6 ms·

A great engineer is not expected to know how their impact on a 25 person company will be different than a 200 person company. Moreover a great engineer may not

by davidu 16y ago

A great engineer is not expected to know how their impact on a 25 person company will be different than a 200 person company. Moreover a great engineer may not yet know that not having that impact may be a really important loss to them. I'd still want to hire than engineer though. But when they decline, I'd rather them not tell me it's because the other offer was $10K higher. I'd rather they tell me they see more room for personal growth, more interesting technology, etc. There are reasons to decline, and that's okay -- but $10K is a really stupid one.

tpz 16y ago
A great engineer is not expected to know how their impact on a 25 person company will be different than a 200 person company. Moreover a great engineer may not yet know that not having that impact may be a really important loss to them. A great engineer had bloody well know how their impact will be different, and they'd damn well know how that difference will affect them. Whatever kind of engineer you are referring to is most certainly not great and, worse, they are the kind you should strive to weed out of your hiring process before they end up getting hired and creating a lot of grief for both themselves and the company. Among other things, they have a strong tendency to bring to the table solutions that are mismatched in scale, complexity, delivery style, etc. relative to what would serve the company best. (your 10k point is entirely valid, of course.)
- mkelly 16y ago
  I couldn't agree more. An embryo can afford to be good at engineering and have no understanding of the context, but anyone who's really excellent must understand how what they do fits into everything else.
davidwparker 16y ago
I agree with you that declining for $10k is really stupid, but as an engineer, I would want to know what kind of impact I would have. If I'm not working on meaningful work, and having an impact, then I probably wouldn't want the work anyway.

by davidu 16y ago

A great engineer is not expected to know how their impact on a 25 person company will be different than a 200 person company. Moreover a great engineer may not yet know that not having that impact may be a really important loss to them. I'd still want to hire than engineer though. But when they decline, I'd rather them not tell me it's because the other offer was $10K higher. I'd rather they tell me they see more room for personal growth, more interesting technology, etc. There are reasons to decline, and that's okay -- but $10K is a really stupid one.

tpz 16y ago

A great engineer is not expected to know how their impact on a 25 person company will be different than a 200 person company. Moreover a great engineer may not yet know that not having that impact may be a really important loss to them. A great engineer had bloody well know how their impact will be different, and they'd damn well know how that difference will affect them. Whatever kind of engineer you are referring to is most certainly not great and, worse, they are the kind you should strive to weed out of your hiring process before they end up getting hired and creating a lot of grief for both themselves and the company. Among other things, they have a strong tendency to bring to the table solutions that are mismatched in scale, complexity, delivery style, etc. relative to what would serve the company best. (your 10k point is entirely valid, of course.)

mkelly 16y ago
I couldn't agree more. An embryo can afford to be good at engineering and have no understanding of the context, but anyone who's really excellent must understand how what they do fits into everything else.

davidwparker 16y ago

I agree with you that declining for $10k is really stupid, but as an engineer, I would want to know what kind of impact I would have. If I'm not working on meaningful work, and having an impact, then I probably wouldn't want the work anyway.