5 ms·

Your comment reflects what I heard last week from a friend. He's a PE (Professional Engineer) working with a large power utility company, and his company uses s

Your comment reflects what I heard last week from a friend. He's a PE (Professional Engineer) working with a large power utility company, and his company uses software that, in his words, "really sucks". He was telling me this because he got a job offer from a startup, where they wanted him to be the subject matter expert for an application they were developing for power utilities. It's a good offer, and he's tempted, but he's not sure if he can fit into the software/startup culture. In addition, he felt that the developers were looking to use him like a reference book - he got the impression that the founders saw software as the answer to everything, and that they didn't see power engineering as a particularly hard domain. There was (in his words) a distinct whiff of "developers are the cool guys". This turned him off somewhat. So he's not sure if he'll take the offer, and I'd say he's leaning no. Just an anecdote to illustrate the clash of cultures.

usmeteora 9y ago
Interesting. I am getting the same kind of offers. Theres alot of subsidies and VC investment in "clean" energy and "smart grid" so developers left and right have a new market to apply their software development skills to. In my experience, I am not being used as a reference book, and my long term investment in coding/Minor in Compsci and personal projects make me able to translate enegineering speak to software speak. I have not had the experience that the developers think software is the answer and that power is trivial. I think the real clash of cultures is the culture of software development realizing how much beuracracy surrounds the power grid, and how much resistance there is to change within the industry, because the industry really does not understand how 95% of their day manually editing excel workbooks that output fortran run files from the 80s could be deleted and improved, and of course, most of them don't want to improve since there is a 30yr generational gap in the power industry. Half of the people I work with don't believe in climate change and think Elon Musk is taking their jobs. This industry is ripe for disruption and I don't think the mentality that software/smart grid stuff can improve it is incorrect, but I do think the naivete that everyone in every industry is as openminded and continually putting in effort to learn and produce working products, which is a mindset required by successful growing software firms, is proving to be a big barrier and wake up call to software companies trying to come in an help. I honestly blame our industry over software developers, but yeh, theres also a goldrush in "smartgrid" "clean energy" stuff and everyone want's to be apart of it. Definitely as a Power Engineer it leaves you getting lots of opportunities and having to sort through who is willing to invest in understanding the complexities of innovating on the power grid, and who is going to cop out once they realize you can't whip up an app and make money off users the way snapchat will. Theres also, and for good reason, lots of cybersecurity policies surrounding software running on the power grid, because hacking the grid has detrimental effects that can quickly translate to coast wide blackouts etc. That also means the newest github release of that multiplatform coffeescript spinoff is not going to be allowed to be used in alot of the grid side applications, and there is more work involveded with vetting development. All of these things really quickly weed out the devs who are looking for quick stardom and the next easiest cashcow, and landing on the latest buzzwords related to clean energy. It can be frustrating weeding out the companies who try to hire you from that perspective. It doesn't mean the grid doesnt need better software, it just means people, even developers who want to cash in on hot finance markets are going to take the path of least resistance, and the powergrid is not the path of least resistance (no pun intended) when it comes to quick cash and unicorn apps. You have to actually CARE about innovating on the grid, and not just to pretend to care because theres billions sitting around in funding waiting to fund good smart energy innovation. Regardless, because this money is there now, and there's the backing of social reinforcement of being able to herald your startup as bleeding edge world saving technology thats going to stop societies impending doom from global warming, is a very compelling emotional appeal that makes marketing and justifying your product easy. It's hot right now and in then ext ten years we will see who is around to grab quick cash and feel good about being the poster child for saving the climate and who is willing to invest in truly renovating the powergrid and enabling clean energy as a sutainable long term solution that is eocnomically viable without startup subsidies to cover the cost of initial investments. Eventually these companies have to show a profit... It is frustrating to be in the industry as an Engineer under the age of 35, and also have exposure to Compsci and friends working at Amazon and Google, and having to explain a hyperlink to a coworker 3 levels above you. It's also frustrating to take graduate level classes and do research and R&D and have spent years designing power grid and actually being on the power grid and seeing construction and putting in hard work to learn Electrical Power before it was "cool" and then have an insurmountable rush of developers who want you to help them change the world. They are the CEO, you are the reference book engineer. I get that, but its important to look past that and see there is true benefit to the innovation. And for the most part they are right, this industry has been sitting in static mode riding comfortably for a long time in many ways when it comes to trying to stay technologicially relevant, and maintain sustainable infrastructure that allows for growth. So it is frustrating, but ultimately the software/tech community is in the right. It's time for a change and this industry needs to admit it kind of sucked at changing itself for decades. It also helps that I have 8 years of coding experience I put in on my own time to help ease this barrier but I am an exception to the rule as I have been told by recruiters doing smart grid dev.

