I think the GP has made a cogent argument. Having Lived near public Housing in NeWY0rk for many Years, I always found it uncomfortable seeing these homeless people gather around doing NOthing.
I h4ppenedToo bump into someOF these folKs 0noccasion. N0ne of Them HAd
a CLear view of thEir LiVes. Having to DepenD on some0ne for their living is 0neTHeeng, n0tHavin
a CLeer V1eWOF
THeiR
L1Ves is quite AnooTHa.
The type of company you work for has a big impact on whether you can rise up and how fast and I have had personal experience where I was a rockstar developer to begin with and things changed as soon as I asked for remote working setups for our team and the management wasn't kind to us remote professionals. Things seem to have changed though and I see a lot of people doing well remotely working and succeeding in their roles.
Hi there, first up, don't be shy about asking these questions as it helps the community.
To add my 2c, I think it varies from startup to startup. We have followed quite a rigorous screening for our startup and have never been disappointed with the choices we've made.
We were doing a rigorous HR screening, followed by 1-2 phone calls with Senior engineers, finally bringing the candidate in for 3-4 hours of discussions with various members, including Senior leadership.
This has all moved online though but our process has been unchanged and it has gotten better as the interviewers have adapted to dealing with a wide variety of candidates.
Sometimes, we split the interviews over 2 days to give the candidate breathing room and also allow flexibility in scheduling.
The interviews with, and feedback from, senior leadership has especially been helpful to decide and settle on the competent candidates so we never had to regret our decisions.
A long while ago, I used yoga in my morning routine to help set me up. Although Yoga/mindfulness is still part of my routine, I find that being pumped about what I am working on and continuing to find newer challenges and problems to solve goes a long way!
An app/a bunch of apps to engage you in the morning might be what you need.
See, if you ask me - I have a Masters from Columbia - it helps to be very focused before beginning. I specialized in Networks and had a good relationship with my advisor going in.
What I would recommend you also do is talk to the faculty at your school. This way you can cultivate relationships with professors before going in and explore. CS professors usually have research groups that meet frequently.
The way I see it, Master's is a very specialized degree beyond just undergrad and you can be exposed to many different topics of CS research - which is the fun of higher education beyond a BS.
The good part is you already had a topic you knew you are experienced in. I'm not sure what to focus on currently, only kept a list of topics potentially interested in. Probably I can focus on one and two and move forward.
Working out is something that has helped me tremendously whenever I have fallen into periods where I have had little motivation.
Also, building a strong consistent routine with periodic habits (working out, cooking, gardening, others mentioned elsewhere or whatever suits your fancy) will go a long way.
Sometimes one doesn't see the problems unless one has encountered them himself and that is not to say the original poster is mistaken in his/her beliefs but perhaps their experience in management has been limited thus far.
To the original poster:
If you find yourself in a management position ever, you will understand the challenges at the management level are much different than what you would encounter in a tech-centric role.
The advice I would get the original poster is that of compassion!