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Does anyone recruit grunt devs like that? That honestly sounds like what I'd prefer. I just want to come in, keep the lights on, and have enough mental energy f

Does anyone recruit grunt devs like that? That honestly sounds like what I'd prefer. I just want to come in, keep the lights on, and have enough mental energy for other stuff after work.

lordnacho 4y ago
I could see a market for that guy, and he takes 10 jobs like that Reddit thread.
rileyphone 4y ago
All across corporate America, there are devs who make 80-120k a year and keep it 9-5 (but really like 11-2). Especially with the recent turmoil in the market, you can find a very easy yet well paying (for normal people) job. Now if only HR would advertise the jobs this way...
Firmwarrior 4y ago
I don't know too much about Google, but I can talk about other companies. Everyone recruits grunt devs like that. That's what every job in Silicon Valley is. It's just that some companies and teams want you to spin it like you're some amazing lone wolf 100x genius while you're scraping dogshit off the bottom of the company's shoes. A big part of it is that the executives decide what's making money for the company, and they'll focus on that. If you're scraping turds on the "rockstar" team in the "rockstar" org, you'll get showered with bonus money and RSUs. If you're scraping turds on a product that none of the VPs care about, you'll probably get screwed over. Some of the people in the non-"ninja"/"wizard"/"rockstar" orgs will do OK because they look like indispensable geniuses, and I think that's what a lot of this sentiment comes from.
- edmundsauto 4y ago
  > That's what every job in Silicon Valley is I am curious - is this informed by your experience of having sampled every job in SV? Or perhaps a representative sample? Is it possible other people might be different than you and have a different perspective. What a fucking joke of a comment.
  - Firmwarrior 4y ago
    Well, you have to maintain things after they're made. New things are usually made out of multiple old things. Figuring out how stuff works, then fixing and reusing, supporting, or replacing it is the bulk of every programming job I've done or heard of. I can't even conceive of what programming job wouldn't be describable as "grunt work" from the point of view of some hypothetical super-genius. Writing "new" code that just does the same thing as something you're tossing out, but with a different set of mistakes? Cutting-edge science work is mostly glue code between hardware and spreadsheets or databases. Cell phone firmware is mostly repurposing and updating the old firmware. Anything involving a GUI is going to be a massive time-sink getting the GUI to work the way the non-technical people using it want it to work. How much time do you spend in any given year figuring out how to operate debuggers, find the right log files, narrow down some crash, etc?
    - edmundsauto 4y ago
      As you said, those are required components of shipping software. I don’t consider them grunt work, any more than I would consider being a janitor as a grunt. Grunt implies a heirarchy and a job that anyone can do. It’s pejorative. There is work that I don’t enjoy doing but needs to be done well (cleaning a toilet). I appreciate those jobs even more than what I do! My point is that you should try to shift to language of “work I don’t enjoy” rather than “work that is beneath such an exalted 10x programmer such as myself”. Because that’s how I interpreted your original comment.

Does anyone recruit grunt devs like that? That honestly sounds like what I'd prefer. I just want to come in, keep the lights on, and have enough mental energy for other stuff after work.

lordnacho 4y ago

I could see a market for that guy, and he takes 10 jobs like that Reddit thread.

rileyphone 4y ago

All across corporate America, there are devs who make 80-120k a year and keep it 9-5 (but really like 11-2). Especially with the recent turmoil in the market, you can find a very easy yet well paying (for normal people) job. Now if only HR would advertise the jobs this way...

Firmwarrior 4y ago

I don't know too much about Google, but I can talk about other companies. Everyone recruits grunt devs like that. That's what every job in Silicon Valley is. It's just that some companies and teams want you to spin it like you're some amazing lone wolf 100x genius while you're scraping dogshit off the bottom of the company's shoes. A big part of it is that the executives decide what's making money for the company, and they'll focus on that. If you're scraping turds on the "rockstar" team in the "rockstar" org, you'll get showered with bonus money and RSUs. If you're scraping turds on a product that none of the VPs care about, you'll probably get screwed over. Some of the people in the non-"ninja"/"wizard"/"rockstar" orgs will do OK because they look like indispensable geniuses, and I think that's what a lot of this sentiment comes from.

edmundsauto 4y ago
> That's what every job in Silicon Valley is I am curious - is this informed by your experience of having sampled every job in SV? Or perhaps a representative sample? Is it possible other people might be different than you and have a different perspective. What a fucking joke of a comment.
- Firmwarrior 4y ago
  Well, you have to maintain things after they're made. New things are usually made out of multiple old things. Figuring out how stuff works, then fixing and reusing, supporting, or replacing it is the bulk of every programming job I've done or heard of. I can't even conceive of what programming job wouldn't be describable as "grunt work" from the point of view of some hypothetical super-genius. Writing "new" code that just does the same thing as something you're tossing out, but with a different set of mistakes? Cutting-edge science work is mostly glue code between hardware and spreadsheets or databases. Cell phone firmware is mostly repurposing and updating the old firmware. Anything involving a GUI is going to be a massive time-sink getting the GUI to work the way the non-technical people using it want it to work. How much time do you spend in any given year figuring out how to operate debuggers, find the right log files, narrow down some crash, etc?
  - edmundsauto 4y ago
    As you said, those are required components of shipping software. I don’t consider them grunt work, any more than I would consider being a janitor as a grunt. Grunt implies a heirarchy and a job that anyone can do. It’s pejorative. There is work that I don’t enjoy doing but needs to be done well (cleaning a toilet). I appreciate those jobs even more than what I do! My point is that you should try to shift to language of “work I don’t enjoy” rather than “work that is beneath such an exalted 10x programmer such as myself”. Because that’s how I interpreted your original comment.