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I wish I knew that 'superficial' expertise at a particular technology isn't a pre-requisite for most tech jobs. Two years back, I was invariably anxious about n

I wish I knew that 'superficial' expertise at a particular technology isn't a pre-requisite for most tech jobs. Two years back, I was invariably anxious about not knowing Angular / Rails / Django and how it disqualified me from getting my foot in the door in many companies. I later realised, how daft it would be for any company to have a stringent demand for knowledge in framework / library without putting the general "getting-things-done" talent into the equation. The sheer velocity of the changing landscape makes it a horrible way to judge an engineer. Additionally, I wish I knew that soft skills in communicating well, giving feedback, and understanding business goals make up for more points than a breadth of tech skills.

foobarchu 10y ago
Adding onto this, overly focusing on a technology can really hamper you while getting jobs later. I want to see that you understand the technology that underpins what you will be doing everyday, not the specific libraries that we'll probably abandon in 2 years anyway. Knowing Angular is a lot less important to me than being an expert in the actual javascript language underneath it. Similarly, it's even more impressive to have a thorough understanding of what's under the hood of javascript, knowing WHY it has it's limitations, instead of just what they are. Depth of a single, particular subject will never beat depth of an entire stack (before hitting the point of ridiculousness, of course).
madamelic 10y ago
You should look at GitHub. Most of their listings include a "Must have 3 years of experience in Ruby on Rails".
- kzisme 10y ago
  That's the unfortunate part - it seems like most places you have to take your own personal time to learn a language enough to transition between careers. Unless you're a developer with 10+ years of experience or something, and the company/job you are applying for overlooks your lack of knowledge in a subject area.

foobarchu 10y ago

Adding onto this, overly focusing on a technology can really hamper you while getting jobs later. I want to see that you understand the technology that underpins what you will be doing everyday, not the specific libraries that we'll probably abandon in 2 years anyway. Knowing Angular is a lot less important to me than being an expert in the actual javascript language underneath it. Similarly, it's even more impressive to have a thorough understanding of what's under the hood of javascript, knowing WHY it has it's limitations, instead of just what they are. Depth of a single, particular subject will never beat depth of an entire stack (before hitting the point of ridiculousness, of course).

madamelic 10y ago

You should look at GitHub. Most of their listings include a "Must have 3 years of experience in Ruby on Rails".

kzisme 10y ago
That's the unfortunate part - it seems like most places you have to take your own personal time to learn a language enough to transition between careers. Unless you're a developer with 10+ years of experience or something, and the company/job you are applying for overlooks your lack of knowledge in a subject area.