51–60 of 123 posts
I was having a beer in this small Brazilian town, mid-afternoon. Two girls come to my table. We try to chat ; they can't speak any foreign language and my Portuguese is awful. - Me: What is your job ? - The girls: Programma - Me (for the next 30 minutes): Oh great, me too ! Which languages ? Even "Java" didn't seem to mean anything to them. Strange. I assumed they had special programming languages in Brazil. 10 years…
You should call yourself whatever based on the situation. If you are hanging out with a group of consultants, you call yourself consultant; if you are a special effects programmer, and talking to a model, you say you're in the movie business; if you are interviewing with the author, you call yourself programmer. The best way to connect with others is to understand how they perceive things and find ways to relate to t…
There's a major point in this article that not many commenters seem to be picking up on: there's a fork in the road of careers. To one side is a multilane highway over fairly level ground leading straigh to predictable suburbia. To the other side is an uneven dirt path leading through mountains and countryside to parts unknown and has many forks of its own. Neither path is right for everyone. And hardly anyone needs…
I don't agree with the point about later stage options: But what this misses is that you don't get paid in percentage points - you get dollars. A $100 share going up 20% to $120 means you make $20 per share. A $5 share going up 100% to $15 means you only make $10 per share. If you join a larger company, the shares will be more expensive but you will own less of them. Percentage growth is definitely the way to measure…
No, the person he's responding to is right. In general, hiring managers don't care about bits, they care about dollars. They're going to be looking for dollars you made for other companies because that translates into dollars you can make for them. Money. It's the universal language.
Now the question is how many people there are who need you to translate their dollar concerns into the language of bits, vs how many people there are who don't have trouble doing it themselves but what they do need is people who can then write the bloody program. I have no stats and I sincerely want to see some.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not in Canada. It's illegal here to call yourself an 'engineer' unless you're a licensed engineer. It's a protected term, like 'doctor'. So unless you studied Software Engineering, which there are many schools that teach it, and hold a P.Eng, then you can't use the term.
That's technically true in many US states as well, but I've never heard of it being enforced outside of the fields where many practitioners are licensed (mostly Civil Engineering, to a much lesser extent Electrical and Mechanical Engineering).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_eng...
You should call yourself whatever based on the situation. If you are hanging out with a group of consultants, you call yourself consultant; if you are a special effects programmer, and talking to a model, you say you're in the movie business; if you are interviewing with the author, you call yourself programmer. The best way to connect with others is to understand how they perceive things and find ways to relate to t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate the trend of calling people who code 'engineers.' It's just not a good title for anything to do with software. And invariably people who embrace its usage seem to be trying to compensate or ignorant of what a real engineer actually does or is.
The trend extends to other words. Sometimes I hear Programmers calling themselves Computer Scientists or Computer Engineers [1] [2] [3] when in different cases they are a Developers or a Hacker. Which they get wrong too. You are what you are. of you're acting another role you should state that you're playing that role not that you are. Ex. Computer Scientist, who can fill the role of a Programmer. This discussion kee…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha I laughed to this. Specially because I'm brazilian. And yes, it is the same word, 'program' is a slang for prostitute work. We programmers here joke a lot about this :)
It goes both ways. In the US many "consultants" / "independent consultants" refer to themselves as "whores" especially when applying their talents (for money of course) to companies or projects they disrespect.