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Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

muldoon.cloud

191–200 of 505 posts

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#191
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional (non-SPA) web apps is where PHP is quite strong. Also depends on the team, if you have a PHP team and it's a web project, you probably want to use PHP.

That's the problem right? Nobody starts new non-SPA web app projects anymore.

Plenty of companies are building boring new PHP sites on Magento and making money without being SPAs. At least here in the Midwest, I've noticed quite a few non-tech companies moving their SPA sites away from being SPAs because it was the wrong technology choice for what the site does.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#192
post #21

I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…

Just in case anyone reads this and gets very worried about getting older and being destitute, its certainly not always the case. I am 48 years old and having a blast. I am team lead working in the companies CTO office. I play around with build systems, making everything cloud native (kubernetes) and I get to work on a good amount of upstream open source projects. My company does not see my age at all, they just see m…

I get to fix other people shit code because our tech lead has an attitude like yours and has made poor tech decisions in the past in order to learn new things. He is too busy learning things and building new parts to the system to to write any tests or document anything, or even to explain things properly.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#193
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leave dates off of your education on your resume and LinkedIn. The only use of those dates is to age you. No one is going to ask about it.

I hear this from time to time. I'm not sure I buy it. 1.) Most people can do math. Unless you're also going to be evasive more or less throughout your resume about how long you were in roles and the like, people are going to figure out your rough age/general seniority pretty easily. And at some point it looks evasive. Maybe you're trying to hide some big gap that exists for some reason. 2.) But let's say you do scrub…

1) I'm assuming if you're old enough to want to keep years off your education, then you're probably old enough that you're not putting work history from your early/mid 20's on your resume. Maybe you're 40 and only need to put your last 10 years to show relevant work history. This probably varies a lot person to person, but for me it works very well.

2) Getting an interview is all a resume is good for in the first place. Now they've invested their time in you and you have a chance to sell yourself.

3) Same here, but even people who "know" me professionally don't necessarily know my age. I certainly don't know all of their ages! Plus if they know you, they already have an incentive to care less about your age.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#194
post #21

I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…

Have you looked into Consulting? I'm mid 30s and I see consultants way older bringing in cash by jumping in on projects that are using a slightly older stack (not all the time older) and crushing it. Seriously there is work out there for consultants and they can do awesome stuff. I've even seen consultants at startups. Good luck!

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#195
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon's total all-in cost per dev is almost certainly >$300k per year, so more like >$7 million if that's an accurate number. As far as how it gets approved, that's not enough money to really register at Amazon's scale. I've seen waste similar to that at companies much, much smaller than Amazon that goes entirely un-noticed.

> As far as how it gets approved, that's not enough money to really register at Amazon's scale. I've seen waste similar to that at companies much, much smaller than Amazon that goes entirely un-noticed. Maybe I'm being dense, but this still doesn't register for me. If 4+ calendar years of work for a single team continues with no noticeable progress, then there's an organizational issue, no matter the size of the comp…

It's pretty easy to have a project look like progress is being made in the moment, especially when presenting to the director+ level, where a manager is presenting on 4-5 different projects. It's even easier with projects that aren't important or highly-visible (as internal projects tend to be).

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> married with kids Can't you just lie about this? It's none of their business. Or tell white lies -- kids, but "pretty old" or "at college" or whatever.

I make it a habit of trying not to be dishonest. :)

It's not legal for prospective employers to ask you these kinds of questions. If you're talking about your wife and kids during the interview process, you're doing it wrong.

My last round of interviews was at age 46. Went from being (voluntarily) unemployed to a FAANG job. I had to do the same stuff the 20-somethings do: practiced hackerrank, answered stupid whiteboard dynamic programming questions that have nothing to do with the job, etc. But at no time did I talk about my personal life with anyone involved in hiring.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am almost 40, and I fully expect this to be my last software development job. Likewise, I've never had a negative performance review and am usually the top task-killer and bug-destroyer; but when recruiters call and find out I'm married with kids they can't seem to hang up fast enough. I'm saving as much as I can. The end is nigh.

I don't understand why marriage or dependants would come up. If anything these two life changes forced me to take my career and profession a lot more seriously.

Any number of ways:

- What are your hobbies?

- What drives you?

- Where do you see yourself in five years?

- Would you be willing to work long hours often?

- Can you work in the USA?

And so on.

There's so many questions that are legal to ask but for which an honest answer would reveal private information.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#198
post #59
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon's total all-in cost per dev is almost certainly >$300k per year, so more like >$7 million if that's an accurate number. As far as how it gets approved, that's not enough money to really register at Amazon's scale. I've seen waste similar to that at companies much, much smaller than Amazon that goes entirely un-noticed.

>that's not enough money to really register at Amazon's scale. This viewpoint doesn't really match up with how enterprises operate. It's possible to function at amazon's scale without meticulous accounting and financial operations. The reason for this is that is extremely easy for wasteful spending to propagate throughout the enterprise if unchecked. Waste only appears after a project fails...it's easy to point out w…

I guarantee there were some technical people saying this was a waste of time and money.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#199
post #177

There is so much that is wrong with this. Follow this advise only if you are currently employed and your employment is extremely safe because your employer is deemed essential or because they are financial strong in the current economy. For everybody else very carefully consider why an employer should hire you when the current economy is failing, programmers generally are very expensive and add very little value to t…

> I have time for both jobs, coding on the side, spending time with my kids, helping my wife prepare dinner, and so forth. Genuinely curious, how are two full white-collar jobs in parallel even physically possible? Are they remote with completely flexible hours and not full time?

One is part time. My primary employer is a bank about an hour drive away (not rush hour) so I am enjoying a huge gush of extra time due to COVID19.

My part time job is Army Reserves, though starting today it became my primary employer. There are a surprising large number of people who work two professional jobs whether charity, military, freelance, startups, or other.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#200
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in case anyone reads this and gets very worried about getting older and being destitute, its certainly not always the case. I am 48 years old and having a blast. I am team lead working in the companies CTO office. I play around with build systems, making everything cloud native (kubernetes) and I get to work on a good amount of upstream open source projects. My company does not see my age at all, they just see m…

I get to fix other people shit code because our tech lead has an attitude like yours and has made poor tech decisions in the past in order to learn new things. He is too busy learning things and building new parts to the system to to write any tests or document anything, or even to explain things properly.

That is more a just out of university developer trope.
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