9 ms·

So you believe the job of an engineer is "just to sit at a computer"? You dont make other useful contributions outside of that?

EGreg 13y ago
There's always the occasional sperm donation to eager groupies :)
- aet 13y ago
  Haha
byoung2 13y ago
So you believe the job of an engineer is "just to sit at a computer"? The job is to write code, which could be done from anywhere (home, coffee shop, on the train, at the beach). The other stuff like collaboration, meetings, architectural discussions, etc., could be done virtually or scheduled for, say once a week. The benefit of a few hallway discussions is far outweighed by the 10+ hours per week spent commuting to the office.
- mason55 13y ago
  There is a HUGE number of engineer positions where the job isn't just "to write code". If that's all you're contributing then you're in for a very limited career.
  - collyw 13y ago
    Having worked in both I realise recently. You can stick to the corporate world. Get told to use Java, Oracle, etc. Get well paid. Have decent career prospects. "Just write code". Or my current position which is to develop the in house database, in the language if my choosing. Get to experiment with new technologies. Design it all myself (so no one to blame if it goes badly). I would be better paid in the first job, but its way less interesting.
    - UK-AL 13y ago
      In the corporate world in the UK, most developers move onto more businesses roles anyway. Due to outsourcing, more respect and what not.
- gaius 13y ago
  Only in the sense that a civil engineer's job is to pour concrete, or an electrical engineer's is to burn coal.
- ryguytilidie 13y ago
  "The job is to write code" Eh, this is kind of what I was getting at. This view is insanely simplistic. Outside of writing code I feel like people make contributions to the product in discussions, train their more junior peers, interview prospective new team members, do a code review for someone else, etc. The job is not to just write code. This is my point. If you see it that way, you're looking at it the wrong way.
eriksank 13y ago
In my impression, all valuable contributions made by an engineer can be expressed by a set of commits to a set of files. I do not believe for a second that contributions that cannot expressed in that way would actually be valuable. Can you give us one example?
- desas 13y ago
  Your impression or your experience working with/as software engineers? Here's what i did last week excluding bureaucracy and writing code. Talking to people to get requirements. Mentoring junior engineers. Discussing solutions with colleagues, code reviews, spec writing, spec review. The spec writing is expressed as commits to files (we use a wiki) and some of the rest could be expressed as commits to something but bandwidth would be lowered converting it to text

EGreg 13y ago

There's always the occasional sperm donation to eager groupies :)

aet 13y ago
Haha

byoung2 13y ago

So you believe the job of an engineer is "just to sit at a computer"? The job is to write code, which could be done from anywhere (home, coffee shop, on the train, at the beach). The other stuff like collaboration, meetings, architectural discussions, etc., could be done virtually or scheduled for, say once a week. The benefit of a few hallway discussions is far outweighed by the 10+ hours per week spent commuting to the office.

mason55 13y ago
There is a HUGE number of engineer positions where the job isn't just "to write code". If that's all you're contributing then you're in for a very limited career.
- collyw 13y ago
  Having worked in both I realise recently. You can stick to the corporate world. Get told to use Java, Oracle, etc. Get well paid. Have decent career prospects. "Just write code". Or my current position which is to develop the in house database, in the language if my choosing. Get to experiment with new technologies. Design it all myself (so no one to blame if it goes badly). I would be better paid in the first job, but its way less interesting.
  - UK-AL 13y ago
    In the corporate world in the UK, most developers move onto more businesses roles anyway. Due to outsourcing, more respect and what not.
gaius 13y ago
Only in the sense that a civil engineer's job is to pour concrete, or an electrical engineer's is to burn coal.
ryguytilidie 13y ago
"The job is to write code" Eh, this is kind of what I was getting at. This view is insanely simplistic. Outside of writing code I feel like people make contributions to the product in discussions, train their more junior peers, interview prospective new team members, do a code review for someone else, etc. The job is not to just write code. This is my point. If you see it that way, you're looking at it the wrong way.

eriksank 13y ago

In my impression, all valuable contributions made by an engineer can be expressed by a set of commits to a set of files. I do not believe for a second that contributions that cannot expressed in that way would actually be valuable. Can you give us one example?

desas 13y ago
Your impression or your experience working with/as software engineers? Here's what i did last week excluding bureaucracy and writing code. Talking to people to get requirements. Mentoring junior engineers. Discussing solutions with colleagues, code reviews, spec writing, spec review. The spec writing is expressed as commits to files (we use a wiki) and some of the rest could be expressed as commits to something but bandwidth would be lowered converting it to text