Engineers suck at finding the right jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Engineers suck at finding the right jobs

#131

Post by malandrew » Fri, Nov 16, 2012, 10:22 PM UTC

pcestrada wrote: post #68

malandrew wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really bothers me that this is a highly upvoted comment since it has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the post in question. I wouldn't be surprised if that presentation was posted on HN a while back. Search for it and go comment there.

A person's reputation is an important factor in evaluating what they say.

A person's reputation is simply a signal in determining whether of not whether it is worth your time to read or listen to something they have said/written. Being upvoted to the front page of HN is also a signal. The latter signal is far more valuable and relevant than the signal you have brought up since it is directly related to the content in question and not merely the author.

Re: Engineers suck at finding the right jobs

#132

Post by fizx » Sat, Nov 17, 2012, 8:04 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #117

fizx wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if you go by the google ratings, which are similar, you get: Intern Software Engineer Senior Software Engineer Staff Engineer Senior Staff Engineer Principal Engineer Distinguished Engineer Fellow All of a sudden, "senior" doesn't feel very far up the totem pole.

The Google rankings are misleading because many managers stay on the engineering ladder. (For example, Amit Singhal, who runs all of Search, invented the Google ranking algorithm, and is an ACM Fellow, was a "Distinguished Engineer" when I joined.) Staff through Principal are really management ranks - it's very hard to get to Staff without managing people or being a tech lead on a large project. Distinguished/Fellow…

I was under the impression that to be staff+ you had to be a leader (technical direction) but not a manager (performance reviews, people stuff). How accurate is that?

Re: Engineers suck at finding the right jobs

#133

Post by nostrademons » Sat, Nov 17, 2012, 8:40 AM UTC

fizx wrote: post #132

nostrademons wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Google rankings are misleading because many managers stay on the engineering ladder. (For example, Amit Singhal, who runs all of Search, invented the Google ranking algorithm, and is an ACM Fellow, was a "Distinguished Engineer" when I joined.) Staff through Principal are really management ranks - it's very hard to get to Staff without managing people or being a tech lead on a large project. Distinguished/Fellow…

I was under the impression that to be staff+ you had to be a leader (technical direction) but not a manager (performance reviews, people stuff). How accurate is that?

That's true, but usually being a technical leader of a large project implies managing the people on it, if only because it's good for people to have managers that actually know what their day-to-day accomplishments are. I do know of exceptions. There are a few people who get to staff and even beyond without managing people, but I've heard it's very hard and usually involves TLing a project of the scope of Google Instant (and then you frequently get made a manager afterwards, unless you really strenuously object).

TLing is a completely different skillset from engineering anyway - it's much more interrupt-driven, people-focused, and basically involves being a mentor, teacher, and shit umbrella. When I've TLed projects, I usually find myself spending about 30% of my time coding and 70% communicating with other departments, debugging obscure bugs, managing up, and making sure all the critical parts are covered. Coworkers that are staff+ and TL larger projects usually find it's 0% coding and 100% dealing with politics & coordination.

Re: Engineers suck at finding the right jobs

#134

Post by optimusclimb » Sat, Nov 17, 2012, 8:56 AM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #12

I thought the author sounded familiar. He's the person who gave this blatantly sexist and offensive presentation, CouchDB: Perform Like A Pr0n Star , at the Golden Gate Ruby Conference in 2009: http://ompldr.org/vZ2I1cA/gogaruco-couchdb-090418194027-phpa...

Wow. So, I'm one of the least PC people you'll meet, and hoped that upon clicking through I'd be proved correct that the link was benign, in good jest, and conference safe. AYFKM? Big surprise OP is working for a daily deals company and not for real tech.