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Not directly a compensation component but organizations can make sure they have a technical leader supporting software organizations. Consulting with companies

by awat 6y ago

Not directly a compensation component but organizations can make sure they have a technical leader supporting software organizations. Consulting with companies on productivity I can’t express how much devs not feeling like they have representation/a voice at the exec level negates comp effectiveness.

ponker 6y ago
Is it better to work at companies where the CEO is a programmer? Like Epic Games or Microsoft when Gates ran it?
- awat 6y ago
  I don’t now that it’s specifically better to have a CEO that was an engineer. It probably is based on my experience. What I’m referring to is that period where engineers want to stay vs being heavily comp’d to stay. You can see people throughout this thread saying pay me a large amount and I’ll stare at a wall. If you want engineers not to fully optimize comp (read as $$$$$) against the market they need to feel represented and like they have a say in day to day decisions in the company.
thanatropism 6y ago
Question is, can this be faked? What we're saying is that coders are often willing to pay for "a seat at the table". But maybe management can sell them a placebo. It's not clear-cut that management ignoring coders will always turn out for the worse, even though management that always ignores coders probably has, historically. Maybe sometimes their voice matters and sometimes not.
- awat 6y ago
  Oh it definitely can be faked. But so many orgs don’t even attempt to show they’re faking it.
- rkangel 6y ago
  It can be faked to the engineers, it can't be faked to reality. Companies for whom engineering is key need to (at least to some extent) organise themselves around engineering. The strategic decisions need to take into account the needs and capabilities of engineering and engineers. If they don't then they won't be good at it. They'll be staffed with mediocre people who generate mediocre output very slowly.

by awat 6y ago

ponker 6y ago

Is it better to work at companies where the CEO is a programmer? Like Epic Games or Microsoft when Gates ran it?

awat 6y ago
I don’t now that it’s specifically better to have a CEO that was an engineer. It probably is based on my experience. What I’m referring to is that period where engineers want to stay vs being heavily comp’d to stay. You can see people throughout this thread saying pay me a large amount and I’ll stare at a wall. If you want engineers not to fully optimize comp (read as $$$$$) against the market they need to feel represented and like they have a say in day to day decisions in the company.

thanatropism 6y ago

Question is, can this be faked? What we're saying is that coders are often willing to pay for "a seat at the table". But maybe management can sell them a placebo. It's not clear-cut that management ignoring coders will always turn out for the worse, even though management that always ignores coders probably has, historically. Maybe sometimes their voice matters and sometimes not.

awat 6y ago
Oh it definitely can be faked. But so many orgs don’t even attempt to show they’re faking it.
rkangel 6y ago
It can be faked to the engineers, it can't be faked to reality. Companies for whom engineering is key need to (at least to some extent) organise themselves around engineering. The strategic decisions need to take into account the needs and capabilities of engineering and engineers. If they don't then they won't be good at it. They'll be staffed with mediocre people who generate mediocre output very slowly.