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

Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 87 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#71

Post by [deleted] »

mdorazio wrote: post #57
deconstruct wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"learn business" was mentioned but there seems to be a lot discussion here around accounting and finance - those aren't "business", at least not the core of it anyway. Accounting for one is recording what has already happened in a business - its merely reporting, nothing more. Its a reporting function of business. There is far too much focus I feel on accounting and finance in MBA courses. Its not business. An MBA de…

I have to hard disagree on this, but I think it might be a difference in size of company you're thinking vs. other people in this thread. Most companies where a developer will be asking this question have already figured out their product-market fit and sales pipeline. At that point and thereafter business is increasingly about "the numbers". The bigger the company, the more that is true. Understanding what "the bott…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#72

Post by Hapapapa »

deconstruct wrote: post #64
Hapapapa wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely disagree with this. To use an analogy the purpose of an artist is to communicate emotions from the artist to the public through works of art. But training to be an artist is learning brushstroke, chiseling technique and what not. Sure the purpose of business is selling products and making profit and that’s the big picture but a huge part of the daily practical reality of doing business will involve account…

Business will involve accounting/finance, sure. It will involve lots of other functions - but business is not defined by accounting/finance. Its defined by people buying a product or service they find of value - that is core to business (just like the definition of an artist is someone that actually produces art). If you don't have that you don't have a business (no matter how many accountants or MBAs you have). Any…

Yes it is not defined by accounting and finance but those are crucial skills just like learning proper brushstroke is crucial to being a painter. And I disagree that any skill can be taught. Selling, marketing, innovation etc are very dependent on the area of business you’re in, market conditions, the current state of technology etc - too many variables and some skills that are important in one area of business are wrong in a different kind of business, there’s a lot of art to them. Accounting is mostly done one way and the same way whatever your business is and necessary for any business. It makes sense for business schools to teach that first in their core curriculum before teaching things like strategy and marketing. And things like product sense, market timing etc can’t really be taught

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#73

Post by danuker »

tracyhenry wrote: post #21
danuker wrote: post #3

This site is teeming with book recommendations. Here is the all-time top of the Business category: https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/7/all-t...

Author of the site, thanks for plugging it. Disclaimer that this site hasn't been updated since Sept 2021. So the book list is not the latest. I do want to give it a spin some time later using the latest language models and make auto updates.

Cheers for creating it and keeping it online! It is an amazing resource.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#74

Post by MaxPengwing »

syntheweave wrote: post #61

I second the ideas around learning accounting, and also becoming comfortable working a spreadsheet. Learning business strategy as a corporate executive is really the kind of skill best paralleled in certain forms of gaming - tabletop games with a lot of trade/barter mechanics, MMO guilds, and such: it's some combination of people knowledge, planning, negotiation, and internal controls and mechanism design. What you'r…

I'd say that 18xx & Food Chain Magnate, are good business strategy board games. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/19/series-18xx

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/175914/food-chain-magnat...

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#75

Post by giantg2 »

fud101 wrote: post #51
giantg2 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CFA has a foundations course that should be more comprehensive than this, instead of focusing just on financial accounting. It's free, online, and you can earn a cert for it.

Keen for a link

https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/programs/investment-foundati...

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#76

Post by deconstruct »

Hapapapa wrote: post #72
deconstruct wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Business will involve accounting/finance, sure. It will involve lots of other functions - but business is not defined by accounting/finance. Its defined by people buying a product or service they find of value - that is core to business (just like the definition of an artist is someone that actually produces art). If you don't have that you don't have a business (no matter how many accountants or MBAs you have). Any…

Yes it is not defined by accounting and finance but those are crucial skills just like learning proper brushstroke is crucial to being a painter. And I disagree that any skill can be taught. Selling, marketing, innovation etc are very dependent on the area of business you’re in, market conditions, the current state of technology etc - too many variables and some skills that are important in one area of business are w…

Sales and marketing, learned they can be.

A business without knowing accounting/finance, exist can. (An accountant, hire, one can).

For accounting/finance to be useful at all, a business exist, must first.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#78

Post by noiwillnot »

giantg2 wrote: post #44
giantg2 wrote: post #9

CFA offers a free foundations certification. That should cover basic finance. On a side note, your company/HR should have an executive education plan. They should be able to recommend the materials or courses to help you learn what they want you to. If not, they probably should start something like that.

Why disagree with this?

Did not downvote, but the basic cert price (Foundations) appears in the website for $350

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#79

Post by Dowwie »

eof wrote: post #67
Dowwie wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A CFA is completely absurd for a CTO to pursue, even if that CTO were working for an investment management company. The OP wants to study to learn, not study to pass an exam. You can do one or the either for the CFA, but not both. Also, one doesn't learn "business" with the CFA but finance and accounting.

i'm a cto persuing a cfa because i have an interest in business. i think its completely absurd that you would think a CFA would be irrelevant to business.

300+ hours per level, and if you don't have a foundation you likely will have to re-take level 1. Every single person I knew in tech who advanced through and obtained the CFA changed careers into finance. Every single one. Good luck with your career change! :)

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#80

Post by autodev1 »

victor106 wrote: post #54
autodev1 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this, immensely. I learned basic accounting at a community college-- Financial Accounting (3 hr course) & Managerial Accounting (3 hr course). I later took Intermediate Accounting 1 which was also super insightful. But those first two... Wow. They really opened up the "black box" of internal financial operations within a business, to me. Prior to those first two courses, I had no idea what happens when I pay…

What resources did you use to learn digital marketing?

For that, I learned on the job--

I had a skillset of:

A. Promoting products at events as a Brand Ambassador

B. html, css, and basic frontend javascript self-taught skills (from ebooks, youtube, udemy).

With skills A & B, I successfully justified that I should be hired into an entry level digital marketing role, where I used Marketo to email-spam B2B and set up web landing pages.

Once I had that initial job using Marketo software at a B2B software company, it was much easier to lang other digital marketing roles.

Post reply on HN