When career conflicts with company

Question

I'm working in a small company that runs an online product. The product works so far, but they want to add a lot of additional features to it.

They're using reasonably current technology (ASP.NET, C#, .NET 3.5), but the developers are resistant to moving into more cutting edge stuff like, say, ASP.NET MVC or Silverlight.

Basically it's not always easy to justify using new tech when A) everything works the way it is, B) the new tech doesn't bring any obvious, immediate business advantages.

I want to start using newer tech, partly because I'm excited about it, partly because I know if I'm not careful, I'll end up with a resume that reflects 1-2 year-old stuff and it will be harder for me to get a better-paying contract.

The role I'm in right now is permanent, but I'm not so sure I'll get a pay-rise within a year (so many companies have promised it and then failed to deliver).

So what would you do in my situation?

Would you try your best to get the company onto newer tech?

Or would you slave away for the business bottom-line, ignoring your own career development, and hope for some kind of remuneration later down the track?

Or would you try to find a job at a company where it makes more business sense for them to use newer technology?

Answer 1

I'm working in a company that supports a Visual Basic 6 app on a SQL 2000 database. Stop worrying about being 1-2 years behind.

If the tech is working and they're resistant to change, then leave it, but by all means play with the newer stuff in your own time.

Answer 2

Newer technology is fun. Working technology pays the bills, including your salary. You may be bored - join the club!

It's not necessarily true that having experience with the latest fad technology (Silverlight? Who needs it?) will make you more valuable.

Betting on new technology is risky. You may be able to find a job with a "new technology" shop only to have it collapse under you within less than a year.

This should not be the ONLY consideration for you; just one of many considerations.

Answer 3

I think affiliation with the absolutely latest and greatest in technology is normally not a very important concern when hiring people, unless you're really really far behind.

Most companies don't want the cutting edge stuff anyway.

Answer 4

First think I would do is to put my 100 % effort in my work, there are two advantages behinf these, when you are giving your hundred percent then you are likely to grow and understand their buisness so there are more possibility that you become visible. secondly satisfaction comes free of cost while ding this

Answer 5

It doesn't seem to me that your company is far behind at all, it simply hasn't seen the use for any of the technologies you have been pushing.

If you want to play around with new technology you either have to come up with legitimate business reasons for why the technology is better, or you can in some cases pull it off for internal or unimportant projects just for the sake of learning.

Answer 6

If you think 1-2 year old stuff is old, you're going to be investing a large portion of your time keeping up with the latest stuff, and in my opinion that's not worth it. Better to know a slightly older technology well than endlessly hopping around.

Employment opportunities for something as large as say C# aren't going to become scarce for a very long time.

Answer 7

If you are really passionate about moving to new technology then spend some time doing a proof of concept mini project, it might give the decision makes something more tangible.

but even if your company will not be willing to go along with your ideas, you can further your own development by participating in an open source project on your free time, or start a project of your own. it will give you a safe ground to test the new technology while still keeping a job that will pay the bills. with your new skills and knowledge you might be able to find a more challenging job in a few months

Answer 8

If you want to leave the company, because you don't get the new shiny toys, you might consider staying away from long term credits, because you will end up changing your workplace pretty often and banks don't like that. ;-)

You are in a environment that uses reasonably new technology. If you want to be more near the bleeding edge, then start projects in your spare time. Starting a closed source or even better open source project with the desired technologies is an excellent way to gain expertise. If you have played enough with it and have found some sweet spots for your company, then you might even got the right arguments to introduce the new technology there.

As management summary: ;-)

If your company is not stuck with a crappy old technology for several years without hope of upgrading, stick with the company and try to find ways to show the benefit for the company of the new stuff. If it doesn't have any real benefit for the company, why should they upgrade to that technology?

Answer 9

Creating a really good product -- where really good includes shipping to customers, and working -- trumps whatever technology was used to create that product. This is true for your career at a particular company and outside it.

If there's a legitimate customer benefit to using newer stuff and you can demonstrate that, then it's worth pushing for, but you need to weigh in the high value of stuff that already works.

I've found that code talks. If you can write up something in your spare time that demonstrates things that simply cannot be done with your existing technology stack, that will count for a lot.

But again you need to balance that against time you could be spending making the existing product awesome.

Answer 10

I'd try to improve what practices are used and make the place run as best as it can. Bringing in new tech merely because it is new is rarely a good idea.

I wouldn't try to get newer tech unless I could get a good business case for using it. After all, it isn't like the company is using your own money to fund the little experiments you want to do, right?

There is more to a career than the tech! There is what methodology you use and practices associated with it that may be just as useful.

I'd be careful about going to companies that are using bleeding-edge technologies as those would seem likely to go down in flames as the business side isn't the strength of the founders necessarily.