Ask HN: Crossroads for a programmer

[bagnus]

I've been working for a company for a few years. It's not bad. I'm responsible for deciding what technology and platforms we use for projects. After working in the place for a year, I was pushed up to the lead developer role, running a team of 6 devs and 2 interns. I've enjoyed getting the opportunity to mentor young programmers and sharing new ideas with one another.

This year, we were divided in to client work and product development. I was made the technical lead for the product development team. No one was brought in to lead the client work, so I did that too.

Early 2013, a bunch of client work came in. Everyone was allocated to complete that. After we finished that, more arrived. We couldn't find any new hires so we were all kept on the client work.

In March, the boss was getting agitated that we haven't been able to get on with building the product, so, our project managers freed us up and we had a three hour chat which listed the basic requirements.

This week, our marketeing exec and I was brought into a meeting with the investor to discuss a marketing plan. The meeting was out of the blue and it was the first time our marketing exec had an opportunity to discuss such a strategy. Our boss and the investor could not agree on whether the product was B2B, B2C, etc. Then they had a heated discussion about what the product was actually trying to achieve.

Since February, I've been stuck on client work, or supporting existing projects, new hires and catching up on work that was left unfinished by aprubt leavers. We can't keep new staff for any more than six months.

The company is successful in client work but there is no consideration given for time needed to spec and build the product. The product has no direction or vision, everyone has their own idea about the aims of the product.I'm on the verge of leaving as all my concerns are ignored.

Any advice, tips, suggestions, would be much appreciated.

[paulhauggis]

I've been there. The last time was 3 months ago. I was a year in and still no release. The boss changed his mind on design more times than I can count, which usually meant scrapping the old code and starting over.

I finally quit. It took me a couple of months to recover.

[bagnus]

In some ways, it's a great thing we haven't even started coding. There's been no time to build this and the boss wants it done by October. One developer, one designer and a pretty big enough system is to be built in 3 months? I believe they're deluded. (Note: I've told her that it will take longer)