4 ms·

Thank you for this. I feel the same exact way. Every needs programmers but won't respect them. That has been by sentiment at many places I have worked at. At

by mac1175 14y ago

Thank you for this. I feel the same exact way. Every needs programmers but won't respect them. That has been by sentiment at many places I have worked at. At my job, the CTO got on the cover of a magazine that involved tech in government for a mobile app I was hired to design an implement for. The best part is that he had no real hand in the design or implementation of the app nor ever wrote a single line of code in his life. This isn't the first job that this happened. Basically, it all comes down to politics and the problem is mixing programming with it.

seivan 14y ago
Yeah I get that feeling a lot. The Product monkey and the "UX" snake oil sales men get the credit for nothing they implemented.
euroclydon 14y ago
The CTO's job is, by description, to get on the cover of a magazine.
- kls 14y ago
  As a former CTO, I take some offense to the classification. Granted I am not your average CTO and at all the companies that I was a CTO for I had code that I wrote in production, I was the type of person that worked in the trenches with my guys. If an all nighter had to be pulled because of somebodies screw up, I made sure that the board knew that my guys where cleaning up the mess and the heros of the day. Not in a blame game or glory seeking way but I felt I owed it to my team to ensure the record was straight. I was also the first one to stay all night and the last one to leave in those circumstances. As such my guys where always treated with respect and held out as company assets. What I was good at was translating the business goals into actionable plans for the technical team. Helping technical people see other departments as bringing in the money helps to keep everybody's eye on the prize. The best way to align technical people is to bring them closer to the business and help them "feel" the growth. When they do, they begin to understand the importance of the business. Conversely, making business people understand that technical personnel must have pride of ownership and must be allowed to craft their product helps the business to see that stable and well crafted solutions are long term strategies that work. Just like programmers there are a lot of bad MBA'ed CTO's but for every 100 of them, their is a guy like me that truly understands both sides of the story and can bring them together and that is the true job of a CTO to align the vision of the business with a technical strategy.
  - euroclydon 14y ago
    I don't think trying to get on the cover of a magazine takes anything away from what you said. They're not incompatible. If you're a C-level officer, you are part of the face of the company. I'm just pointing out to the OP, that getting on the cover of a magazine likely was part of his CTO's job, so at least that person was doing part of their job.
    - kls 14y ago
      Fair enough I miss-read the intent of your message, for that I apologize.
Swannie 14y ago
Lets think of a restaurant... Who do you give the credit to for a great meal? Who gets the tip? The person who set up the restaurant? The person who created the menu? The person who sourced the raw ingredients? The person who prepared the raw ingredients into components of a dish? The person who plated up your food? The person who oversaw the preparation in the kitchen? The person who brought the food to your table? The person who took your order? In the USA, and many other countries, you tip the table staff. Sometimes the kitchen staff get a cut, but generally, they just get paid to execute on the owner's & head chef's vision. If the restaurant won an award, would it go to the line chef who prepared the dish that the reviewer/judge ate? Hell no. It's not a programmer issue. Credit is about who had the vision and took the risk. The people other than the founders that get the credit are usually the sales staff. Very occasionally the customer is impressed and wants to credit the head of the delivery team, but not often... leaving a tiny bit of credit to be dished out between everyone else.

by mac1175 14y ago

seivan 14y ago

Yeah I get that feeling a lot. The Product monkey and the "UX" snake oil sales men get the credit for nothing they implemented.

euroclydon 14y ago

The CTO's job is, by description, to get on the cover of a magazine.

kls 14y ago
As a former CTO, I take some offense to the classification. Granted I am not your average CTO and at all the companies that I was a CTO for I had code that I wrote in production, I was the type of person that worked in the trenches with my guys. If an all nighter had to be pulled because of somebodies screw up, I made sure that the board knew that my guys where cleaning up the mess and the heros of the day. Not in a blame game or glory seeking way but I felt I owed it to my team to ensure the record was straight. I was also the first one to stay all night and the last one to leave in those circumstances. As such my guys where always treated with respect and held out as company assets. What I was good at was translating the business goals into actionable plans for the technical team. Helping technical people see other departments as bringing in the money helps to keep everybody's eye on the prize. The best way to align technical people is to bring them closer to the business and help them "feel" the growth. When they do, they begin to understand the importance of the business. Conversely, making business people understand that technical personnel must have pride of ownership and must be allowed to craft their product helps the business to see that stable and well crafted solutions are long term strategies that work. Just like programmers there are a lot of bad MBA'ed CTO's but for every 100 of them, their is a guy like me that truly understands both sides of the story and can bring them together and that is the true job of a CTO to align the vision of the business with a technical strategy.
- euroclydon 14y ago
  I don't think trying to get on the cover of a magazine takes anything away from what you said. They're not incompatible. If you're a C-level officer, you are part of the face of the company. I'm just pointing out to the OP, that getting on the cover of a magazine likely was part of his CTO's job, so at least that person was doing part of their job.
  - kls 14y ago
    Fair enough I miss-read the intent of your message, for that I apologize.

Swannie 14y ago

Lets think of a restaurant... Who do you give the credit to for a great meal? Who gets the tip? The person who set up the restaurant? The person who created the menu? The person who sourced the raw ingredients? The person who prepared the raw ingredients into components of a dish? The person who plated up your food? The person who oversaw the preparation in the kitchen? The person who brought the food to your table? The person who took your order? In the USA, and many other countries, you tip the table staff. Sometimes the kitchen staff get a cut, but generally, they just get paid to execute on the owner's & head chef's vision. If the restaurant won an award, would it go to the line chef who prepared the dish that the reviewer/judge ate? Hell no. It's not a programmer issue. Credit is about who had the vision and took the risk. The people other than the founders that get the credit are usually the sales staff. Very occasionally the customer is impressed and wants to credit the head of the delivery team, but not often... leaving a tiny bit of credit to be dished out between everyone else.