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“ For instance, I could be fulfilling any of these roles: …kitchen helper…” Has developing software really gotten worse in the last 10 years, have expectations

“ For instance, I could be fulfilling any of these roles: …kitchen helper…” Has developing software really gotten worse in the last 10 years, have expectations gotten higher, or what? I’ve been around 20 years and (anecdotally) for me it’s better than it ever has been. I’m a mobile developer and not a web dev though, how much does language matter in job satisfaction?

betaby 5y ago
What country/city? In Montreal I would say expectation got way higher. Positions with 85K CAD ask for 4 coding rounds and then just ghost you. On other hand one can land a 'municipal park manager' job with 125K CAD pay (of course if have access to such jobs). Also now it seems never ending scrums/ micromanagement are everywhere, exacerbated by covid-19 work from home.
- varjag 5y ago
  Q: What's the difference between a Web developer and a large pizza? A: A large pizza can feed a family of four. First heard that joke around 2001.
- dghlsakjg 5y ago
  I live over on the West Coast, and I truly don't understand how Canada's tech ecosystem works. I just started with a US company at $130k CAD + stock (they are saving a bundle vs if I was in the states, and I'm making $10k cad more than any Canadian company was offering, plus stock), two rounds of easy interviews, etc. People that want to make a ton of money get poached into the states all the time, because Canadian companies just aren't willing to play the game... My last Vancouver position was $80k cad for mid level dev, no raise after 18 months, shitty equipment, etc... My first junior dev job ever was $75k USD in a low COL city in the states plus stock, bonuses, etc. Being an American that has worked in tech on both sides of the border, there is definitely a culture difference. I haven't figured out exactly what it is, but it feels like Canadian tech culture is a little too conservative, cautious. I can't quite figure it out, there is capital, talent, access to markets
  - spiffytech 5y ago
    I found this blog post from January pretty enlightening: https://alexdanco.com/2021/01/11/why-the-canadian-tech-scene-doesnt-work/ https://alexdanco.com/2021/01/11/why-the-canadian-tech-scene... Discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25742623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25742623
icedchai 5y ago
It really depends on the organization. If you're in a micro-managed, ticket-driven, agile/scrum feature factory, it can be pure hell.
beamatronic 5y ago
In the olden days, being a web developer might have meant pushing your PHP files to your server using rsync or SFTP and you were done. Now a days, being a web developer means you run a Jenkins job to webpack your 1,000 JS libraries and deploy your React Docker container to multiple clouds. Edit: Not to mention the legal team has to sign off on your cookie compliance strategy I totally see the article's point about being alienated from your labor.
- pixelgeek 5y ago
  Testify! My IDE would do the publish step for me but I see your point about the 'olden days'. I would really hate to be getting into the web dev job market right now because the amount of things that it is assumed you should be able to do is incredible.
vasilia 5y ago
> how much does language matter in job satisfaction? I think it depends. I hate JavaScript and Python. My coworkers don't care about language. They are working on the product, the goal is a fully functional service with a huge DAU. I can't complete product-specific tasks. I had been writing low-level software for networks, Linux kernel patches, eBPF helpers/tracers and now I'm working on hardware virtualization. In my free time, I'm prototyping devices on my FPGAs. It's really interesting. I can't imagine that I will drop my current job and will start cooking or guiding.

betaby 5y ago

What country/city? In Montreal I would say expectation got way higher. Positions with 85K CAD ask for 4 coding rounds and then just ghost you. On other hand one can land a 'municipal park manager' job with 125K CAD pay (of course if have access to such jobs). Also now it seems never ending scrums/ micromanagement are everywhere, exacerbated by covid-19 work from home.

varjag 5y ago
Q: What's the difference between a Web developer and a large pizza? A: A large pizza can feed a family of four. First heard that joke around 2001.
dghlsakjg 5y ago
I live over on the West Coast, and I truly don't understand how Canada's tech ecosystem works. I just started with a US company at $130k CAD + stock (they are saving a bundle vs if I was in the states, and I'm making $10k cad more than any Canadian company was offering, plus stock), two rounds of easy interviews, etc. People that want to make a ton of money get poached into the states all the time, because Canadian companies just aren't willing to play the game... My last Vancouver position was $80k cad for mid level dev, no raise after 18 months, shitty equipment, etc... My first junior dev job ever was $75k USD in a low COL city in the states plus stock, bonuses, etc. Being an American that has worked in tech on both sides of the border, there is definitely a culture difference. I haven't figured out exactly what it is, but it feels like Canadian tech culture is a little too conservative, cautious. I can't quite figure it out, there is capital, talent, access to markets
- spiffytech 5y ago
  I found this blog post from January pretty enlightening: https://alexdanco.com/2021/01/11/why-the-canadian-tech-scene-doesnt-work/ https://alexdanco.com/2021/01/11/why-the-canadian-tech-scene... Discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25742623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25742623

icedchai 5y ago

It really depends on the organization. If you're in a micro-managed, ticket-driven, agile/scrum feature factory, it can be pure hell.

beamatronic 5y ago

In the olden days, being a web developer might have meant pushing your PHP files to your server using rsync or SFTP and you were done. Now a days, being a web developer means you run a Jenkins job to webpack your 1,000 JS libraries and deploy your React Docker container to multiple clouds. Edit: Not to mention the legal team has to sign off on your cookie compliance strategy I totally see the article's point about being alienated from your labor.

pixelgeek 5y ago
Testify! My IDE would do the publish step for me but I see your point about the 'olden days'. I would really hate to be getting into the web dev job market right now because the amount of things that it is assumed you should be able to do is incredible.

vasilia 5y ago

> how much does language matter in job satisfaction? I think it depends. I hate JavaScript and Python. My coworkers don't care about language. They are working on the product, the goal is a fully functional service with a huge DAU. I can't complete product-specific tasks. I had been writing low-level software for networks, Linux kernel patches, eBPF helpers/tracers and now I'm working on hardware virtualization. In my free time, I'm prototyping devices on my FPGAs. It's really interesting. I can't imagine that I will drop my current job and will start cooking or guiding.