibility fotune-500 companies might be OK with you 
hacking together an automated solution for something that previously took 
500 man-hours, so long as you take the time to document it.

Now if you're going to go work at an ISO9001-Compliant place, yeah, that 
kind of stuff won't fly.

I think one important thing to remember is, and I hate to say this... the 
chances of you finding a PERFECT job where you can just do whatever it is 
you absolutely love and no other boring/mind-numbing/repetitious crap 
attached to it are very, very low. Be prepared to compromise on your 
professional life, at least at first. But do NOT give up on hacking as a 
hobby!


-Yaron

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