4 ms·

Seems like you put too much value on writing code. As a senior dev preventing business from bad decisions and preventing code that should never be written is m

by ozim 3y ago

Seems like you put too much value on writing code. As a senior dev preventing business from bad decisions and preventing code that should never be written is more valuable. Code is liability. To propose solutions I still need to know the code for the system so it is not like suddenly I lost ability to write or understand code. But coding - is only one of many tools for creating a system.

blitzar 3y ago
Your company is one consultant away from deciding that your role, as you dont write much code, could be better done by someone who is a full time manager who has an MBA fresh out of university and no coding skills.
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  I've actually seen these kinds of very-valuable positions replace by the mythical "TPM", who (unless they are very good) has zero hands-on knowledge and wants none. They are worse than unhelpful. A good prin engineer gives all the same schedule updates and cross-functional requirements-wrangling that a mediocre TPM would, but also produces useful code examples, coaching, and PR reviews.
- perlgeek 3y ago
  By the same token, somebody actively writing code could be said to be one consultant away from being replaced be an offshoring firm. In the end, knowledge of the business details (including their technical implementation) are something that cannot be easily replaced.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
> As a senior dev preventing business from bad decisions and preventing code that should never be written is more valuable. Except, this could be done better and cheaper by a literal rock with letters spelling "NO" written on it with a sharpie. If a software company doesn't write any code, what exactly is it doing? And speaking of bad decisions, surely some have been made already, since everyone is doing the job they're the least qualified for.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  > If a software company doesn't write any code, what exactly is it doing Not all companies are “software companies” and it still takes level of maturity to know when to write code and when to outsource. At the interview for my n-2 job, I was interviewing with the director of IT and a junior to mid level dev. The mid level dev asked me how I would write an address validation module. My answer was that I wouldn’t and went into details all of the complications of validating addresses and that I would use 3rd party CASS software. I went on to explain that from what I know about the core business it wouldn’t be a competitive advantage and that “it wouldn’t make the beer taste better”. The software dev wasn’t impressed, the director was. I was hired as a senior dev and I was ruthless about using third party software from reputable companies instead of writing code internally. This company has no desire to hire a bunch of devs. We had specialized consultants for Salesforce, Workday, our data capture system, learning management systems, AWS and everything else. In about a year and a half, I put myself out of a job, they went public and are running smoothly seven years later from what I can tell talking to former coworkers. But I sure did have a great story to tell interviewing for my current position working in the consulting department at BigTech.
  - LtWorf 3y ago
    Without evaluating the cost of buying and lock in, always going for external software is as wrong as always re-doing it in house.
    - scarface_74 3y ago
      You’re always locked into your infrastructure. It made no sense for a health care company that sent at home nurses to special needs kids to write their own in house EMS/EHS system. And they had an in house one that they had been depending on in 2015. It was built using PowerBuilder from 1999 and running SQL Server 2000. They were “locked into” supporting an old PowerBuilder app. It also wouldn’t have made sense to hire a bunch of mobile developers to write a data capture system written for Android devices for their nurses. I had been there done that eight years prior when I did work for a company that wrote field service software for ruggedized Windows CE devices and 5 years prior when I did something similar for rail car repairmen. It also wouldn’t make sense for them to write anything that could be done with Salesforce or a third party LMS. Software developers are a cost center to a non software company.

by ozim 3y ago

blitzar 3y ago

Your company is one consultant away from deciding that your role, as you dont write much code, could be better done by someone who is a full time manager who has an MBA fresh out of university and no coding skills.

jvanderbot 3y ago
I've actually seen these kinds of very-valuable positions replace by the mythical "TPM", who (unless they are very good) has zero hands-on knowledge and wants none. They are worse than unhelpful. A good prin engineer gives all the same schedule updates and cross-functional requirements-wrangling that a mediocre TPM would, but also produces useful code examples, coaching, and PR reviews.
perlgeek 3y ago
By the same token, somebody actively writing code could be said to be one consultant away from being replaced be an offshoring firm. In the end, knowledge of the business details (including their technical implementation) are something that cannot be easily replaced.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

> As a senior dev preventing business from bad decisions and preventing code that should never be written is more valuable. Except, this could be done better and cheaper by a literal rock with letters spelling "NO" written on it with a sharpie. If a software company doesn't write any code, what exactly is it doing? And speaking of bad decisions, surely some have been made already, since everyone is doing the job they're the least qualified for.

scarface_74 3y ago
> If a software company doesn't write any code, what exactly is it doing Not all companies are “software companies” and it still takes level of maturity to know when to write code and when to outsource. At the interview for my n-2 job, I was interviewing with the director of IT and a junior to mid level dev. The mid level dev asked me how I would write an address validation module. My answer was that I wouldn’t and went into details all of the complications of validating addresses and that I would use 3rd party CASS software. I went on to explain that from what I know about the core business it wouldn’t be a competitive advantage and that “it wouldn’t make the beer taste better”. The software dev wasn’t impressed, the director was. I was hired as a senior dev and I was ruthless about using third party software from reputable companies instead of writing code internally. This company has no desire to hire a bunch of devs. We had specialized consultants for Salesforce, Workday, our data capture system, learning management systems, AWS and everything else. In about a year and a half, I put myself out of a job, they went public and are running smoothly seven years later from what I can tell talking to former coworkers. But I sure did have a great story to tell interviewing for my current position working in the consulting department at BigTech.
- LtWorf 3y ago
  Without evaluating the cost of buying and lock in, always going for external software is as wrong as always re-doing it in house.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    You’re always locked into your infrastructure. It made no sense for a health care company that sent at home nurses to special needs kids to write their own in house EMS/EHS system. And they had an in house one that they had been depending on in 2015. It was built using PowerBuilder from 1999 and running SQL Server 2000. They were “locked into” supporting an old PowerBuilder app. It also wouldn’t have made sense to hire a bunch of mobile developers to write a data capture system written for Android devices for their nurses. I had been there done that eight years prior when I did work for a company that wrote field service software for ruggedized Windows CE devices and 5 years prior when I did something similar for rail car repairmen. It also wouldn’t make sense for them to write anything that could be done with Salesforce or a third party LMS. Software developers are a cost center to a non software company.