(11-10-2019, 11:01 PM).RJ Wrote: What, they like cars that leak oil in their parking garage?
It's definitely one way to leave a mark on a client.
Now:
'16 Ram 1500 | '97 BMW M3 | Some Press Loan
Then:
87 BMW 325e | 91 BMW 535i | 96 BMW 328i | 95 BMW 325i | 95 Mazda Miata | 13 Focus ST | 09 BMW 128i | 00 Pontiac Firebird | 05 Yukon Denali | 96 BMW 328iC | 11 Ford F-150 | 06 BMW M3 | 10 Range Rover SC | '03 Ford Ranger | '18 Ford F-150 | '01 BMW X5 | '98 Volvo S70 T5M
I've spent a lot of time considering if I want to try to make another gradual step from Digital Product Management to something in the automotive industry, whether it be Digital Product Management at an automaker, or trying to get in on actual product management in the vehicle side. Is it possible? Not sure.
Is it the right thing to do? Also not sure. I'm not super thrilled with my current situation, even though it's a million times better than my old one, so I'm considering what I want to do long term. I know having a job you love isn't a luxury many get to have, but I see no reason not to search for that.
You could ask Mike D'Amico what it's like to work at Audi. One of my wife's former coworkers worked at VW/Audi in IT and wasn't super positive about it, but experiences may vary. In general I think the auto industry is a bit behind on IT so you may find it frustrating depending on who you work for.
2018 Ducati Panigale V4
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
(12-04-2019, 05:57 PM)G.Irish Wrote: You could ask Mike D'Amico what it's like to work at Audi. One of my wife's former coworkers worked at VW/Audi in IT and wasn't super positive about it, but experiences may vary. In general I think the auto industry is a bit behind on IT so you may find it frustrating depending on who you work for.
Yeah doing tech at non-tech companies in general is like that. 90% of my headaches are because finance guys are running the show and have no idea what goes into the app, they just want the product yesterday with little to no regard for the future.
Speaking of which: entertained a Richmond recruiter today and was a perfect match for a role at Advance Auto. Guess there as big a fan of outdated tech as the government. It was a contract position though and only about a $10k bump over what I make now. Totally not worth the jump but tried to see if I could negotiate anyways for the hell of it and apparently even $10/hr was a complete dealbreaker. Weird hearing that from a company making almost $10 billion a year but they sell car parts not tech, so not sure what I expected.
Most things I've seen in auto require some sort of mechanical engineer degree. I do not think it's a good idea to go into digital tech for cars. An increasing amount is going to be offloaded to actual software companies because automakers realize they can't or don't want to keep up. While I'd love the idea of working in the industry, it just seems too tumultuous.
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
(12-04-2019, 08:15 PM)Deceus Wrote: they sell car parts not tech, so not sure what I expected.
I dont think thats really true.
(09-25-2019, 03:18 PM)V1GiLaNtE Wrote: I think you need to see a mental health professional.
Large companies like that sell logistics, not a product. What Advance sells you that Amazon or some other online retailer doesn't is convenience and parts warehouses close to you to get you a part next day no matter where you are.
^ thats a bingo
The musical chairs game is happening at my company and some people are getting laid off. If I didnt get a significant bonus I'd just quit because its not worth the stress.
(09-25-2019, 03:18 PM)V1GiLaNtE Wrote: I think you need to see a mental health professional.
(12-05-2019, 10:00 AM)Senor_Taylor Wrote: Large companies like that sell logistics, not a product. What Advance sells you that Amazon or some other online retailer doesn't is convenience and parts warehouses close to you to get you a part next day no matter where you are.
I get that but it really boils down to tech vs non-tech, that's kinda what I was getting at. They're going to be more than happy with mediocre engineers and mediocre tech as long as they can still keep doing what that they do.
12-05-2019, 12:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-05-2019, 12:03 PM by Apoc.)
You don't make $10 billion a year by paying for better engineers than you need. 
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
So it's that time again. Probably going to end up holding off the job search for a little while but my current contract is up. There's no new one in sight but lots of work they're expecting to get done this month so who knows. Either way I didn't put in a few hundred hours of work to not at least look.
