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 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!

  • @[email protected]English
    12•4 months ago

    It might be a good idea to talk to a recruiter about this. Surely there are jobs they know of where they just need people to show up and keep the fort running. That’s probably what I’d do. The reason I think that’s good is that companies that you would be looking for would not be easy to find in job boards because the flashy big-spend ones would show up the most. A recruiter would have easy access to the other ones, and might be happy to find somebody who actually wants to take them.

    FWIW I had never used recruiters until I accidentally answered a call a few years ago, and I got my last two jobs through them and they were both awesome and the whole experience was great. Not all recruiters are like that though, so don’t put up with a bad experience.

    • Oliver LoweOP
      6•4 months ago

      The reason think that’s good is that companies that you would be looking for would not be easy to find in job boards because the flashy big-spend ones would show up the most. A recruiter would have easy access to the other ones, and might be happy to find somebody who actually wants to take them.

      Haven’t thought about it like that before, but that makes sense. Perhaps because I had a couple of mediocre experiences with recruiters I’ve mostly avoided them since. But as I get more focussed in my search that might make it easier for a recruiter to go hunting, too.

      Thanks for the reply