Comment by xyst | Hacker News Reader

Comment by xyst | Hacker News Reader

so many red flags here

> fresh graduate data engineer

to the company, they see this as "cheap labor"

> hired 6 months ago as a freelance

basically, they put you through the ringer without having to pay out benefits

> essentially functioning as a tech lead

a fresh out of college graduate is far from being qualified as "tech lead", you are out of depth here

> with full responsibility and ownership of designing, implementing, and hiring for the projects I'm assigned

basically you are a 1-bus factor team. hope you have negotiated pay accordingly.

> Our company is not a tech company, so I only have a couple of tech-oriented colleagues

you are a second class citizen at this company, your budget will be constrained, and be on the first to cut when it gets tough. In the O&G industry, the boom and bust cycles are quite frequent.

> Now I directly report to the director of the company

now there's internal pressure to perform at a much higher level than your experience.

If you want real advice, get the hell out of this company while you can. O&G industry itself is notorious for back stabbing/conniving.

Hey man thanks a lot for your advice!

Just to clear up some misunderstandings (caused by my own lack of information supply TBH):

- I'm hired full-time with benefits now after working freelance for 6 months - I get paid 4.5x more than my peers in this company - I got these many responsibilities after proving my competence and delivering on reliable solutions in my freelance tenure. - Yep. Once again, I'm a little overpaid. - Also, currently I am being treated quite well, and definitely not like a second class citizen, since the company is making a shift towards a tech-first and data driven approach and I'm at the centre of it.

You have definitely made a few great points here though. I'm out of my depth here when it comes to management, very high level design, etc - but given the scale of operations so far, I am quite sure I can deliver outcomes!

Also, thanks a ton on warnings about the nature of this industry, I'll definitely keep it in mind!

You are one lucky dude. I think you do not need anyone's help. You can learn by doing what you do and some reading / experiments.

Came here to say this.

The Oil & Gas industry is not sexy and never will be, but it pays well above market and people with niche skills will do very well there (as you have no doubt now seen).

Technological progress in the space tends to move pretty slowly (especially on the Operational Technology side of the business) owing to many factors, but mainly risk avoidance. The flip-side of this is that once one company adopts a technology, the others tend to follow suite, so what you're doing may be very portable should the need arise.

Another benefit of O&G is that due the the specialised nature of a lot of the roles, you'll keep running into the same people at different organisations throughout your career, so keep your keep expanding your network along the way.

Don't let your perception of slow growth worry you too much - on the technology side, progression will come naturally as you take on new and more challenging projects. As a tech in a very different field, but a similarly isolated environment, I too have had these thoughts throughout my career, but remember there is a big wide world outside of silicon valley, and plenty of successful careers to be had.

It sounds like you have a boss you like who you could learn a lot from - this is huge. I'd focus on getting him to teach you to become a domain expert in the Oil & Gas space. This combined with your (relatively) niche technology skills will make you a unicorn in the future and combined with your network, pave the way should you want to become independent in years to come.

Good luck!

Best comment/advice I've seen in the thread so far.

Amen.

Best comment

unless you know what you’d be getting paid at silicon valley tech companies, don’t say you’re “overpaid”

your comps are with “working in San Francisco”, not with your peers

That has the same energy as saying "don't say your house was expensive until you compared prices with bay area houses" - not everyone in the world can work for silicon valley companies even if they wanted to. They are a nice aspirational things up in the sky to sometimes think about, but realistically, 99% of programmers are never going to work there and should be comparing their pay against peers within their industry.

This is true, he should be comparing with software engineers in his COL area, but not with other people with random jobs in his office.

Agreed.

actually he should be comparing with other software engineers in his industry

Unfortunately the world we live in is one where not everyone can find a job that pays silicon valley salaries where they want/need/are able to live.

i was referring to the oil industry where he works, not silicon valley

for sure: get a peer or subordinate that's somehow experienced. It's good for 2 points: to have someone to exchange knowledge and to have them as a backup, at least for support operation.

Then for your skill, understand that usually data is the most important thing in a system, especially for internal company. Learn about database design and normalization, as a data engineer I'm sure you know how critical it is. As for application level, ensure that ACID is achieved on critical-level operation, and learn maintainability.

Additionally backup / disaster recovery and/or replication also can be learned if you interested on devops route more. Having a backup (and can restore it) is a must, either you or hire someone else to do it, or hosting at a cloud.

I would definitely push for the company to hire a peer, a second-in-command; for you, that would be someone to verify and bounce your ideas off of, but to sell it to the company, you can sell it as risk mitigation, because right now this tech-first, data-driven direction your company is going into rests entirely on your shoulders, which is very risky; even if you can theoretically manage it on your own, accidents happen, burnout happens, etc. Nobody should be irreplaceable, and this isn't to shit on your achievements, but a higher level corporate thing.

I think this comment is being too dismissive/negative/bitter.

There is truth here -- yes, OP is likely out of his depth a bit. Yes, he's likely to be seen as a "cost center" rather than an asset. Yes there's internal pressure to deliver at a level higher than experience.

But none of those are reasons to flee.

OP: I think you would be wiser to enjoy this situation, learn as much as possible, deliver as best you can, BUT be fully aware that you could be nixed at any moment and do NOT take it personally if/when that happens.

Another thing to do, on the other end of the spectrum, is not get "stuck" at this company. You might find yourself extremely successful there! But there is a natural limit to how much you'll be able to learn/grow as a solo operator at a non-tech company.

Use the time you have to learn as best you can and pivot to a role at a proper eng-focused org where you can get the mentorship you want (assuming you want that!). Find another gig before you have time to learn bad habits or get too stuck in your ways.

2 years at this company will likely be great for you and be an asset to your overall career. 10 years will likely not.

Agreed on all points. If he wants to learn from a senior, he should start with your advice.

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