4 ms·
There seems to be a rift here between what people are good at/what they want to do now and what they want to do later. I consider myself a good programmer, but
by terryjsmith 16y ago
There seems to be a rift here between what people are good at/what they want to do now and what they want to do later. I consider myself a good programmer, but it's not where I want to be forever. I have always wanted to branch out and learn multiple facets (management, service, sales, etc.) and this seems like it would be limiting in that regard. I guess I just wouldn't be the target of 37signals?
Without wanting to sound snide, do you look for people who want to stay in the same role forever? It surprises me that people's ambitions to branch out and take on more responsibility haven't caused this to come up before. A salary bump, more benefits, and more vacation time wouldn't help me placate my desire to learn about other skill sets.
- dhh 16y agoPeople branch out all the time. Part of being flat is that there's very little division. If you are a programmer who has a good idea for a new workflow process (i.e. management design), you propose it, and we usually try it. If you're a designer who want to learn more programming, we encourage it. You can easily have a big impact on all the other domains of the business even if you're just a programmer. Hell, we just had Craig Davey switch from being a programmer to being a designer recently!