Don't Call Yourself a Programmer • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#21

Post by cperciva » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:01 AM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #15

Okay, I guess as someone with hard-won expertise I'm duty-bound to take slight exception to this line: Put a backpack on and you can walk into any building at any university in the United States any time you want. First, the nitpicking: Technically you can't get into Harvard's excellent libraries without actually (a) being a Harvard student, or (b) working for Harvard. (And if you're a programmer, I'm not sure which…

They also won't let you into the labs with just a backpack.

In a literal sense, no, that's not enough. In a practical sense, if you're serious about doing research and have the necessary background to be able to do good research, finding a faculty member who will invite you to join their group as an unpaid "research assistant" is trivial.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#22

Post by freemarketteddy » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:04 AM UTC

I think Patrick is missing a niche segment of Hackers who have been making a lot of money in last few years.They are the independent Mobile App Developer(iOS/Android)

If you choose this path then you dont even have to start a company,all you need to do is make awesome apps.It might be a little hard to start but in a year you should be making good enough money to go independent and then sky is the limit.It is not only possible but probable that you will write better applications (using services like Parse) than entire megacorps.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#23

Post by matomesc » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:04 AM UTC

Good read, i totally agree with some of the points made.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#24

Post by cperciva » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:04 AM UTC

ycapply2011 wrote: post #17

>> ”What is your previous salary?” is employer-speak for “Please give me reasons to pay you less money.” Answer appropriately. What is the proper approach to answering this question?

"My previous salary is not relevant to the value I would add to your company."

Or just cite an NDA (real or imagined); most employers will back off immediately at that point since (a) they don't want to be accused of inducing you to break a contract, and (b) they probably don't want to hire people who break NDAs lightly.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#25

Post by agentgt » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:06 AM UTC

Networking, networking, networking... "The classic its not what you know but who you know". Also super confidence (even if your wrong). I wish it was different but then again I'm not smart so maybe I'm glad :)

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#26

Post by psykotic » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:07 AM UTC

bryanh wrote: post #20

psykotic wrote: post #11

> If you call yourself a programmer, someone is already working on a way to get you fired. If you work at a place like that, I feel sorry for you. Even the owner of my company lists himself on Twitter and his blog as just Programmer at RAD Game Tools. Besides being the sounding board for us when we have problems and ideas, he still writes more code than most of us can regularly muster.

Perhaps taken in context one might have read it as "if you describe your sole value as the ability to write code, someone is already working on a way to get you fired".

I understand the context. Patrick's formulation is so commonplace as to be cliche. Code is our medium of expression. There's nothing inaccurate or ignominious about describing ourselves as programmers. To say that the code exists to solve problems is to flirt with tautology.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#27

Post by Fluxx » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:07 AM UTC

I don't agree with everything he said, but in terms of completeness about working as a software developer vs what you learn in school this is spot on.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#28

Post by mahyarm » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:08 AM UTC

ycapply2011 wrote: post #17

>> ”What is your previous salary?” is employer-speak for “Please give me reasons to pay you less money.” Answer appropriately. What is the proper approach to answering this question?

'It was pretty good.' 'High, Whats your salary?'

What I said is pretty tongue in cheek, but being vague in a way that hints that it compensated well can work.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#29

Post by daviddaviddavid » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:09 AM UTC

How jaded.

Sounds rather like a "Guide to Success in High School" written by the guy that graduated with perfect grades but got his ass kicked every day.

Well, not everybody gets their ass kicked every day.

I absolutely cringe at the idea of a bright-eyed young programmer becoming prematurely jaded based on somebody else's experiences.

"This post aspires to be README.txt for your career as a young engineer."

Definitely failed in that regard for this young engineer and I hope it fails similarly for my cohorts.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#30

Post by consultutah » Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 3:11 AM UTC

I agree wholeheartedly. That's how I promote my consulting biz, "More money for your business."

It is amazing how devs think that dollar value should equal effort. It does not. And this doesn't just apply to software. It applies to anything and everything. The value of something is what someone is willing to pay for it in that one split second when they click "charge my card".