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I'll add another one, don't openly confront the CTO. Basic things what you should learn at your first job somehow get lost upon experienced software engineers.
by offtop5 6y ago
I'll add another one, don't openly confront the CTO.
Basic things what you should learn at your first job somehow get lost upon experienced software engineers.
- NDizzle 6y agoEven when they have indefensible positions? When the idea doesn't hold up to ~2 hours of research?
- TameAntelope 6y agoEspecially then, because if that's the case then you know there's more to this story than just what you're experiencing in that moment.
- vmh1928 6y ago2+2 = 5 situations.
- TameAntelope 6y agoIn my experience it's rarely (read: never) that clear, is my point. When it's that "obviously" wrong, there's almost certainly something you don't understand.
- pc86 6y agoExactly. If you're arguing with your boss's boss's boss, who has worked at the company for five years and the industry for two decades, and you think you've unraveled their entire argument by reading a few blog posts, you're wrong approaching 100% of the time. Best case scenario is that you've missed something specific to your company, or industry, or the current technical implementation, or some obscure contract the previous CTO signed that they're still trying to get out of.
- bluefirebrand 6y agoOr possibly you're extremely in the right but they have an ego the size of the moon and they will punish you if you bruise it. Either way you lose.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoIn pc86's scenario, though, it's much more likely that you're the one with the ego, thinking that reading a few blog posts makes you more informed than a 20-year industry vet.
- pc86 6y agoNot to just reframe AnimalMuppet's point, but which of these two things is more likely? 1) Your couple hours of research has uncovered something blatantly obvious that was somehow missed by the other party. 2) Your couple hours of research hasn't shown you some edge case or something that is common knowledge once you've been in the field for 2+ decades. I'm not saying #1 never happens, only that #2 is much more likely. It's a horses vs. zebras argument.
- imafish 6y ago3) The other party has a lot of stuff on his/her plate and does not get the luxury to spend hours of research/thought on architectural details.
- bluefirebrand 6y agoAnd don't forget "Hasn't actually worked hands on with anything you're doing for a decade"
- wnoise 6y agoHow often is "something more to the story" solid technical reasons vs something like kickbacks and bribes?
- coryrc 6y agothe important word is "openly"
- offtop5 6y agoMore like when you've been at the company for about 3 weeks
- NDizzle 6y agoWhat about the inverse? The CTO is the new person in my situation.
- swirepe 6y ago>I'll add another one, don't openly confront the CTO. Looks like we found the CTO :)
- joncrane 6y agoNope, we found someone who, shortly before a low point in their career, openly confronted a CTO.
- hellohello1 6y agoNah sounds like a seasoned architect. The first thing I had to unlearn was that I had any say over my architecture. Maybe the problem with software architects is that they only exist in bureaucratically hellish companies, and exist as a scapegoat for bad management decisions? Or maybe I'm just jaded.
- treis 6y agoYour experience matches mine. I can think of twice where I stood my ground and argued with a more senior person. Both times I was shown to be right technically but that came at a big cost to my career. I would have been much better off letting the project crash and burn. I think there are senior people that are different. Hell, there might be companies full of them. But I'd need to see first hand proof of it before doing anything harder than gentle pushback.
- webmaven 6y ago> >I'll add another one, don't openly confront the CTO. > Looks like we found the CTO :), Ooh, is this a game like "Spot the Fed" at DefCon?