Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Code that already exists" isn't necessarily the same as a "legacy project", though everyone's definition of what "legacy" means is different.
I guess, how do you define legacy then?
Old tech
You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
141–150 of 431 posts
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#142"with almost a decade of experience" isn't a senior at all with or without legacy projects :) and nothing beats the legacyness of languages before the java/webtech times - and im not even talking about COBOL
Not even COBOL, eh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d1phCytJyg
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Engineering isn't about working on the most interesting problems. It's about getting stuff done and management happy Truth is harsh, however this seems to be 100% accurate for nearly all cases of employment. Rarely do you get to focus on simply interesting problems and good engineering as a primary concern
Boredom is in the mind, not the task. Things aren't boring, people are. An important type of intelligence is the capacity to find what's interesting about a task that others lack the imagination to see. One needs to be able to create their own interesting solutions rather than expecting them to be handed down on a plate.
> Things aren't boring, people are.
What a strange thing to say! Aren't people also kind of... things? Shouldn't they be at least as interesting as things?
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends on your goals, though. Depending on the company, that can be a very good way to be treated as a cost centre to be minimised.
Yes, let's minimize the only dev working on legacy software.
Legacy software with a single dev can be on the fast track to getting shut down. If it was still a business priority, they'd be throwing more resources at it.
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the only better experience than "working on a greenfield project long enough to watch it become legacy and see the good and bad consequences of past decisions" is working on a second greenfield project long enough to see that drastically overcompensating for all the bad things from the first one is not the right solution either :)
And the only better experience than that is killing a new greenfield project before it gets to production because the old software was good enough and the problems were organizational in how the software was being used.
I thought it was pretty funny how we had this large project that was supposed to replace a legacy system (that was mostly a bad hack that got pushed to production).
But when it was finished it failed to meet the basic requirements for the only customer that used the system.
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#146As an embedded engineer in a new position I always volunteer to take up an old crusty legacy product that nobody else wants to touch. It's a quick education into how the company approaches projects and all the ghosts they had to fight along the way. All the business logic is there, and sometimes it's even documented. And once you have a semblance of knowledge about how the thing works and how to make fixes, you've bu…
Small, but not insurmountable. The time always comes when a new leader and their lieutenants come into the org and prioritize new features over maintenance, at which point your moat is null and void and you’re on borrowed time. I’ve yet to find a way to build a moat that withstands that level of hostility without actively harming the organization in the process. I’d love to hear how others deal with this inevitabilit…
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Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#147As an embedded engineer in a new position I always volunteer to take up an old crusty legacy product that nobody else wants to touch. It's a quick education into how the company approaches projects and all the ghosts they had to fight along the way. All the business logic is there, and sometimes it's even documented. And once you have a semblance of knowledge about how the thing works and how to make fixes, you've bu…
and forgo climbing more in the org because you become indispensable in that role
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Additionally, reading through other people's code is educational and it also builds self-esteem.
ironically most people can say the same about coming back and reading their own old code
In important regards, you sometimes become a different person :-)
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#149I once had a manager that was fond of saying: > Experience is what you get when you don’t have any. The only better experience than working on a legacy codebase is working on a greenfield project long enough to watch it become legacy and see the good and bad consequences of past decisions.
Too bad a lot of devs love to greenfield, slap it together, then bugger off to the next project pronto.
Re: You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Engineering isn't about working on the most interesting problems. It's about getting stuff done and management happy Truth is harsh, however this seems to be 100% accurate for nearly all cases of employment. Rarely do you get to focus on simply interesting problems and good engineering as a primary concern
Boredom is in the mind, not the task. Things aren't boring, people are. An important type of intelligence is the capacity to find what's interesting about a task that others lack the imagination to see. One needs to be able to create their own interesting solutions rather than expecting them to be handed down on a plate.
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