Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into • Hacker News Board

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#21

Post by chetan_v » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 2:21 AM UTC

icedistilled wrote: post #14

I appreciate the author making the effort to write up an article to help people find their career paths, it's more than I've done, but their article needs some revisions since some things are wrong. The welcome splash graphic shows data science having one of the lowest people skill requirements? What? Yeah I get it's still a hazily defined field, but literally every attempted definition I've seen includes greater bus…

Yeah it seemed kind of strange to me that Data Science and R&D are both not considered highly independent, I guess on some teams there is a more collaborative atmosphere but most of the data science work I have done seemed pretty independent. The people skills I agree with also, can't see how any data scientist could get by without strong people skills to communicate their results with leaders and to collaborate with subject matter experts.

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#22

Post by marcinzm » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 2:22 AM UTC

stallmanite wrote: post #18

tyrust wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>as most of them dont provide any value to anyone except themselves How do you explain software devs getting paid without providing any value?

I wouldn’t put most devs in the category but the existence of “bullshit jobs” that provide little to no value isn’t controversial is it? Edit: other reply beat me to it

That applies to plumbers as well. Which means we either come up with a comprehensive philosophy on what constitutes "value" or we go with the capitalistic approach of "what someone is willing to pay."

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#23

Post by RickJWagner » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 3:00 AM UTC

I've always liked Scott Adam's career path (includes 'programmer', 'product manager' and of course creator of Dilbert.

I've always thought Gary Larson would have made a good programmer, too.

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#24

Post by Judgmentality » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 6:28 AM UTC

ironmagma wrote: post #13

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell that to literally any hi-rise building, conference hall, apt mains. The arrogance of HN sometimes

Never ascribe to arrogance that which can be adequately explained by ignorance.

But believing you are better than someone else due to ignorance is pretty much the definition of arrogance.

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#25

Post by ironmagma » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 6:39 AM UTC

Judgmentality wrote: post #24

ironmagma wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never ascribe to arrogance that which can be adequately explained by ignorance.

But believing you are better than someone else due to ignorance is pretty much the definition of arrogance.

Original statement was about the capabilities of the roles of software developers vs. plumbers, not the virtue of a person in the first role versus the second.

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#26

Post by draw_down » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 11:36 AM UTC

pansa2 wrote: post #5

tersers wrote: post #3

I'm disappointed that the list focusses entirely on technical roles and ignores careers completely opposite to software development. I think a programmer would make a good mechanic, electrician, or plumber from the debugging skills alone.

Yeah, half of these careers are just “software developer with a different job title”.

And worse pay

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#27

Post by mratsim » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 12:31 PM UTC

icedistilled wrote: post #14

I appreciate the author making the effort to write up an article to help people find their career paths, it's more than I've done, but their article needs some revisions since some things are wrong. The welcome splash graphic shows data science having one of the lowest people skill requirements? What? Yeah I get it's still a hazily defined field, but literally every attempted definition I've seen includes greater bus…

Similarly Teacher and Trainer should have the most people skills requirement and be all the way to the right.

Security Analyst and Business Analyst have a high people skills requirement as well, you spend your time hovering and translating 2 domains:

- Security or Business

- Developers

And often sales, marketing, legal as well.

Re: Alternative Career Paths That Software Developers Can Grow Into

#28

Post by karlhughes » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 12:46 PM UTC

icedistilled wrote: post #14

I appreciate the author making the effort to write up an article to help people find their career paths, it's more than I've done, but their article needs some revisions since some things are wrong. The welcome splash graphic shows data science having one of the lowest people skill requirements? What? Yeah I get it's still a hazily defined field, but literally every attempted definition I've seen includes greater bus…

That's a fair critique, although I didn't mean to imply that any of these roles take 0 people skills - only that some involve more time creating things solo vs. interacting with a team.

I also think there's a lot of variation in these roles, so my experience with them is probably just limited.