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> You used to be a "programmer". Now you're a data engineer, ops engineer, front-end engineer, back-end/full-stack engineer, ios/android/react, system/OS progra

> You used to be a "programmer". Now you're a data engineer, ops engineer, front-end engineer, back-end/full-stack engineer, ios/android/react, system/OS programmer, etc. I still wonder when there's actually going to be official training in these specialties, that counts as credentials when seeking employment. As far as I know (and I could be wrong), traditional education tends to be somewhat general. Which specialty you're qualified for seems to have more to do with what job you happened to hold when the specialization split began, rather than something you deliberately decided to study. (Okay, I'll admit that there are training courses in all manner of things, but they don't seem like a formal course of study you can actually put on a resume.)

gaius 8y ago
You can totally do a MOOC in any of those things and put it on your CV
- slow_donkey 8y ago
  Which tends to be a signal for being unqualified
  - gaius 8y ago
    What would you consider to be “official” enough then? All EdX MOOCs are backed by real institutions, for example.
  - eldavido 8y ago
    Or maybe we're starting to act like a real profession, adopting the idea of "continuing education" they have in every other field from law to dietetics? Just a thought
eldavido 8y ago
I've been thinking about this recently. The split started to happen about 5 years ago and it's really picked up velocity in the last year or two, to where it's getting hard to "jump" if you want to change. It's one of those slow, long-term things that's easy to miss if you aren't paying attention. I think Udacity has a good model for this. I'm a generalist dev who has let curiosity drive my career more than anything else and feel I'm paying the penalty for it. Most places seem to want 5+ years specialization in whatever you're applying for if you're coming in at the senior level. It's getting harder asking people to trust you if your resume isn't properly "tracked" into one specialty. I think that's a huge loss in terms of diversity and cross-skilling but perhaps necessary given the immense amount of sheer knowledge there is in each area, e.g. the entire iOS or Android API set.
Shorel 8y ago
As has always been. Academia is a trailing indicator for the job market, except in a very small group of innovative fields. This is just a return to the norm.

gaius 8y ago

You can totally do a MOOC in any of those things and put it on your CV

slow_donkey 8y ago
Which tends to be a signal for being unqualified
- gaius 8y ago
  What would you consider to be “official” enough then? All EdX MOOCs are backed by real institutions, for example.
- eldavido 8y ago
  Or maybe we're starting to act like a real profession, adopting the idea of "continuing education" they have in every other field from law to dietetics? Just a thought

eldavido 8y ago

I've been thinking about this recently. The split started to happen about 5 years ago and it's really picked up velocity in the last year or two, to where it's getting hard to "jump" if you want to change. It's one of those slow, long-term things that's easy to miss if you aren't paying attention. I think Udacity has a good model for this. I'm a generalist dev who has let curiosity drive my career more than anything else and feel I'm paying the penalty for it. Most places seem to want 5+ years specialization in whatever you're applying for if you're coming in at the senior level. It's getting harder asking people to trust you if your resume isn't properly "tracked" into one specialty. I think that's a huge loss in terms of diversity and cross-skilling but perhaps necessary given the immense amount of sheer knowledge there is in each area, e.g. the entire iOS or Android API set.

Shorel 8y ago

As has always been. Academia is a trailing indicator for the job market, except in a very small group of innovative fields. This is just a return to the norm.