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I think you may be leaning too far in the other direction. I'm a troubleshooter. I fix problems. I keep my head straight in a crisis. Every job I've had across

I think you may be leaning too far in the other direction. I'm a troubleshooter. I fix problems. I keep my head straight in a crisis. Every job I've had across 3 decades, regardless of my actual title or formal responsibilities, I'm the firefighter. People call me when they can't figure something out. People call me when something big breaks and needs to be fixed urgently. Even if I'm not an expert in the broken thing, they call me in. They call me because the experts are often floundering and not making any progress because they can't troubleshoot their way out of a wet paper bag. I do not feel this has held me back professionally. I have been loved by management and peers in all of these jobs. When I nearly left a prior employer because much of the work wasn't aligned with what I wanted to do, management created a new role with better aligned work and higher pay to convince me to stay. In my current role, I'm very happy with my salary, working environment, management, and team. I wish troubleshooting skills were as common as typing and document formatting skills. I wouldn't need to help out nearly as many people because they could handle their own crises.

rokhayakebe 2y ago
In fact you could easily be the guy they keep on a monthly retainer just for peace of mind.
- lurk2 2y ago
  The word retainer has an appealing mercenary quality to it. The dream is that your knowledge of an esoteric system set up in the 1980s gets you warehoused in a data closet at a mid-sized organization, where you can spend the rest of your days browsing Hacker News and watching pirated films.
  - K0balt 2y ago
    After 3 years the finish gets dull, but it’s still not bad. Not the worst contract I ever worked.
dblohm7 2y ago
> I do not feel this has held me back professionally. I have been loved by management and peers in all of these jobs. If only your experience was universal in that regard! I once had that role in an early-career job -- but I was looked down upon by peers and management because I was doing mostly maintenance work. The "good" developers, in their minds, were the ones shipping the most new features -- the irony being that those features would then blow up out in the field, at which time they landed on my desk to turn them into production-worthy code.
- llm_trw 2y ago
  That's your problem. You keep the fixes for a rainy day when production is down and the business is losing $10m an hour. >Yeah boss I can fix it, but how much is it worth to you since this isn't in my job description.
- ForTheKidz 2y ago
  That's just poor management, IMO. The good ones will have your number in their cell phone to call when the stuff they shipped breaks (or even better, allow you to take the time you need to not ship broken code to begin with). Plus it doesn't take much time in the industry to realize that shipping a broken product is a far worse look than shipping slower, and that the faster you can fix a broken product the less money you'll bleed.
EvanAnderson 2y ago
> I'm a troubleshooter. I fix problems. I keep my head straight in a crisis. ... People call me when they can't figure something out. ... Even if I'm not an expert in the broken thing, they call me in. They call me because the experts are often floundering ... This describes a sizable portion of my career. It's lucrative, it's gratifying, and it's fun. It's as close as I'm going to get to being a "kick-ass mercenary". Seeing new environments, new applications, and new problems never gets old. The stories that come from the work are priceless, too. > I wish troubleshooting skills were as common as typing and document formatting skills. When I conduct interviews this is the main skill I screen for. I think it can be taught, but somebody who already has it and is missing some particular technical experience is vastly more valuable.
- steveBK123 2y ago
  I've found past a certain point career-wise, troubleshooting really can't be taught. It's sort of a a mindset/attitude to me. I you are 5+ years into your career and haven't gotten there, you probably just don't care. It's the attitude of a developer who is indifferent to the craft and just wants to cobble together found code as quickly as possible to move onto the next thing. A good troubleshooter can enable higher output across a team because they are like grease in the machine. Particularly indifferent troubleshooters become a net drag because instead of being able to help others they are always interrupting others for help.
  - I_dream_of_Geni 2y ago
    "troubleshooting really can't be taught" Exactly: it is a gift. You have "the Knack". (Dilbert - The Knack "The Curse of the Engineer")
    - smackeyacky 2y ago
      I don’t believe that’s true. It’s an attitude, not some kind of innate skill like reflexes. You can learn to believe in yourself, plus it’s teachable in my experience.
walledstance 2y ago
Wonderful description. Thank you for capturing a snap shot that conveys the power of troubleshooting.
wiseowise 2y ago
Textbook survivorship bias. > I wouldn't need to help out nearly as many people because they could handle their own crises. They don't need to, because there's always you who can figure out boring minutiae for them while they deliver business value.
- pasc1878 2y ago
  Thus the team is delivering business value not the other developers on their own.
hinkley 2y ago
I’ve been wondering lately how much of this is being good at troubleshooting, and how much of it is being good at picking up a problem someone else gave you, poking at it, and then putting it down again. Not everyone is cut out to do that. Asking them to look at a puzzle derails their entire day, almost every time instead of just when it’s hard. So even when it’s their puzzle they resist picking it up because it’s a guaranteed bad day.