usmeteora 9y ago

Interesting. I am getting the same kind of offers. Theres alot of subsidies and VC investment in "clean" energy and "smart grid" so developers left and right have a new market to apply their software development skills to. In my experience, I am not being used as a reference book, and my long term investment in coding/Minor in Compsci and personal projects make me able to translate enegineering speak to software speak. I have not had the experience that the developers think software is the answer and that power is trivial. I think the real clash of cultures is the culture of software development realizing how much beuracracy surrounds the power grid, and how much resistance there is to change within the industry, because the industry really does not understand how 95% of their day manually editing excel workbooks that output fortran run files from the 80s could be deleted and improved, and of course, most of them don't want to improve since there is a 30yr generational gap in the power industry. Half of the people I work with don't believe in climate change and think Elon Musk is taking their jobs. This industry is ripe for disruption and I don't think the mentality that software/smart grid stuff can improve it is incorrect, but I do think the naivete that everyone in every industry is as openminded and continually putting in effort to learn and produce working products, which is a mindset required by successful growing software firms, is proving to be a big barrier and wake up call to software companies trying to come in an help. I honestly blame our industry over software developers, but yeh, theres also a goldrush in "smartgrid" "clean energy" stuff and everyone want's to be apart of it. Definitely as a Power Engineer it leaves you getting lots of opportunities and having to sort through who is willing to invest in understanding the complexities of innovating on the power grid, and who is going to cop out once they realize you can't whip up an app and make money off users the way snapchat will. Theres also, and for good reason, lots of cybersecurity policies surrounding software running on the power grid, because hacking the grid has detrimental effects that can quickly translate to coast wide blackouts etc. That also means the newest github release of that multiplatform coffeescript spinoff is not going to be allowed to be used in alot of the grid side applications, and there is more work involveded with vetting development. All of these things really quickly weed out the devs who are looking for quick stardom and the next easiest cashcow, and landing on the latest buzzwords related to clean energy. It can be frustrating weeding out the companies who try to hire you from that perspective. It doesn't mean the grid doesnt need better software, it just means people, even developers who want to cash in on hot finance markets are going to take the path of least resistance, and the powergrid is not the path of least resistance (no pun intended) when it comes to quick cash and unicorn apps. You have to actually CARE about innovating on the grid, and not just to pretend to care because theres billions sitting around in funding waiting to fund good smart energy innovation. Regardless, because this money is there now, and there's the backing of social reinforcement of being able to herald your startup as bleeding edge world saving technology thats going to stop societies impending doom from global warming, is a very compelling emotional appeal that makes marketing and justifying your product easy. It's hot right now and in then ext ten years we will see who is around to grab quick cash and feel good about being the poster child for saving the climate and who is willing to invest in truly renovating the powergrid and enabling clean energy as a sutainable long term solution that is eocnomically viable without startup subsidies to cover the cost of initial investments. Eventually these companies have to show a profit... It is frustrating to be in the industry as an Engineer under the age of 35, and also have exposure to Compsci and friends working at Amazon and Google, and having to explain a hyperlink to a coworker 3 levels above you. It's also frustrating to take graduate level classes and do research and R&D and have spent years designing power grid and actually being on the power grid and seeing construction and putting in hard work to learn Electrical Power before it was "cool" and then have an insurmountable rush of developers who want you to help them change the world. They are the CEO, you are the reference book engineer. I get that, but its important to look past that and see there is true benefit to the innovation. And for the most part they are right, this industry has been sitting in static mode riding comfortably for a long time in many ways when it comes to trying to stay technologicially relevant, and maintain sustainable infrastructure that allows for growth. So it is frustrating, but ultimately the software/tech community is in the right. It's time for a change and this industry needs to admit it kind of sucked at changing itself for decades. It also helps that I have 8 years of coding experience I put in on my own time to help ease this barrier but I am an exception to the rule as I have been told by recruiters doing smart grid dev.