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Hmm. I think a good question, even if the question itself shows the error - - To keep using the MOBA analogy (for me that'd be LoL), when you're winning in you

Hmm. I think a good question, even if the question itself shows the error - - To keep using the MOBA analogy (for me that'd be LoL), when you're winning in your lane enough to roam, you don't take over someone else's lane, you go assist them in it. If eng is killing it and sales are lagging, I guess you'd send some folks from one to assist and empower the other. Maybe sales doesn't understand the tech well enough to sell it, maybe what sells isn't what's been built, maybe it's a question of moral and bodies, maybe it's a question of tooling.

WJW 6y ago
Hmmm. I'll admit I'm not much of a MOBA player (SC2 is more my thing) but at some point "roaming" stops working because the game changes. MOBAs work because skills transfer at least reasonably well between lanes. The amount at which an HR person could help me with algorithmic problems is very limited, as is the amount to which I could help them with legal issues. To that extent "real world" problems don't translate well to game worlds. I am intrigued by the possible interplays with sales though. So far I have not been in a position to really help them out, but maybe I'm just lacking in imagination?
- RangerScience 6y ago
  Re: Cross-discipline where the skills don't transfer - Ehh depends on a lot of things? If the assist can go on for months, a lot more makes sense. Plus, I dunno about you, but programmer seems to be almost entirely "learn new skills". Sure, they're all programming skills, but we're still really good at picking stuff up as we go. Re: Sales - I'm actually a "Solutions Engineer", which is one of the many versions of sales-supporting-engineer roles, others being "solutions architect", "customer engineer", "sales engineer", "field engineer", etc etc. Depends on what kind of thing the company makes (AWS is def SAs, for ex, while stuff that gets physical installs is FEs (AFIAK)), the balance between pre-sales and post-sales in the role, etc. I love it, and if you like face-time with people while still doing tech, you might as well. I kinda view the whole category as under the motto: "My job is to deploy our technology"

WJW 6y ago

Hmmm. I'll admit I'm not much of a MOBA player (SC2 is more my thing) but at some point "roaming" stops working because the game changes. MOBAs work because skills transfer at least reasonably well between lanes. The amount at which an HR person could help me with algorithmic problems is very limited, as is the amount to which I could help them with legal issues. To that extent "real world" problems don't translate well to game worlds. I am intrigued by the possible interplays with sales though. So far I have not been in a position to really help them out, but maybe I'm just lacking in imagination?

RangerScience 6y ago
Re: Cross-discipline where the skills don't transfer - Ehh depends on a lot of things? If the assist can go on for months, a lot more makes sense. Plus, I dunno about you, but programmer seems to be almost entirely "learn new skills". Sure, they're all programming skills, but we're still really good at picking stuff up as we go. Re: Sales - I'm actually a "Solutions Engineer", which is one of the many versions of sales-supporting-engineer roles, others being "solutions architect", "customer engineer", "sales engineer", "field engineer", etc etc. Depends on what kind of thing the company makes (AWS is def SAs, for ex, while stuff that gets physical installs is FEs (AFIAK)), the balance between pre-sales and post-sales in the role, etc. I love it, and if you like face-time with people while still doing tech, you might as well. I kinda view the whole category as under the motto: "My job is to deploy our technology"