Life's too short to write shitty software
For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights:You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure.I have many times. A few examples:- Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they need." 3 weeks later, my prototype is the basis for specs for a whole new system. "But you told me to."- PM/BA to me: "I can't make it to the status meeting. Will you run it for me?" "Sure." Results: 3 new projects at the top of my queue. What the customer wants most and what will be fun to build.- Big Boss in meeting: "I don't think corporate will approve $2 million for a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence system, but we have to do something." One month later, after squeezing it in to my spare time: an MVP of a BI system that the users love and was fun to build. Now I get permission to finish it.- Another boss: "I would love to sell our stuff on Amazon, but I don't know how to go about it." Me: "Want me to find out?" Boss: "Yes." A month later, we're on Amazon. Fun project.- User VP: "Why do we have to wait 3 years to get anything done on our legacy system?" Me: "Send the quick critical stuff directly to me. I'll try to push it through faster." Almost always leads to building something cool.The 3 keys to doing these kinds of things:1. You must find the cool stuff to build yourself. No one's going to hand them to you. Opportunities are everywhere.2. You'll probably have to make time for extra work. Shouldn't be a problem if you're a good programmer in an enterprise.3. You'll probably have to hang your cool new stuff off something legacy. So what?Maybe not as good as building something in a startup for the first time ever, but building is building. You can find a way to build cool stuff from whereever you are right now. "Finding a way" is the key.