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

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

#91

Post by talmand »

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).

But that's the easiest way to identify the bad people.

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

#93

Post by sotojuan »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #39
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.

> The point is to bring up something that can get you excited and animated. Well, the only time you'll get that out of me is when I'm angry. Most of my weekends involve: * Reading research papers * Reviewing other peoples' source code * Reporting security vulnerabilities to open source projects (usually with a patch) * Improving these projects: https://github.com/paragonie I never have any time to watch movies, play…

I'd argue a lot of people would find that a good answer. The worst they'll say is "cool, sounds interesting".

You've probably had some bad experiences, but you'd be surprised to know many people are not out there to get you for being different.

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

#94

Post by sotojuan »

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.

> It's fixing faucets, and trimming bushes, and cleaning out rain gutters, and keeping cars maintained.

I see people doing all of that every weekend in my suburb. Definitely not something you should shy away from sharing.

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

#96

Post by rzzzt »

mooreds wrote: post #3

Depends on what kind of dev you are talking about. In a consulting shop (enterprise or web dev or advertising)? Big company (software, hardware or where software dev is an expense)? Game company? Silicon Valley startup? Senior devs in each of these types of companies have some skills in common and some that are particular. The common ones, in my opinion: * Ability to communicate with non technical folks * Ability to…

Do you have any suggestions for becoming more accurate when it comes to estimating effort?

I find that my estimates are generally all over the place and multiple attempts at predicting how much time it will take to complete an assignment don't converge as time passes. Even though I had seen and been given diverse tasks over the course of my work, I can not really pick a previous item of similar magnitude for reference.

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

#97

Post by kafkaesq »

OpenDrapery wrote: post #29
mooreds wrote: post #3

Depends on what kind of dev you are talking about. In a consulting shop (enterprise or web dev or advertising)? Big company (software, hardware or where software dev is an expense)? Game company? Silicon Valley startup? Senior devs in each of these types of companies have some skills in common and some that are particular. The common ones, in my opinion: * Ability to communicate with non technical folks * Ability to…

Willingness to do grunt work is a fast track to becoming a manager who says "I haven't coded in years". No good deed goes unpunished. When you step up to be a team player and do that grunt work, you open yourself up to getting more and more of it. Next thing you know you have to stand up for yourself or become a door mat.

If you're in an environment where rolling up one's sleeves and taking on the grunt work leads so quickly to negative reinforcement loops, in the way you describe... then that's a sure sign that you've found yourself in the wrong environment.

In healthy environments (and yes, they do exists) good deeds are actually rewarded, not punished.

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

#98

Post by jdbernard »

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 have a coworker & friend who baits me into conversations like these. One time at lunch I realized near the end that I had monopolized most of the conversation. I'm the class introvert who by nature doesn't say much but rambles given the right topic. So I started to apologize and he replied: "Jonathan, that's why I asked you the question."

Not all people are looking for their own words echoed back to them. Like the OP who suggested this advice in the beginning, some people are really interested in seeing things from different viewpoints.

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

#99

Post by mknocker »

gbog wrote: post #50
mknocker wrote: post #36

Being the last man standing. Seems sad but when people leave bad company, usually the people who stay get promoted and some of them become senior developer. I have seen this strange pattern a few times.

Why strange? Staying there when difficulties arise, future become incertain, keep working when it becomes boring or very messy or unrewarding, being able to do the work of the designer or the project manager because they are gone, all these are proofs that you are reliable and able. I would certainly choose such a guy for a senior position.

Strange in a the sense that the rational choice would be to promote your best asset while they are in the company. There are tough times in all companies but, in some, the best assets decide to leave when there are tough times because this is the last nail in the coffin of a toxic work environment.

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

#100

Post by hluska »

rzzzt wrote: post #96
mooreds wrote: post #3

Depends on what kind of dev you are talking about. In a consulting shop (enterprise or web dev or advertising)? Big company (software, hardware or where software dev is an expense)? Game company? Silicon Valley startup? Senior devs in each of these types of companies have some skills in common and some that are particular. The common ones, in my opinion: * Ability to communicate with non technical folks * Ability to…

Do you have any suggestions for becoming more accurate when it comes to estimating effort? I find that my estimates are generally all over the place and multiple attempts at predicting how much time it will take to complete an assignment don't converge as time passes. Even though I had seen and been given diverse tasks over the course of my work, I can not really pick a previous item of similar magnitude for referenc…

I'm not terribly good at this, but I've had some luck taking the first answer that pops to mind and multiplying it by three. It's a crude method, but over time, it has worked well for me.
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