The Boredom Wall
In yesterday’s post I wrote about why I don’t program in my free time. There’s an interesting question that comes up as a result: What do I do when the job stops challenging me?
In an older comment on this blog, Roo said:
Maybe initially it is your workplace (boss/manager) who’s got the responsibility of the care and feeding of your growing career/skills. However, if you take a close look around – it may take some careful observation – you will notice that the hierarchy doesn’t rise very far when it comes to technical skills. In the end, every geek ends up owning the problem of keeping themselves challenged.
I don’t have a satisfactory answer. I already know that I don’t deal well with this situation when it inevitably comes up. Still, here are some the ideas I’ve thought of.
The naïve answer is to find a new job or seek out more challenges at my current job; this is obviously not a sustainable solution.1 You’ll have to constantly move around; would even be able to stay in the same place long enough to contribute something meaningful? How long can you continue to ad responsibilities at your current job and still expect to fulfill them?
As Simon Law pointed out quite simply, “There is a big problem of skill plateau with this strategy. I prefer constant self-directed learning.”
What are your solutions?
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