5 ms·

You would have thought when you're engineer you'd only be judged based on your technical skills, your work output, performance, efficiency, ideas, design etc. M

You would have thought when you're engineer you'd only be judged based on your technical skills, your work output, performance, efficiency, ideas, design etc. Most of my team is remote so for all I know they're just those things I listed above, and a voice and a pixelated set of images Google hangouts show me. It's devastating that people still need to be discriminated in this industry.

0xff00ffee 7y ago
Your list has one glaring exclusion: social skills. If you're a brilliant programmer, but an asshole and proud of it (or unaware of it), then yes, you will not get far on your skills alone. Whether we like it or not, we are all part of a society, and those who choose to rebel against that, well, that's thier choice and accept the consequences. (Follow up: you can't really hide behind remote work if you lack social skills. Possibly, but not very likely.) EDIT: Snark removal.
- anon9001 7y ago
  Remote work probably makes social skills more important, because your coworkers lose the benefit of non-verbal cues. I work remotely and I try to convey a lot of personality and availability to stay integrated with the team.
  - 0xff00ffee 7y ago
    Good point! Email especially. I work with 10 different countries, and programmers from England respond differently to my word choices than programmers from China, Japan, Holland, or India. I find I have to be painfully concise and free from humor, idiom or analogy. It's tough!
catalogia 7y ago
> "You would have thought when you're engineer you'd only be judged based on your technical skills [...]" I'd not think that unless I was working with Vulcans from Star Trek. It's foolish to expect engineers to be immune from the messier irrational aspects of human interaction. I think perhaps some 'engineer types' confuse the concepts of how something should be and how it actually is. They think they should be judged solely on the quality of their work, so they mistakenly believe they will be judged so. Confusing that which should be and that which is.
threatofrain 7y ago
> You would have thought when you're engineer you'd only be judged based on your technical skills, your work output, performance, efficiency, ideas, design etc. The same could be said about most non-customer facing jobs. But I would expect beauty and age-based bigotry to be relevant everywhere in the world.
bdcravens 7y ago
Keep in mind we're talking about SV jobs here, and particularly in the context of the article, where meatspace apparently still matters. In today's world, as you alluded to, it's not necessary to work that way.

0xff00ffee 7y ago

Your list has one glaring exclusion: social skills. If you're a brilliant programmer, but an asshole and proud of it (or unaware of it), then yes, you will not get far on your skills alone. Whether we like it or not, we are all part of a society, and those who choose to rebel against that, well, that's thier choice and accept the consequences. (Follow up: you can't really hide behind remote work if you lack social skills. Possibly, but not very likely.) EDIT: Snark removal.

anon9001 7y ago
Remote work probably makes social skills more important, because your coworkers lose the benefit of non-verbal cues. I work remotely and I try to convey a lot of personality and availability to stay integrated with the team.
- 0xff00ffee 7y ago
  Good point! Email especially. I work with 10 different countries, and programmers from England respond differently to my word choices than programmers from China, Japan, Holland, or India. I find I have to be painfully concise and free from humor, idiom or analogy. It's tough!

catalogia 7y ago

> "You would have thought when you're engineer you'd only be judged based on your technical skills [...]" I'd not think that unless I was working with Vulcans from Star Trek. It's foolish to expect engineers to be immune from the messier irrational aspects of human interaction. I think perhaps some 'engineer types' confuse the concepts of how something should be and how it actually is. They think they should be judged solely on the quality of their work, so they mistakenly believe they will be judged so. Confusing that which should be and that which is.

threatofrain 7y ago

> You would have thought when you're engineer you'd only be judged based on your technical skills, your work output, performance, efficiency, ideas, design etc. The same could be said about most non-customer facing jobs. But I would expect beauty and age-based bigotry to be relevant everywhere in the world.

bdcravens 7y ago

Keep in mind we're talking about SV jobs here, and particularly in the context of the article, where meatspace apparently still matters. In today's world, as you alluded to, it's not necessary to work that way.