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Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

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Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#51

Post by Unklejoe »

noad wrote: post #21

I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…

That probably depends on the industry. At my last job (embedded software for a defense contractor), I was actually the youngest at 28.

The guy to the right of me was in his mid 60's, the guy behind me was 50, and my boss was 52. I think the only other engineer not over 50 was this one guy who was in his late 30's.

It seems like in the defense industry, it's almost the opposite.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#52

Post by chii »

klohto wrote: post #40
cellularmitosis wrote: post #23

"To replace out MediaWiki with a Java-based alternative (XWiki) ended up taking a total fo 24 dev-years over 4+ calendar years for the team, not counting the interruptions to pretty much every other team at Amazon as their pages were getting constantly migrated and un-migrated" I would love to hear more about this. I'm guessing that's a cost of at least $4M? How was this approved? How did they allow it to continue fo…

I don't understand why are corporations obsessed with decommissioning wikis. When I was at Red Hat, they tried to decommission local country wiki in favor of their company-wide wiki (Mojo, absolute shit by the way). They tried for about 2 years, then finally somebody said "what the fuck are we doing" and the migration was stopped. I believe the banner "Decommissioning soon" still hangs there.

somebody (usually some kind of middle manager) needs to have projects to look after, otherwise it would show that they are dead weights.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#54

Post by neogodless »

noad wrote: post #21

I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…

I'm 40 and I don't suppose anyone has ever called me a 10x developer or a rockstar or a ninja, though I was recently described as having "a superpower to crush tickets."

I have a feeling you have not applied "everywhere" in the United States, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I've never left my home state, and the deluge of recruiter spam on LinkedIn hasn't slowed down yet.

And no I'm not an architect or team lead or business analyst. I'm just a developer. Almost entirely individual contributor roles. But once hired, I learn what is needed and I execute the hell out of it and usually write myself out of a job (or at least make it so boring I am receptive to the next engagement.) This is listed in my résumé as the accomplishments or value I brought to a project. When I interview, I often say "I don't really know enough about that yet, but I'm interested in learning." This is usually met well.

One last thing - my expectations are not great. I'm not ambitious enough to seek out Big Five positions or compensation. But I make really good money for this area and for what I consider reasonably easy jobs. Perhaps you are expecting your career to feel the same way it did twenty years ago? It won't. That's OK. Make peace with it. Find a way to use and improve your skills in a way that brings value to a company, and they compensate you for it.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#55

Post by filleduchaos »

chii wrote: post #46
miohtama wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A startup CTO role might work for you if you can build the product grounds all alone (frontend, backend, DevOps).

i.e., have enough saved up to start a startup, and hope to make it big? What happens if it fails? What happens to your retirement, or is the backup plan either continue working till you drop, or rely on kids to carry you thru retirement years?

They said CTO, not founder.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#56

Post by codesections »

I was very surprised to read

> 90%, of what I learn at one job is completely useless for the next one.

That has not been my experience at all (and I've had some pretty major job changes, including lawyer -> software developmer). If I had to put a number on it, I'd say more like 50% of what I've learned at each job is transferable.

How about everyone else? Closer to 10% or 50%?

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#57

Post by micael_dias »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #8

This is poorly titled. A '1x developer' is by definition an average developer. The page is mostly listing basic knowledge that any developer, even a very junior one, should already have. If you aren't aware of the relative strengths and weaknesses of Java, C, and Python, you aren't a 1x developer, you're a trainee. Anyone know of any better articles truly targeted at '1x' developers? (This isn't snark, it's an invita…

So a frontend developer is a perpetual trainee in your opinion?

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#58

Post by maps7 »

I'm not sure how I should be reading the article so maybe it's going over my head.

> Rule 10: When to make a microservice

> I would use a microservice when I have a relatively small and simple chunk of code that needs to run every once in a while.

Isn't this wrong? There's no reason a microservice should just run once in a while. It also creates a lot of complexity for a simple chunk of code.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#59

Post by nojito »

stu2010 wrote: post #34
cellularmitosis wrote: post #23

"To replace out MediaWiki with a Java-based alternative (XWiki) ended up taking a total fo 24 dev-years over 4+ calendar years for the team, not counting the interruptions to pretty much every other team at Amazon as their pages were getting constantly migrated and un-migrated" I would love to hear more about this. I'm guessing that's a cost of at least $4M? How was this approved? How did they allow it to continue fo…

Amazon's total all-in cost per dev is almost certainly >$300k per year, so more like >$7 million if that's an accurate number. As far as how it gets approved, that's not enough money to really register at Amazon's scale. I've seen waste similar to that at companies much, much smaller than Amazon that goes entirely un-noticed.

>that's not enough money to really register at Amazon's scale.

This viewpoint doesn't really match up with how enterprises operate.

It's possible to function at amazon's scale without meticulous accounting and financial operations. The reason for this is that is extremely easy for wasteful spending to propagate throughout the enterprise if unchecked.

Waste only appears after a project fails...it's easy to point out waste after the fact, but it's downright impossible to call it out as it's happening.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#60

Post by alex4864 »

codesections wrote: post #56

I was very surprised to read > 90%, of what I learn at one job is completely useless for the next one. That has not been my experience at all (and I've had some pretty major job changes, including lawyer -> software developmer). If I had to put a number on it, I'd say more like 50% of what I've learned at each job is transferable. How about everyone else? Closer to 10% or 50%?

Likewise very surprised! I've found that Software Engineering as a field is great for knowledge transferring between jobs -- the ability to design and reason about systems transcends individual languages and tools.

50% sounds about right to me.

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