First up is Freddie Mac. They're supposedly "modernizing" and going into the cloud like everyone else seems to be. Six months contract to hire. 2 days remote and a decent pay bump makes it seem kinda appealing if I can find a place to crash 2 nights a week around Tysons. Anyone have any experience with them? I figure if they're actually putting me on a cloud based modernization effort then the experience will be invaluable even if I am just laid off in six months.
Freddie is an interesting place right now but they are very much stuck in the stone age in a lot of ways and there is a *lot* of politically motivated bullshit.... I wouldnt expect exciting work, that's for sure and they are 100% not a product company so that part could be frustrating for you if thats where you are coming from.
I work for their GSE counterpart and know people over there so I can dig a little for you if you want.
(09-25-2019, 03:18 PM)V1GiLaNtE Wrote: I think you need to see a mental health professional.
(03-16-2020, 02:43 PM).RJ Wrote: Freddie is an interesting place right now but they are very much stuck in the stone age in a lot of ways and there is a *lot* of politically motivated bullshit.... I wouldnt expect exciting work, that's for sure and they are 100% not a product company so that part could be frustrating for you if thats where you are coming from.
I work for their GSE counterpart and know people over there so I can dig a little for you if you want.
Yeah I just might have you do that. I don't know much about what exact position I'm being put into as I'm going through Apex. Just that they're looking for a senior java developer with some form of experience with Spring and AWS. Pretty sure it's related to this posting: https://www.freddiemac.jobs/job/10655099...mclean-va/
About as vague as the description they gave me. I suppose that makes sense if they really are ramping up for something big. I can stomach politics and don't mind working with some stone age practices as that's nothing new coming from the government, I just need to get off of CRUD maintenance contracts before that's all I'm ever allowed to do.
That office is also super close to my house
(03-16-2020, 03:05 PM)Deceus Wrote: I suppose that makes sense if they really are ramping up for something big. I can stomach politics and don't mind working with some stone age practices as that's nothing new coming from the government, I just need to get off of CRUD maintenance contracts before that's all I'm ever allowed to do.
We need smart/relevant people at my office. I know we are looking for a couple of developers on my program -
Look here: https://careers.fanniemae.com/main/
I dont know how flexible the remote arrangements are going to be for a *new* employee but a lot of people have goofy schedules so maybe. And there are cheap apartments nearby you could crash at tues-thurs if thats your plan. If you see anything send me a PM or connect with me on FB/Linkedin/Email
(09-25-2019, 03:18 PM)V1GiLaNtE Wrote: I think you need to see a mental health professional.
Sooooo looks like I'm probably headed to Durham-Raleigh. Not sure if anyone has any contacts there but I could use some advice as far as places to live. The tentative long term plan would be to settle in an area like Cary or Morrisville so I can commute to either city. I know some people mentioned some advice in the chat but it's easier to remember a forum post, so please chime in if you can.
The longer story for anyone that cares or is bored: I'm in this weird state with Amazon where I'm over-qualified for any SDE1 role (they won't interview me) and not quite qualified for their SDE2 roles (don't have the experience at scale). I'm not on any kinda cooldown after "passed but being passed on" my last phone screen. But having trouble getting any team to talk to me, so yeah that's fun. I guess I could just wait for HQ2 to actually get built but not sure I can wait that long. The rest of NoVA just wasn't looking too pretty for housing, Richmond doesn't pay well enough outside of Capital One and remote jobs are just too few and far between. Was in the final stages with a California start-up and had to pull the plug when I saw their stock take an 80% nosedive in that last week of talks. Made a move to take over the lead role at my current gig and while they did force the current lead to step down finally, they gave it to someone else and then blocked my application for an internal transfer to lead another team (fun times). So needless to say I'm pretty motivated to shed these remote/NoVA golden handcuffs and live around some viable options again. Durham seems like the perfect mix of location, housing market and opportunities. In resume shotgun blast mode right now. If anyone knows any recruiters or contacts, I'd gladly hear them.
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