I'd be satisfied with any job in the tech industry but I'm also reaching for one that aligns with my political values as an anti-capitalist. With this in mind, does anyone have any suggestions for the job search?
I'd love to work for a library but i imagine they don't really have a need for software developers, right?
It may depend on the library, but I think a lot of modern systems have pretty extensive information management. I know someone who went comp. sci. to library sci.
I wish there were more left leaning tech jobs in the electrical and hardware realm. My mental health seems to be really tied to how much Im interested in my work. I feel like I'd poke my own eyes out working in web dev.
Web infrastructure work isn't that bad as long as you don't work somewhere with the "ok my shitty code is in prod, ops's problem now" mentality. At least you're mostly insulated from JavaScript at that point.
Since you mention ops, Ops is a good place for socialists because:
- Webdevs are techbro libs, usually. There definitely exceptions, but by and large they are the lions share of devs I've worked with.
- You get to bully said webdev libs.
- You control the means of production.
Serious answer though, I would say non-profit would be an ideal fit... some level of government too where you can use your skills to show that 'government is good and profit isnt necessary to drive innovation'.
Couple more serious points:
- It can be grueling, but also very interesting as you adapt to new technologies, which you'll be exposed to moreso than as a dev.
- Get to learn things inside and out as you build up whatever org you're a part of.
I don’t really know anything about DevOps. Are there certain personalities best suited for DevOps? I’m quite a social person
teaches organizing skills as well... you have to find what's wrong in sociotechnical systems, the contradictions at their heart, and work over long periods of time to resolve them. the most interesting and challenging problems are political (within the context of the org) in nature and seem completely intractable until you get some practice, but damn if you don't put Mao through his paces on the regular.
that and using automation to make management's dumb shit impossible because sorry the computer said so.
Being social helps, a lot of DevOps is about communication, collaboration, sharing knowledge, and having frank and honest discussions between dev and ops teams.
It also helps that it is very enjoyable work too, most of the time. You get exposure to a lot of tech and concepts.
Do these jobs pay? Do you have any suggestions for job boards or networks to look into this sort of thing?
I don't know, I just gave my best answer taking into account only the ethics.
I know some people live only with Github sponsor money, patron etc.
Any room in that space for someone who still remembers 8086 ASM? Last I checked they sell 8086 processors by weight now. That was the part of my 90s tech experience that I truly enjoyed and was demonstrably good at.
Not sure about leftist spaces but knowing x86 assembly is a gateway into the security field by way of reverse-engineering (both of malware and of potentially vulnerable software applications). But you probably already knew that. I can't say I had any luck looking for leftist tech jobs when I went looking a while back; what I found was basically just developer jobs at lib electoralist groups and NGOs.
Well my problem is that I hate all the people who hire for that work. I'm not interested in making home spying drones or whatever the fuck is popular right now. I wanted to make robots in space or some shit like that. That's obviously out of the question. I'd settle for home automation but the money-grubbers have managed to turn even that into something you ought to warn your friends to dodge.
While we're on this subject I just want to talk about how capitalism has wrecked computer science. "Compatibility" should be an academic question for the math majors, not some daily requirement for keeping your resume under six pages in length or responding to trick questions in interviews. Corporate propriety has turned this job into a blizzard of temporary and transient single-use qualifications that your fucking grandchildren will master before you do. Yes, I'm old. I got out of the business while I still had a chance. Let me just sit in a tin roof shack and grow my tomatoes and write AI for fuck's sake.
Can't blame you for feeling that way. I've been at the same job since I graduated college in part because I hate interviewing and all the BS that goes with it. (Why in God's name are you expecting me to write fully-functional, compile-ready code on a goddamn whiteboard? Do you interview a carpenter by having them pound a nail into a board with a rock?) And I can't stand being expected to always keep learning the latest New And Exciting Framework either.
Personally I find computer security fascinating (although I don't work in the field; maybe if I did I'd find it less interesting). Reversing malware to learn the secrets of how it breaks into and takes over a machine sounds like interesting work to me (but it also seems pretty damn hard, and my knowledge of assembly is somewhat limited). From what I hear, if you get good enough at it, and attract enough notice in the field, job offers can just kind of appear in front of you (still not leftist ones, but at least you can skip the interview process). This (fairly long) Wired article talks about a guy who started out writing malware, then got out of it and started reverse-engineering malware instead, and ended up getting a legit job out of it (but he later got busted by the Feds for his earlier work writing malware, sadly).
If I was hiring for a job right now, your interest and your demonstration of your understanding of the problems involved would be sufficient to me. Nobody can keep up with the tech. There's no way to do this work that doesn't involve laying your skull against an angle grinder.
I mean can we do this or something? How about instead of mock realities we just, you know, make a fucking robot. Or an app. Or something. I've got plenty of ideas, let's see which one fits the material conditions.
I mean can we do this or something? How about instead of mock realities we just, you know, make a fucking robot. Or an app. Or something. I’ve got plenty of ideas, let’s see which one fits the material conditions.
This sounds like a potentially cool avenue to follow. I have to sign off for a while, but I'd be interested in taking this discussion further afterwards.
Yeah, not thinking we're going to kickstart some bullshit in the comments, that hasn't ever led anywhere good that I know of. My enthusiasm is due to going decades without being able to get this off my chest. My notes and my plans will still be around tomorrow.
I honestly dont know, Im not a developer.
I worked in some software companies as an analyst and data entry/researcher but Im only now starting to learn a bit of coding and computer theory as a hobby mainly.
Not freelance but big tech companies do maintain open source projects, notably RedHat
I’m also reaching for one that aligns with my political values as an anti-capitalist.
Probably fucking impossible, but I work in tech and there's a lot of communists here who are fun to work with.
I work in the games industry and am happy that my company does not do defense contracts.
I was extremely lucky to find a relatively good company but yeah on average it's kind of fucked
there are lots of good consulting grifts based around fixing shitty enterprise software that companies with braindead management are irreversibly invested in. nice work if you can get it and have the mental fortitude. real "monetize the rot" hours
Agencies and universities that do a lot of science can be pretty good places to work. Everyone there wants to see the thing get done, so they all work together to do it, often in a fairly horizontally organized way underneath a thick layer of bureaucracy. There's definitely a lot of libs of all flavors around, though, so ymmv.
I'm going to +1 on libraries, or at least their supporting infrastructure. I can't remember the company off the top of my head, but there's one near Ann Arbor, MI that has a lot of software applications if I recall.
To get started, IT Helpdesk is a good way to turn no experience other than above average computer proficiency into a first job. It's really easy to turn helpdesk experience into pretty much any other tech job with the good combination of customer service experience and teamwork for those soft skills.
Could work with restoring and upkeep of buildings or keeping infrastructure like power plants and waterworks going. Currently re-educating myself into an operations technician. But I guess that is only vaguely tech.
Not anti-capitalist as such, but at least it isn't actively harmful.
Lots of jobs on remote working sites now. Checkout
angel.co/jobs
stackoverflow.com/jobs
weworkremotely.com
