For Those Who Have Roles Focusing on Optimisation and Performance: Share Your Stories!

Hello everyone,

TL;DR

I’m on a quest to explore industries where performance is a critical part of daily operations, particularly those that prioritize computational optimization and performance. While high-frequency trading (HFT) and game engine development are well-known examples, I’m eager to discover what other sectors exist. If you have experience in this realm, I’d love to hear your stories!

A Bit About Me

Let me introduce myself briefly. I’m a backend developer with seven years of experience, six of which I spent working primarily on a network scanning product. This role was fulfilling, as it often required me to delve into low-level network protocols and other technical aspects. My daily tasks revolved around enhancing the application by building new features and libraries, which I refer to as “application development.”

One of the most rewarding aspects of my previous job was that the business requirements often pushed me to learn more about how computers function. For instance, I had to understand various protocols and how different software interacted within the network. This knowledge not only enriched my skill set but also made my work more engaging.

In one year at a different company, I was involved in what I consider “CRUD style” backend work. My tasks mostly consisted of writing REST endpoints and implementing basic business requirements with a database back-end. Unfortunately, this didn’t excite me, as the work lacked complexity and high availability requirements. Luckily, I recently transitioned back to a role that resembles my earlier work, and I’m enjoying it immensely.

However, I have my sights set on the future, and I want to continue growing in my career.

A Passion for Performance

Throughout my professional journey, I’ve discovered that my favorite projects involve performance improvements. Whether it was optimizing memory usage or enhancing processing times, I found immense satisfaction in making iterative improvements and witnessing metrics shift in the right direction.

While many of the performance issues I tackled were relatively straightforward, the sense of accomplishment I derived from them was significant. However, I recognize that performance optimization isn’t always a priority for all companies, and that’s perfectly understandable.

I aspire to work in industries where performance problems are paramount because that’s where I believe I can make the most significant impact and ultimately drive success. Moreover, I find the challenges of understanding what the computer is doing at a low level to be incredibly rewarding.

Learning and Growing

I’m committed to expanding my knowledge, and I’ve been studying on my own time. At university, I thoroughly enjoyed my advanced computer architecture course, where we explored concepts like instruction pipelining. However, I missed out on an Operating Systems module, which I’m currently self-studying to fill that gap.

I’m aware that roles in highly competitive fields like HFT may be challenging to break into, especially without a direct academic background in that area. That said, I’m eager to learn and adapt as I pave my career path.

Let’s Connect!

Now that I’ve shared my background, I’m looking forward to hearing from those of you who have carved out roles focusing on optimization and performance. Here are some insightful comments from others who’ve shared their experiences:

• Real-time Audio Optimization: One commenter noted that real-time audio shares similarities with HFT, but there are more accessible resources for learning. The JUCE library and resources from “The Audio Programmer” have been recommended as excellent starting points for those looking to dive into this area.

• Performance in Cloud Computing: Another individual shared that they work on a performance team for a large cloud provider. In this role, performance optimizations can significantly reduce hardware costs, making it a critical part of their job.

• Numerical Model Optimization: A fascinating story came from someone who spent time optimizing numerical models for impact simulations and n-body astrodynamics. They highlighted how simulation runtimes could extend up to six months, making any optimization a substantial time saver for graduate students and researchers. Working primarily in Fortran and on university supercomputers, they focused on improving single-threaded performance, which helped developers test their code locally.

These diverse experiences illustrate the breadth of opportunities available in the field of performance optimization.

Join the Conversation

If you have a story to share or insights about your work in performance-focused roles, please leave a comment below! I’m eager to learn from your experiences, and I hope we can foster an engaging discussion on this topic.