3 ms·

> Software is an apprenticeship industry. You can’t learn to be a software engineer by reading books. You can only learn by doing…and doing, and doing, and doin

by Onavo 2y ago

> Software is an apprenticeship industry. You can’t learn to be a software engineer by reading books. You can only learn by doing…and doing, and doing, and doing some more. Nonsense, software is the only industry where you can become a great engineer through sheer talent and hard work. Most other industries do not allow you to "skip" steps like software engineering. If you are talented, you can build software that changes the world and capture tremendous value. In fields like traditional engineering/accounting/medicine/ investment banking/law/management consulting, you have to "do your time" by playing gofer to seniors and working overtime. Software engineering is a true meritocracy than a lot of other similarly lucrative fields.

darkwater 2y ago
I fail to see the connection between the quoted text, your starting "nonsense" and the rest of your opinion.
dgb23 2y ago
You might have misunderstood the quote? I think they said "apprenticeship" to emphasize practice over theory.
- Onavo 2y ago
  No they meant apprenticeship in the sense that a senior engineer can only come from working as a junior engineer. > First is the familiar pipeline argument - we need juniors in order to grow new intermediate and senior engineers: The only thing worse than never hiring any junior engineers is hiring them into an awful experience where they can’t learn anything.
  - skywhopper 2y ago
    So you think senior engineers appear out of thin air and that some people just know how to do it all without any actual experience? Because… those people are horrible to work with and make terrible products, no matter how cool their code is.
DanielHB 2y ago
The article is more about getting people started in the industry than climbing the career ladder after they already landed a job. Unless you are implying people should just grind unpaid for years until they have enough experience to land a non-junior job.
ehnto 2y ago
I think you and the author might agree in principle just not on the semantics. Apprenticeships focus on learning by doing, which you can do without a mentor in a junior role, at a company with no seniors. The apprenticeship is not literal in that sense, the teacher is the projects you're working on and you sink or swim based on your merit. But regardless of how good you are, you need experiences to sharpen your skills, which you can only do over time. It differs across the industry but programming skill is not most important in a senior anyway. You learn business logic, client relationships, team and project management over time and those soft skills are what sets seniors apart. Or should.

by Onavo 2y ago

darkwater 2y ago

I fail to see the connection between the quoted text, your starting "nonsense" and the rest of your opinion.

dgb23 2y ago

You might have misunderstood the quote? I think they said "apprenticeship" to emphasize practice over theory.

Onavo 2y ago
No they meant apprenticeship in the sense that a senior engineer can only come from working as a junior engineer. > First is the familiar pipeline argument - we need juniors in order to grow new intermediate and senior engineers: The only thing worse than never hiring any junior engineers is hiring them into an awful experience where they can’t learn anything.
- skywhopper 2y ago
  So you think senior engineers appear out of thin air and that some people just know how to do it all without any actual experience? Because… those people are horrible to work with and make terrible products, no matter how cool their code is.

DanielHB 2y ago

The article is more about getting people started in the industry than climbing the career ladder after they already landed a job. Unless you are implying people should just grind unpaid for years until they have enough experience to land a non-junior job.

ehnto 2y ago

I think you and the author might agree in principle just not on the semantics. Apprenticeships focus on learning by doing, which you can do without a mentor in a junior role, at a company with no seniors. The apprenticeship is not literal in that sense, the teacher is the projects you're working on and you sink or swim based on your merit. But regardless of how good you are, you need experiences to sharpen your skills, which you can only do over time. It differs across the industry but programming skill is not most important in a senior anyway. You learn business logic, client relationships, team and project management over time and those soft skills are what sets seniors apart. Or should.