Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 136 posts

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#61

Post by tomc1985 »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #31
3pt14159 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found "what'd you get up to this weekend" to be a great conversation starter because most people have done at least one fun thing over the weekend.

People ask me that all the time and it's awkward. I very rarely do anything anyone else would consider "fun", even on weekends. Most of what I do can be classified as "work".

>Most of what I do can be classified as "work".

Isn't that the problem? Weekends are for resting, or doing whatever you want to do, which doesn't have to be work.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#62

Post by collyw »

OK, not strictly answering your question, but for me its about being able to give a developer any job and knowing that they can work it out. Development, database design, server setup documentation. Being able to work on or debug any part of the stack.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#63

Post by tootie »

rdudekul wrote: post #47
tootie wrote: post #43

I think everyone in this thread is wrong. There is one thing I look for any time someone is looking to increase seniority in the organization and that's ownership. How much responsibility can you own with minimal oversight? Will you seek out the resources you need? Will you remove blockers. Will you do what you say? Will you get others to help you? Some people do this by producing lots of code and some of them do it…

Empathy can play a significant role in seeking the resources you need, getting others to help you and perhaps even allowing higher management entrusting responsibility on your shoulders. Over the long-term though I found grit to be a more useful skill to cultivate. Patience and perseverance sound like cliche, but in the end whether in relationships or life, those count the most.

A lot of people are succsseful at this by being total jerks. Some organizations show a marked preference for leaders who are aggressive and abrasive over ones that show empathy. Usually bad organizations, but it definitely varies.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#64

Post by theseatoms »

cname wrote: post #49
sxg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to talk about things that other people think are fun. The point is to bring up something that can get you excited and animated. If what you call "work" does that for you, then I'd love to hear about it.

You might like to hear about such things, but most people only want to hear about weekend activities they consider "fun" (e.g., going out drinking) or "normal" (e.g., doing stuff with the kids). If you say you spent the weekend learning something new, most people will act like you're boring and perhaps even make nasty comments like "you must be fun at parties" (like someone in this thread did).

I hear where you're coming from. I used to feel this way, and I sometimes catch myself falling back into this thought pattern.

But now I try to be as open as is practically reasonable about my interests and hobbies. You'd be surprised how receptive some people can be. And those who react negatively are filtering themselves out of further interaction.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#65

Post by grogenaut »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #31
3pt14159 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found "what'd you get up to this weekend" to be a great conversation starter because most people have done at least one fun thing over the weekend.

People ask me that all the time and it's awkward. I very rarely do anything anyone else would consider "fun", even on weekends. Most of what I do can be classified as "work".

When I'm asking this to the junior engineers on the team I'm usually trying to tease out what they think is fun or what their non-work interests are. I have many of them that are over engaging at work (they're achievers) or having trouble adjusting to a new city without as many of the forced social situations of college. Me asking this is to get to know more about you so I can a) talk with you about non-work things, b) learn a bit more about you, c) offer advice when I see self imposed burn out approaching.

If all you do is work work then I think you should probbably re-adjust a bit on the weekends or you'll narrow focus too or you're just working too hard. If you're doing side projects, I'm an engineer too, I LOVE to hear about that stuff. It's why I read hackaday and hacker news.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#66

Post by AnimalMuppet »

tomc1985 wrote: post #61
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People ask me that all the time and it's awkward. I very rarely do anything anyone else would consider "fun", even on weekends. Most of what I do can be classified as "work".

>Most of what I do can be classified as "work". Isn't that the problem? Weekends are for resting, or doing whatever you want to do, which doesn't have to be work.

Well, for me it's not usually work, but it's still "work". It's fixing faucets, and trimming bushes, and cleaning out rain gutters, and keeping cars maintained. Much of a weekend is what I need to do, not what I want to do.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#67

Post by tomc1985 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #66
tomc1985 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most of what I do can be classified as "work". Isn't that the problem? Weekends are for resting, or doing whatever you want to do, which doesn't have to be work.

Well, for me it's not usually work, but it's still "work". It's fixing faucets, and trimming bushes, and cleaning out rain gutters, and keeping cars maintained. Much of a weekend is what I need to do, not what I want to do.

As it is with all of us. But I refuse to do work work over the weekend, as I wish were the norm in this industry.

But if someone complains they have too much work over the weekend.... well they should do less work then. Use the time for what it is designed for!

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#68

Post by itsjustjoe »

Understanding the customer value of your work. This is one of the biggest thing I see devs missing. Yes, developers are primarily responsible for the 'how' and 'when' for new features, but they should always be questioning the 'what' and 'why' as well.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#69

Post by codingdave »

I think the other comments have answered the question well enough, but it is worth noting that a title in and of itself doesn't mean much. I've had some awesome titles in my career, from Senior Dev to Architect to CTO... but at my current job, every single person here is at that level. So my title is just "Developer".

Focus more on skill gaps, and less on titles, and you'll go where you want to go.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#70

Post by squeaky-clean »

mk89 wrote: post #2

In most companies I have worked for - or I had the chance to interview with - ageing. :) So, just eat healthy, do some sports, and get older.

> So, just eat healthy, do some sports, and get older.

On the contrary, smoke as many cigarettes as you can in a day, have a whole bottle of whiskey every day, only eat fried foods, and sleep on your face. Within just a few months, you should have the look of seniority! It's all about finding shortcuts up the corporate ladder.

Post reply on HN