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Are mobile stacks so specialised that it's difficult to switch between them? Out of curiosity, how long would it take a flutter dev to become productive in som

Are mobile stacks so specialised that it's difficult to switch between them? Out of curiosity, how long would it take a flutter dev to become productive in some other stack?

nikanj 3y ago
They are not, but HR / hiring managers are keyword based and won’t entertain the idea of hiring someone with the wrong experience. See also: https://versastudio.com/blog/if-carpenters-were-hired-like-programmers https://versastudio.com/blog/if-carpenters-were-hired-like-p...
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  It's the same in every other stack/programing language/technology when you go through the default channels of HR/recruiters. It's not that competent engineers can't become quickly productive in a new/stack language, it's that business don't understand that and/or don't want to risk it with switchers, and so prioritize hiring only those already experienced in that stack, creating employment bottlenecks where there's simultaneously a shortage and enough people willing to switch. Same when talking to recruiters: "oh you only have experience in X (which is similar to Y), sorry but the hiring manager said (s)he wants someone with at least 3 years experience in Y". Your only escape is having a solid network so you can push your resume directly to hiring managers who understand technology and your adaptability, and this way bypass the hiring shit-show.
- tkiolp4 3y ago
  C’mon. HR doesn’t have a clue of what they’re asking for. Anyone with a little of experience in the IT industry knows that: 1. You’ll need to put whatever is needed in your CV to pass through HR 2. You can explain yourself to the actual tech people who interview you in the next stage. For example, if you know Ruby and RoR, but there’s an excellent opportunity to work in a cool product for a company that does Python and Django, well, apply! Obviously you’ll spend a couple of days with Python and Django and notice the similarities and differences with Ruby and RoR. You will add to your CV the keywords Python and Django and you’ll get pass HR (if HR asks you about your experience with such tech stack you can always say that, indeed, I have plenty of experience with MVC web frameworks and blah blah blah). When you pass to the next stage of the interview and get to talk to real engineers, then you can explain that you have many years of experience working with RoR and that learning Django will be a pleasure.
  - pragmatic 3y ago
    This looks shady as hell though. What else is the candidate lying about?
wruza 3y ago
Maybe I’m special (and it was 6-10 years ago), but after becoming proficient and pretty deep in osx/ios development I took an android project and it wasn’t obvious AT ALL. If it were a new job and not a project pushed to me at the same position I had, pretty sure it would be difficult to keep it. Of course that depends on average expectations. Some people may learn and do and relax and still outperform if these are low.
- lockhouse 3y ago
  Pre-Kotlin and Jetpack Android were very tedious. Even simple things like handing button click events and changing the text of a label at runtime were not obvious or simple, and you had to worry about backwards compatibility libraries to a larger extent than any other platform. From what I understand modern Android has become much more pleasant to develop for.
lawgimenez 3y ago
It's not difficult to switch between mobile stacks. It's just companies make you believe that it is, to promote a "one codebase efficiency" mantra. For me, to be efficient with cross-platform solutions, you need a deeper knowledge with the underlying native frameworks. I started with Blackberry SDK plugin with Eclipse, then to Android, Windows Mobile (UWP) and iOS in that order. Majority of those projects I have worked are written in native. It's not that hard to switch since you can find familiar concepts in each frameworks and stacks. Of course, I have been also part with cross-platforms solutions but it just cannot cope up with the yearly updates and deprecation especially if your apps are critical.
ransom1538 3y ago
Android to iOS is like React to Cobol. If you were a plumber using android you might know more about Android than a iOS developer.
- saagarjha 3y ago
  That’s not really true, especially these days.
akmarinov 3y ago
If you’re good at one of them, you’ll probably do ok with the other one, but definitely not “really good, professional” work

Are mobile stacks so specialised that it's difficult to switch between them? Out of curiosity, how long would it take a flutter dev to become productive in some other stack?

nikanj 3y ago

They are not, but HR / hiring managers are keyword based and won’t entertain the idea of hiring someone with the wrong experience. See also: https://versastudio.com/blog/if-carpenters-were-hired-like-programmers https://versastudio.com/blog/if-carpenters-were-hired-like-p...

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
It's the same in every other stack/programing language/technology when you go through the default channels of HR/recruiters. It's not that competent engineers can't become quickly productive in a new/stack language, it's that business don't understand that and/or don't want to risk it with switchers, and so prioritize hiring only those already experienced in that stack, creating employment bottlenecks where there's simultaneously a shortage and enough people willing to switch. Same when talking to recruiters: "oh you only have experience in X (which is similar to Y), sorry but the hiring manager said (s)he wants someone with at least 3 years experience in Y". Your only escape is having a solid network so you can push your resume directly to hiring managers who understand technology and your adaptability, and this way bypass the hiring shit-show.
tkiolp4 3y ago
C’mon. HR doesn’t have a clue of what they’re asking for. Anyone with a little of experience in the IT industry knows that: 1. You’ll need to put whatever is needed in your CV to pass through HR 2. You can explain yourself to the actual tech people who interview you in the next stage. For example, if you know Ruby and RoR, but there’s an excellent opportunity to work in a cool product for a company that does Python and Django, well, apply! Obviously you’ll spend a couple of days with Python and Django and notice the similarities and differences with Ruby and RoR. You will add to your CV the keywords Python and Django and you’ll get pass HR (if HR asks you about your experience with such tech stack you can always say that, indeed, I have plenty of experience with MVC web frameworks and blah blah blah). When you pass to the next stage of the interview and get to talk to real engineers, then you can explain that you have many years of experience working with RoR and that learning Django will be a pleasure.
- pragmatic 3y ago
  This looks shady as hell though. What else is the candidate lying about?

wruza 3y ago

Maybe I’m special (and it was 6-10 years ago), but after becoming proficient and pretty deep in osx/ios development I took an android project and it wasn’t obvious AT ALL. If it were a new job and not a project pushed to me at the same position I had, pretty sure it would be difficult to keep it. Of course that depends on average expectations. Some people may learn and do and relax and still outperform if these are low.

lockhouse 3y ago
Pre-Kotlin and Jetpack Android were very tedious. Even simple things like handing button click events and changing the text of a label at runtime were not obvious or simple, and you had to worry about backwards compatibility libraries to a larger extent than any other platform. From what I understand modern Android has become much more pleasant to develop for.

lawgimenez 3y ago

It's not difficult to switch between mobile stacks. It's just companies make you believe that it is, to promote a "one codebase efficiency" mantra. For me, to be efficient with cross-platform solutions, you need a deeper knowledge with the underlying native frameworks. I started with Blackberry SDK plugin with Eclipse, then to Android, Windows Mobile (UWP) and iOS in that order. Majority of those projects I have worked are written in native. It's not that hard to switch since you can find familiar concepts in each frameworks and stacks. Of course, I have been also part with cross-platforms solutions but it just cannot cope up with the yearly updates and deprecation especially if your apps are critical.

ransom1538 3y ago

Android to iOS is like React to Cobol. If you were a plumber using android you might know more about Android than a iOS developer.

saagarjha 3y ago
That’s not really true, especially these days.

akmarinov 3y ago

If you’re good at one of them, you’ll probably do ok with the other one, but definitely not “really good, professional” work