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My career advice to nearly everyone starting out these days is to bring different professional interests together if they have more than one. There's thousands

by kromem 5y ago

My career advice to nearly everyone starting out these days is to bring different professional interests together if they have more than one. There's thousands of specialists in most fields, but not nearly as many generalists or people who can walk in two interconnected worlds. Finding a niche can be very valuable to oneself and others. One way to carve that out is by going deeper than one's peers in a specialization, but another (sometimes more often overlooked) way is bridging the gap between two different ones.

Hextinium 5y ago
As someone who has been trying to convince hiring managers of this very thing (dual major in electrical and mechanical engineering) it's harder than it sounds to find a job that crosses the bridges. Just my two cents.
- embeng4096 5y ago
  I work for a small product development and contract engineering firm - a dual major in EE and MechE would be a big plus in our eyes. Not sure if that’s the type of job you want, but there’s definitely such firms scattered across the US (assuming you’re based in the States).
giantg2 5y ago
"There's thousands of specialists in most fields, but not nearly as many generalists or people who can walk in two interconnected worlds." Ugh, my advice is the opposite. You'll never really fit in if you're in two worlds. Most places don't want generalists. They want specialists who can crank out code quickly without asking too many questions. In my experience, if you have too much business acumen, you end up asking questions that the business people can't answer, or don't want to answer. Things about business process flow, legal review, corporate strategy, and general process efficiency/improvement. Then they hate you for it, or at least think you're too "head in the clouds". I have a fair chunk of knowledge in many diverse domains. Besides people occasionally finding one interesting (like people at work finding it interesting that I forage for mushrooms), they don't benefit me at all. In fact, I believe it hurts me (career wise). I'm at the point where people (managers mostly) are starting to view me negatively. "What's this guy doing as a midlevel after 10 years here and a masters degree?", type of stuff.
- yourapostasy 5y ago
  > In my experience, if you have too much business acumen, you end up asking questions that the business people can't answer, or don't want to answer. Depends on context. “How does governance oversee the regulatory aspect of this process?”: who is this annoying busybody? “You asked me to automate this part of the flow, but it can get gummed up whenever the auditors request a six month look back. That happens about a couple dozen times a year, and the system we’re all designing so far doesn’t hold the governance information to automate this when that happens, are you folks okay with the process going to manual intervention about half the year?”: damn, he just saved our bacon, drinks are on us next time we go
bsenftner 5y ago
Please readers following this advice: make one of those multiple professional interests you cultivate be better communication skills and public speaking. The number of developers that can only explain weakly, or one way, or get confrontational when questioned is far far too many. Learn how to communicate and doors open, as far too many developers simply cannot explain to others such that they can then duplicate or follow or want to.

by kromem 5y ago

Hextinium 5y ago

As someone who has been trying to convince hiring managers of this very thing (dual major in electrical and mechanical engineering) it's harder than it sounds to find a job that crosses the bridges. Just my two cents.

embeng4096 5y ago
I work for a small product development and contract engineering firm - a dual major in EE and MechE would be a big plus in our eyes. Not sure if that’s the type of job you want, but there’s definitely such firms scattered across the US (assuming you’re based in the States).

giantg2 5y ago

"There's thousands of specialists in most fields, but not nearly as many generalists or people who can walk in two interconnected worlds." Ugh, my advice is the opposite. You'll never really fit in if you're in two worlds. Most places don't want generalists. They want specialists who can crank out code quickly without asking too many questions. In my experience, if you have too much business acumen, you end up asking questions that the business people can't answer, or don't want to answer. Things about business process flow, legal review, corporate strategy, and general process efficiency/improvement. Then they hate you for it, or at least think you're too "head in the clouds". I have a fair chunk of knowledge in many diverse domains. Besides people occasionally finding one interesting (like people at work finding it interesting that I forage for mushrooms), they don't benefit me at all. In fact, I believe it hurts me (career wise). I'm at the point where people (managers mostly) are starting to view me negatively. "What's this guy doing as a midlevel after 10 years here and a masters degree?", type of stuff.

yourapostasy 5y ago
> In my experience, if you have too much business acumen, you end up asking questions that the business people can't answer, or don't want to answer. Depends on context. “How does governance oversee the regulatory aspect of this process?”: who is this annoying busybody? “You asked me to automate this part of the flow, but it can get gummed up whenever the auditors request a six month look back. That happens about a couple dozen times a year, and the system we’re all designing so far doesn’t hold the governance information to automate this when that happens, are you folks okay with the process going to manual intervention about half the year?”: damn, he just saved our bacon, drinks are on us next time we go

bsenftner 5y ago

Please readers following this advice: make one of those multiple professional interests you cultivate be better communication skills and public speaking. The number of developers that can only explain weakly, or one way, or get confrontational when questioned is far far too many. Learn how to communicate and doors open, as far too many developers simply cannot explain to others such that they can then duplicate or follow or want to.