mgse
Also appears to be a small benefit from modifying the Lev struct to have Room first.
I recently went through the approval process to contribute to a project on my own time. Due to its nature, the project obviously would not conflict with my business unit or any business unit within the company. Approval should have been a 5 minute conversation with my manager.
Instead, I had to write up a proposal for the open source review board. After a week or so, they agreed it was acceptable. The next step was to fill out a form and get a VP to manually sign it. This took a bit of time since the VP is 4 levels up and was, unsurprisingly, out of the country.
That experience will affect my next job search.
There was talk of a new rail line to the south of Rochester, MN a number of years ago and some landowners were unhappy because the proposed line would split their fields, require new fencing to protect livestock, etc.
Here in Oregon, other landowners have gotten letters from the railways demanding payment for driveways across their lines just so they can get to their property. See http://www.kval.com/news/local/Neighbors-on-edge-over-new-ra...
Would it be easier to force a half a dozen farmers/landowners to give up part of their property than thousands of house/apartment dwellers? Of course. But its still forcing people and that results in lawsuits which will drag things out.
So I'm not seeing an immediate benefit to direct modification for my normal workflow. There may be good use cases when writing code that isn't HW dependent or if the compile/flash cycle takes a long time, but those aren't problems I've had very often over the last ~10 years.
So while not an apples to apples comparison, I'd say at $15/hour you're low assuming no equity. That said, unless you need the money to survive, I would view the job as a springboard to your future goals.
So if you're learning a lot and enjoy what you're doing, I'd recommend sticking around. Maybe you can make a play for some equity? On the other hand, if you don't feel like your skills/resume are developing, consider looking for an upgrade (pay and personal development).
On the last point, I've been out of college for almost 10 years now and I still pick up quite a bit from my coworkers. It sounds like you're developing on an island which is both good and bad. You learn a lot, but you also miss out on the expertise of others. Something else to consider.
Bingo (at least for me). Both companies I've worked for require you to submit a proposal to an open source review board for approval. I went through the process at my previous job and approximately 2 months later I was given the go-ahead. Not worth it.
I worked on i&p series servers at IBM and a vast majority of what we did wasn't really new functionality. It was more adapting the existing code base to the next gen hardware. Power on sequences had to be modified, hardware access went from GPIO to I2C and vice-versa, and the rules of what could be plugged into where under what conditions were always changing.
And once everything was working, you've got years of support to look forward to. It wasn't uncommon to get pulled into discussions for products released 5+ years ago.
As an aside, hardware enablement might not be flashy work, but it can be loads of fun even if you're not writing massive amounts of new code. Sure, the documentation stinks and the first pass of hardware is about as good as airport TP, but it is amazing feeling when it finally works.
I've been told almost all get more which is good because that seems quite low.
Spent just under a decade with IBM working on servers and even the best people I saw (technically and politically) were taking 8+ years as engineers to make it to a senior level (band 9 for any IBMers). And at that point, you're likely just a glorified project manager. If you put together a couple decades of awesomeness, maybe you make Distinguished Engineer or even IBM Fellow. They don't end up as VPs or CEOs.
As a disclaimer, I now work at HP. With respect to the culture in the trenches, I see IBM and HP as almost identical. Some great people to work with, interesting projects, and way too much bureaucracy :)
http://law.onecle.com/california/business/16600.html
There do appear to be exceptions though. Can't speak to non-disclosure agreements.
Of the above, the dehumidifier is one that I'd really like living in Minnesota. My dehumidifier's built in threshold for running is poor so I use a timer. It is far from optimal.
I've read quite a few similar posts over the last few months and that has been the answer almost every time. Can't say I disagree.
Going back to school will take years, cost you some good chunk of change, and when you're finished you'll likely look back and realize all the programming you learned was in your spare time anyway, not due to class.
Pick a language/framework, a project, and start learning.