I’m a software dev/sysadmin mix, ~8 years’ experience, looking for work again after some time off. (Based in a capital city in Australia if that’s relevant)

I have no idea how to characterise the projects that I’ve enjoyed the most or would like to do in the future.

The projects that I’ve found the most enjoyable are not the ones that you see advertised by recruiters and companies; Kubernetes, cutting-edge, greenfield projects, massive cloud accounts… meh.

Some fun stuff I’ve done or would like to do:

  • Upgrading that weird service everyone is accidentally relying on but afraid to touch
  • While money pours into LLMs in healthcare, fax machines were still used every day
  • Working out the “low-level” part of the system colleagues put off for 2 years because nobody wanted to read through the boring 400-page ISO spec
  • Maintaining that abandoned 500K line Java system with most errors being RuntimeException with a null description
  • Working in small teams, max 8-10 people

Any tips to characterise this kind of work to focus my job search? I know it’s significantly different from working at a software company pumping out features.

Tight deadlines and shoestring resources don’t bother me (as long as I get my salary!). Having people who don’t take it all super seriously along the way is super important.

How do I look for this? Trial & error? I feel like there must be… consultancies? … working on these kinds of projcets. Perhaps there’s some name or buzzwords that I need to use? Or would I need to talk with one of those mega big consultancies like Accenture?

Of course very open to the possibility that I’m being totally unrealistic and way too picky in a down market.

My bread and butter is working in Go, Python, backend and OS stuff. Networking, Linux, BSDs, that kinda thing.

Thanks all!

  • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zoneEnglish
    3·
    8 months ago

    When I select your profile I don’t see this post or your comment in the overview. The last comment was from 11 days ago. Letting you know in case it’s not just federation being slow.

    Our office fax line died when they cut the copper (or the isdn?). Apart from e-fax how do faxes stay operational in Australia?

    • Oliver Lowe@apubtest2.srcbeat.comOP
      2·
      8 months ago

      When I select your profile I don’t see this post or your comment in the overview. The last comment was from 11 days ago. Letting you know in case it’s not just federation being slow.

      Oh thanks for spotting that. Hm. Not sure what the go is there. Now that I think about it I did swap the keys around used to sign my outbound messages, just to see what would happen…

      Our office fax line died when they cut the copper (or the isdn?). Apart from e-fax how do faxes stay operational in Australia?

      Yeah there those hosted fax services where you can e.g. email, Pretty sure you can use hardware VoIP adapters with a bit of fiddling. FYI this was just a test, I sent the real thing to !cs_career_questions@programming.dev

    • Nath@aussie.zone
      2·
      8 months ago

      Our office fax line died when they cut the copper (or the isdn?). Apart from e-fax how do faxes stay operational in Australia?

      I did work for a government department a few years back that accepted faxes from the public because the law literally said they had to. But the true irony is: The law in question was from the 19th century!

      What had happened is that the law said they’d accept “facsimiles” from the public, with the expectation they’d be literal carbon copies. However, the English language itself evolved over the intervening century and “facsimile” was now an electronic thing (fax). They were in the process of getting the law changed, but as it was such a low-priority change, parliament was not getting around to it. I’m not sure whether they ever have. For all I know, they still accept faxes.