go back to developing android?

jonneymendoza · 11 Jun 2011 at 14:41

Hi, this is not really a programming issue but more of a discussion/advice.

Basically i am now working on j2ee projects for the past few months on a new company but soo far i have only written 10-20 lines of code and mainly do testing, bug fixing and waiting around doing nothing.

before i joined i was doing android and j2me for about 4 years and found it hard to find android roles and their seems to be LOADS more core java jobs then android in london.

A friend of mine has hooked me up to see his boss about possibly joining where he works and from what he has said and what i can see, it is a larger company with lots of work to do. Its an android role of course but they will provide me lots of work to do instead of sitting at work browsing the internet.

If i was to get offered the role, should i take the punt and go back to android or stick with the place im in, in hopes some proper work will get forwarded to me?

cheers in advance.

smyth · 11 Jun 2011 at 15:24

If you really are sitting around doing nothing most of the time, try writing unit tests for the existing code. Might as well learn something new.

Also it might be worth mentioning to you manager how you feel at the moment, you might get the chance to something different then.

It's probably a good idea to go and have a look at the role and see if you like the look of it.

AHarvey · 11 Jun 2011 at 15:26

life's too short to be in job you find boring, if you enjoy writing for android, go for it

I want to start on the android path as I have some ideas I would like to get developed, its just finding the time. Also, I can see android getting more and more popular.

jonneymendoza · 12 Jun 2011 at 12:09

A few weeks ago we mention it to our manager and he said before we get to do anything it has to be approved by the higher managers!

At the moment, whenever we do get work, they give us big fixes and testing to do and give the good stuff like direct debit features to the contractors and the perms who have worked here longer. These guys are based in scotland while me and 4 other guys who started same time are in the london office and the only programmers their.

It also sucks that where using a few old tools/software like PVCS, jboss 1.4 and windows xp and the fact that it takes 4 hours to get the latest code all the way from Scotland

smyth · 12 Jun 2011 at 14:14

That does sound a bit rubbish.

Have you done any unit testing with Junit before?

Since your doing bug fixes and testing anyway it's worth looking in to as unit testing is a very useful skill.

Check out this article for other ideas of what you can do at your current job:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000332.html

peterwalkley · 13 Jun 2011 at 14:01

If you're not on linkedin, get on there. There's 2 good android groups and I see jobs posted there for people with real Android experience all the time.

Sitting around doing sod all just rots your brain and you lose skills - however tempting being paid to do nothing might seem !

Even if the Android stuff doesn't turn to firm offers, there's plenty of other stuff you can also be learning whilst on downtime. Spring, databases, GWT, etc etc.

jonneymendoza · 13 Jun 2011 at 14:14

Yea i been reading up on spring. its a bit difficult to do my own projects here in this pc as its painfully slow and outdated.

i will admit, i am a tiny bit lazy i.e its a bit difficult to just sit here and read and code with no "real purpose" other then just for learning when i can simply browse the net all day instead lol.

Theirs only so much you can do and learn on your own. you need some real commercial work!