rokhayakebe 2y ago

In fact you could easily be the guy they keep on a monthly retainer just for peace of mind.

lurk2 2y ago
The word retainer has an appealing mercenary quality to it. The dream is that your knowledge of an esoteric system set up in the 1980s gets you warehoused in a data closet at a mid-sized organization, where you can spend the rest of your days browsing Hacker News and watching pirated films.
- K0balt 2y ago
  After 3 years the finish gets dull, but it’s still not bad. Not the worst contract I ever worked.

dblohm7 2y ago

> I do not feel this has held me back professionally. I have been loved by management and peers in all of these jobs. If only your experience was universal in that regard! I once had that role in an early-career job -- but I was looked down upon by peers and management because I was doing mostly maintenance work. The "good" developers, in their minds, were the ones shipping the most new features -- the irony being that those features would then blow up out in the field, at which time they landed on my desk to turn them into production-worthy code.

llm_trw 2y ago
That's your problem. You keep the fixes for a rainy day when production is down and the business is losing $10m an hour. >Yeah boss I can fix it, but how much is it worth to you since this isn't in my job description.
ForTheKidz 2y ago
That's just poor management, IMO. The good ones will have your number in their cell phone to call when the stuff they shipped breaks (or even better, allow you to take the time you need to not ship broken code to begin with). Plus it doesn't take much time in the industry to realize that shipping a broken product is a far worse look than shipping slower, and that the faster you can fix a broken product the less money you'll bleed.

EvanAnderson 2y ago

> I'm a troubleshooter. I fix problems. I keep my head straight in a crisis. ... People call me when they can't figure something out. ... Even if I'm not an expert in the broken thing, they call me in. They call me because the experts are often floundering ... This describes a sizable portion of my career. It's lucrative, it's gratifying, and it's fun. It's as close as I'm going to get to being a "kick-ass mercenary". Seeing new environments, new applications, and new problems never gets old. The stories that come from the work are priceless, too. > I wish troubleshooting skills were as common as typing and document formatting skills. When I conduct interviews this is the main skill I screen for. I think it can be taught, but somebody who already has it and is missing some particular technical experience is vastly more valuable.

steveBK123 2y ago
I've found past a certain point career-wise, troubleshooting really can't be taught. It's sort of a a mindset/attitude to me. I you are 5+ years into your career and haven't gotten there, you probably just don't care. It's the attitude of a developer who is indifferent to the craft and just wants to cobble together found code as quickly as possible to move onto the next thing. A good troubleshooter can enable higher output across a team because they are like grease in the machine. Particularly indifferent troubleshooters become a net drag because instead of being able to help others they are always interrupting others for help.
- I_dream_of_Geni 2y ago
  "troubleshooting really can't be taught" Exactly: it is a gift. You have "the Knack". (Dilbert - The Knack "The Curse of the Engineer")
  - smackeyacky 2y ago
    I don’t believe that’s true. It’s an attitude, not some kind of innate skill like reflexes. You can learn to believe in yourself, plus it’s teachable in my experience.

walledstance 2y ago

Wonderful description. Thank you for capturing a snap shot that conveys the power of troubleshooting.

wiseowise 2y ago

Textbook survivorship bias. > I wouldn't need to help out nearly as many people because they could handle their own crises. They don't need to, because there's always you who can figure out boring minutiae for them while they deliver business value.

pasc1878 2y ago
Thus the team is delivering business value not the other developers on their own.

hinkley 2y ago

I’ve been wondering lately how much of this is being good at troubleshooting, and how much of it is being good at picking up a problem someone else gave you, poking at it, and then putting it down again. Not everyone is cut out to do that. Asking them to look at a puzzle derails their entire day, almost every time instead of just when it’s hard. So even when it’s their puzzle they resist picking it up because it’s a guaranteed bad day.