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Web Development as a career – the realities

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Re: Web Development as a career – the realities

#11

Post by thaumasiotes »

> Some people love to cook in their spare time. Would these people be as enthusiastic about cooking if they were doing it for 40+ hours a week every week and there was a superior telling them what and how to cook?

> The honest answer for most people is no!

I find this weird. I advertised for calculator program requests in high school because I wanted someone to tell me what to code. (There were no takers. One guy wanted a program to convert decimal numbers into fractions, but that's already built into the calculators.) To me writing a program is solving a puzzle. You can't do that unless there's a puzzle to solve.

I was baffled and enraged by the prevalence of the question "what do you want to work on?" and its related forms in job interviews. My philosophy of work is that the whole point of having a boss is that they tell you what to do and you do it. Sure, I don't want to fix cars, but that's why I'm applying as a software developer and not a mechanic.

Re: Web Development as a career – the realities

#14

Post by jsprogrammer »

rifung wrote: post #6

"when asked what makes you a senior developer, they answer 'Because I have been coding for 5 years'." Maybe 5 years is insufficient, to be considered senior, but isn't the amount of time you've been coding what defines how senior you are? I get that technologies come and go and you have to stay up to date, but I would think that if someone were looking for a senior developer they would be looking for someone with a l…

To me, the 'Senior' adjective in a job title corresponds to the individual's position within the organization that has bestowed that title, not necessarily to the individual's abilities compared to the larger community.

Re: Web Development as a career – the realities

#15

Post by CmonDev »

pbowyer wrote: post #8

> They have been working in the same job, with the same technologies, on the same product but when asked what makes you a senior developer, they answer “Because I have been coding for 5 years”. > The sad fact is that these people have not been aware of the realities of the industry they have been working in. Their job and their job security is no longer secure. Never let this become you! It sounds like the author val…

NodeJS? That thing is already dead. You must have a year of IO.js experience.

Re: Web Development as a career – the realities

#17

Post by UK-AL »

This is why development is ageist. Keeping programming skills up to date after work, and spending hours after work trying different languages and libraries is fine when your young.

Its not so fine, when you have kids and a wife to look after.

Probably have about an hour to myself everyday.

Re: Web Development as a career – the realities

#18

Post by [deleted] »

UK-AL wrote: post #17

This is why development is ageist. Keeping programming skills up to date after work, and spending hours after work trying different languages and libraries is fine when your young. Its not so fine, when you have kids and a wife to look after. Probably have about an hour to myself everyday.

[deleted]

Re: Web Development as a career – the realities

#19

Post by gaius »

rifung wrote: post #6

"when asked what makes you a senior developer, they answer 'Because I have been coding for 5 years'." Maybe 5 years is insufficient, to be considered senior, but isn't the amount of time you've been coding what defines how senior you are? I get that technologies come and go and you have to stay up to date, but I would think that if someone were looking for a senior developer they would be looking for someone with a l…

5 years! A career these days is 40-45 years. If you are "senior" in only 5 then where do you expect to go from there?

20 years experience, on a wide range of technologies, in a variety of roles, then we'll talk senior. Until then calling yourself "senior" just invites people not to take you seriously.

Re: Web Development as a career – the realities

#20

Post by UK-AL »

gaius wrote: post #19
rifung wrote: post #6

"when asked what makes you a senior developer, they answer 'Because I have been coding for 5 years'." Maybe 5 years is insufficient, to be considered senior, but isn't the amount of time you've been coding what defines how senior you are? I get that technologies come and go and you have to stay up to date, but I would think that if someone were looking for a senior developer they would be looking for someone with a l…

5 years! A career these days is 40-45 years. If you are "senior" in only 5 then where do you expect to go from there? 20 years experience, on a wide range of technologies, in a variety of roles, then we'll talk senior. Until then calling yourself "senior" just invites people not to take you seriously.

Where I am, you have to call yourself senior to get a salary comparable to other professions.
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