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

How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 257 posts

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#101

Post by bumby »

onion2k wrote: post #16
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

How to get rich in tech as a mediocre programmer: 1. Transfer to a TPM/QA Manager role at somewhere like Amazon or Microsoft. Bar is much lower to get into this role. 2. Get hired into a higher level than you could in a SWE role. 3. Transfer within the company to being an SDM 4. Now you are one level higher, in a management role, that would have taken you 5+ years of grinding and some luck to get into. 5. Spend a few…

while bossing around engineers much smarter than you How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Working harder, taking all the stress, and earning less doesn't sound that smart.

They probably mean “smart” as in “technical acumen” not “cunning”

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#102

Post by fabianholzer »

Cyberdogs7 wrote: post #56
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

How to get rich in tech as a mediocre programmer: 1. Transfer to a TPM/QA Manager role at somewhere like Amazon or Microsoft. Bar is much lower to get into this role. 2. Get hired into a higher level than you could in a SWE role. 3. Transfer within the company to being an SDM 4. Now you are one level higher, in a management role, that would have taken you 5+ years of grinding and some luck to get into. 5. Spend a few…

I feel personally called out, as this was very much my path. However, I did continue to train my engineering skills and would be very embarrassed if any of the senior engineers in my team didn't think I had the same technical skills as them.

Quite likely most of them think exactly that, but they are not so stupid as to say it in your face, you are after all in a position to have formal and disciplinary power over them.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#103

Post by _jal »

KRAKRISMOTT wrote: post #34
mushufasa wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the CEO can sit on his hands the whole time the product is developed, but then does reap huge gains. This sounds off to me. Even if the CEO isn't a technical engineer literally working on the code, they are ultimately accountable for getting engineers and designers to build the right product. Building the right product is massively hard. Usually, it takes several wrong takes to get it right. 90% of startups fail…

The CEO is the sales guy. If you have worked in B2B places before, very often the CEO is completely non-technical.

That's frequently true, but it really depends. Some CEOs are the HR person, entirely focused on filling roles with people who know how to sell/build/whatever.

I do know one CEO who is "the engineer". They're in a bit of a weird market, and it seems to be working. I rather expect he'll move to a CTO role once they're actually in production, though, when the focus becomes growth.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#104

Post by fatnoah »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #66
dilyevsky wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a nice fantasy but most technically minded folks will quickly discover that political savviness required to pull this off is in fact a skill and the one they generally don't possess. Also, watch the hands: > 2. Get hired into a higher level than you could in a SWE role.

Its not a fantasy, this is path represents a huge percentage of managers/higher ups in software

This was my experience after my startup was acquired. My boss, and my skip level were both former QA folks who'd never done any SWE work. I had more YOE as a SWE AND as a manager than both combined.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#105

Post by u89012 »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

How to get rich in tech as a mediocre programmer: 1. Transfer to a TPM/QA Manager role at somewhere like Amazon or Microsoft. Bar is much lower to get into this role. 2. Get hired into a higher level than you could in a SWE role. 3. Transfer within the company to being an SDM 4. Now you are one level higher, in a management role, that would have taken you 5+ years of grinding and some luck to get into. 5. Spend a few…

Happened to me. I was that unfortunate CTO for a fintech startup. Unqualified CEO with anger issues but with loads of money waited till past traction and nod from investors, then simply booted me and my team out on some lame pretext, going as far as bad-mouthing 2 years of hard work by the tech team and now the CEO and the board have ghosted and won't return calls/email to pay or honour employment contract terms! Sane advice above, DO NOT accept equity, always go for hard cash, lesson learnt the hard way!

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#106

Post by mattgreenrocks »

l33t7332273 wrote: post #81
onion2k wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while bossing around engineers much smarter than you How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Working harder, taking all the stress, and earning less doesn't sound that smart.

>How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work I find it deeply troubling that so many people conflate “being smart” with “min-maxing labor and earning”. It reflects the strange belief that the best people are the best capitalists. I take issue with the thesis that money is crystallized virtue where more of one is more of the ot…

Yeah, it's a pretty gross mindset.

I suppose it is what people need to believe, however. Good luck with that, I guess?

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#107

Post by bumby »

timacles wrote: post #83
onion2k wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while bossing around engineers much smarter than you How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Working harder, taking all the stress, and earning less doesn't sound that smart.

Life is more complicated than that. There are smart people burdened with a moral compass, which forces them to "do the right thing" which might be pursuing their passion or contributing to society. Then there are smart people who are happen to exploit social structures to get ahead. Those becomes the sociopath CEOs and such. There are also plenty of not particularly smart people who figure out how to get ahead exploi…

I know there’s some correlation between certain Big Five personality traits like consciousness and material success, but now I’m wondering which of those traits may also correlate with IQ.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#108

Post by hollerith »

bumby wrote: post #107
timacles wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life is more complicated than that. There are smart people burdened with a moral compass, which forces them to "do the right thing" which might be pursuing their passion or contributing to society. Then there are smart people who are happen to exploit social structures to get ahead. Those becomes the sociopath CEOs and such. There are also plenty of not particularly smart people who figure out how to get ahead exploi…

I know there’s some correlation between certain Big Five personality traits like consciousness and material success, but now I’m wondering which of those traits may also correlate with IQ.

Openness is probably the one out of the 5 most correlated with IQ.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#109

Post by scarface_74 »

passion__desire wrote: post #95
scarface_74 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You never get promoted for “working hard”. You get promoted by showing your ability to work at a larger “scope”, showing “impact” and “dealing with ambiguity”. All of the leveling guidelines of tech companies I’ve seen or heard about have the same concepts.

What about the ambiguity engineers cut through when making decisions like whether to use "React" or "Svelte"? and subsequent success or failure, whatever the case may be. Are these decisions less important that top level ones?

That’s not what is meant by ambiguity.

I was actually just interviewing someone for a position for a green field project where I’m leading the backend parts across teams. I needed to be able to “fire and forget” an assignment where the requirements weren’t clear and there will probably be a lot of XYProblems.

I need them to talk to the vendor/customer, come up with a game plan, research the technology and present their idea to the team. I want them to know how to talk to developers, technical directors who don’t want to get into the weeds and non technical people.

After they have done the research - especially about a technology I don’t know - I want to lean on them to teach me and for me to be able to go to for advice.

I’ve given the thumbs up plenty of times for team members and now dotted line reports that impressed me by giving me “imposters syndrome”.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#110

Post by [deleted] »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

How to get rich in tech as a mediocre programmer: 1. Transfer to a TPM/QA Manager role at somewhere like Amazon or Microsoft. Bar is much lower to get into this role. 2. Get hired into a higher level than you could in a SWE role. 3. Transfer within the company to being an SDM 4. Now you are one level higher, in a management role, that would have taken you 5+ years of grinding and some luck to get into. 5. Spend a few…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN