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It's possible, but I sure do wish it was more common. I went to school for English and switched to software dev via self-teaching, and the contrast is quite sta

It's possible, but I sure do wish it was more common. I went to school for English and switched to software dev via self-teaching, and the contrast is quite stark to me. I've had coworkers unable to write basic emails without someone helping them; or worse, they can't clearly explain their thought process on anything and are confused when you're unable to read their mind, verging on some kind of mind-blindness. Of course, not everyone is this bad. But by the nature of the work, chances to practice communication skills are few and far between.

JBits 5y ago
I would guesss that these coworkers probably had a deficit in their communication prior to university. Them taking a different degree wouldn't have changed it.
hnfong 5y ago
Any software developer worth their salt should be at least capable of explaining their thought processes to a computer. By analogy, they should be reasonably capable of explaining their thought processes to another human that understands computer languages (i.e. a fellow software dev). To me, anyone who doesn't pass that bar shouldn't be working on software at all. It's also curious that, on another thread about AI generated code, people are dismissing it because the AI "can't explain the code" or something.
- commandlinefan 5y ago
  Sometimes I'm tempted to suggest that my communication skills are just fine, it's their comprehension skills that need some work...
- ducharmdev 5y ago
  When person A has been working on a technical problem for some time, they may have a greater awareness of the context than person B that's just heard about the problem. If A has the contextual knowledge but poor communication skills, they may forgo the high-level discussion that B needs to adequately understand the problem, or the system as a whole. B needing that high-level discussion doesn't mean B isn't a good developer, and A being narrowly focused on implementation details doesn't mean A isn't a good developer. But they both need to be able to meet each other in the middle to be most productive.
lostcolony 5y ago
There's also a pretty large self-selection bias. So, sure, there's maybe missed opportunities to practice during a CS curriculum, but there still are plenty of them (remember, 2 years of 'core' classes, that have nothing to do with CS, not to mention opportunities to talk to the professor and TAs for questions, grade corrections, and just straight up brown nosing, and that's ignoring all the group projects you're likely to have, just for the fact those invariably turn into one or two people doing the actual work, and of course it's also ignoring any other social interaction opportunities you might have on a college campus, which they're kinda known for). You just have plenty of people who -want- to be heads down over a computer going into CS; you generally don't go into nursing or psychology or similar if you're not looking to work with people.

JBits 5y ago

I would guesss that these coworkers probably had a deficit in their communication prior to university. Them taking a different degree wouldn't have changed it.

hnfong 5y ago

Any software developer worth their salt should be at least capable of explaining their thought processes to a computer. By analogy, they should be reasonably capable of explaining their thought processes to another human that understands computer languages (i.e. a fellow software dev). To me, anyone who doesn't pass that bar shouldn't be working on software at all. It's also curious that, on another thread about AI generated code, people are dismissing it because the AI "can't explain the code" or something.

commandlinefan 5y ago
Sometimes I'm tempted to suggest that my communication skills are just fine, it's their comprehension skills that need some work...
ducharmdev 5y ago
When person A has been working on a technical problem for some time, they may have a greater awareness of the context than person B that's just heard about the problem. If A has the contextual knowledge but poor communication skills, they may forgo the high-level discussion that B needs to adequately understand the problem, or the system as a whole. B needing that high-level discussion doesn't mean B isn't a good developer, and A being narrowly focused on implementation details doesn't mean A isn't a good developer. But they both need to be able to meet each other in the middle to be most productive.

lostcolony 5y ago

There's also a pretty large self-selection bias. So, sure, there's maybe missed opportunities to practice during a CS curriculum, but there still are plenty of them (remember, 2 years of 'core' classes, that have nothing to do with CS, not to mention opportunities to talk to the professor and TAs for questions, grade corrections, and just straight up brown nosing, and that's ignoring all the group projects you're likely to have, just for the fact those invariably turn into one or two people doing the actual work, and of course it's also ignoring any other social interaction opportunities you might have on a college campus, which they're kinda known for). You just have plenty of people who -want- to be heads down over a computer going into CS; you generally don't go into nursing or psychology or similar if you're not looking to work with people.