Feeling Tired & Washed Up

palaeo

New Member
I have been doing Progress for over 10 years now, 9 of which have been Chui.
Probably for the past 3 years I have been feeling like being a Progress Programmer is not challenging me enough. I have pretty much seen and done most things but really I am writing code now that I was writing 10 years ago. It seams to be "if yada yada then display yada yada .." same old same old.
I am a very good programmer but I feel my talents are wasted on this stuff.
I love new development but those tasks are few and far between. The reality is firefighting legacy code that was written in the 80's day in day out. On top of that most legacy code was written so very badly which just irk's me. I thought the solution was to move to other jobs but it ends up being the same thing different location.

Now I am 40 I feel very trapped, I don't have the opportunities to move to something new and moving around (other locations) is very painful for wife and kids, we have done it so many times. I am at the peak of my salary range, I am unlikely to be able to earn more money, so it is not a factor.

I really don't know what to do, but I just can't keep doing the If Then Display day in day out for another 10 years. I feel like I want to do something different, but there is nothing else I can do and I can't afford a big pay cut because mortgage, credit cards, car payments etc.

I feel very stuck and I suppose this is a fairly lame attempt at shouting for help. However, I would like to hear from anyone out there who is in or has been in a similar position / mind frame as me. If you got past this and have figured it all out, please share. I would also be interested in hearing from anyone who has been doing Progress for a long time and still enjoy it and can still keep up the desire to do more.
 

Cringer

ProgressTalk.com Moderator
Staff member
Welcome! Thanks for the post. Will be an interesting discussion. For me, the spark has been finding a shop that works with the new(ish) .Net stuff - much nicer than classic ABL GUI!! Also, branching out into complementary subjects, such as DBA and Ops. That has enabled me to get some respite from FOR EACHes!!
So, why not learn something new that will benefit your employer. Something like Ant isn't actually that hard, and can have major benefits. Even if it's just for yourself. Or start working with the database, learning the basics of tuning and so on. Hey then you can learn Ant too and do cool things like backup strategies that are automated...
 

TomBascom

Curmudgeon
The nice thing about legacy code is that there are endless opportunities to improve it :)

The hard thing is convincing your employer that those improvements are important and that it isn't just unproductive mumbo jumbo with no business benefit. Some workplaces are a lot more receptive to the idea than others.
 
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I really don't know what to do, but I just can't keep doing the If Then Display day in day out for another 10 years. I feel like I want to do something different, but there is nothing else I can do and I can't afford a big pay cut because mortgage, credit cards, car payments etc.

Palaeo, your not the only one. I've been doing Oracle DBA stuff since 1996 (I had mostly 2-3 heavy Head Office databases and 30+ branches), can you imagine the mundane pane on keeping them constantly upgraded when you start when you are 29 and like me now are 61? I spent so many night shifts doing that it has taken a toll on me and feel burned out. That job ended my marriage 16 years ago, so if that is what you are willing to sacrifice for a fast pace challenging time, make sure you understand it comes at a cost.

Still doing it, albeit the focus has shifted to Progress and SQL server mainly, the only difference - third parties do the mundane stuff. I was recently researching for similar jobs, but I'd like to stick to Oracle because if not, I will forget how it works. Nothing interesting has come up, apart from one bloke who asked me if I was willing to pick a Pro*C programming job, the problem was it was a 6 month contract to start with. I didn't feel like taking the plunge.

However, last week it dawned on me - as I spent 2 weeks fixing stuff broken in various systems by other people and bad processes I had an Eureka moment "Oh, I wish I could just go back to programming....".

If someone suggested becoming a DBA - beware! (note the exclamation mark) It all depends on how many systems are thrown at you and is it a 24/7 environment, or databases are just 9-5 Mon-Fri.

In the end, you have to weigh in your options. I've just been offered to take part in new projects, so I will take part in learning new stuff, which is good, as I don't have to worry about losing my job. So I decided... my job seems mundane, but pays the bills - and that's what counts.

I hope as a programmer you can enjoy no out-of-office-hours calls like during weekends. So enjoy your life with your family. But I do not envy you.

I wish you all the best.
Richard
 
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