Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets • Hacker News Board

Re: Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets

#261

Post by CRConrad » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 8:13 AM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #86

georgyo wrote: post #38

I don't understand our modern tech culture of saying maintenance is the last on the list; always getting chopped and cut; never getting a decent budget. In 20 years and several different companies I have always heard this but never agreed with it. Sure, the company wants new features to market, but the company also wants things to freaking work. During layoffs and hiring freezes I have seen SRE type orgs fair better…

> In 20 years and several different companies I have always heard this but never agreed with it. Do you mean your companies didn't act like maintenance was last on the list , you didn't agree with descriptions that said they would? Or they indeed did, you just didn't agree this was appropriate, you thought they were acting inappropriately? Because you seem to be describing environments where indeed maintenance was no…

I'm fairly certain the GP didn't mean the saying "maintenance is the last on the list" is a prescription. AFAICS their point was simply that it's not even an a valid description of reality; their experience is the opposite.

Re: Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets

#262

Post by CRConrad » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:19 AM UTC

count wrote: post #132

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't become any less nonsencial just because some business leaders who are still stuck in 1980s believe in it. Both profit centers and cost centers are supposed to increase profit, otherwise you wouldn't hire those people. If a department doesn't drive profit, then just axe it and stop wasting money on it. If you can't [1], then it actually drives profit, you just have no idea how. The fact that you can't set p…

You redefined cost / profit center as 'primary' or 'support'. This is a circular argument.

> You redefined cost / profit center

Well, those are rather funny categories in the first place. Cost and profit aren't complementary categories; cost and revenue are. Profit consists of them both (i.e. the difference between their sums across all departments).

Just as there are no pure revenue centers -- every department has costs! -- it could be argued that there are no pure cost centers: Every department contributes to revenue in its own way. Without maintenance, you'd soon have no services to sell; without R&D you'd soon have no new products to sell... Heck, even HR -- without it, you'd soon have no personnel to staff the other departments.

Seems a bit skewed that some departments get to hog the "profit" label all to themselves while others are -- pejoratively, in MBA-speak -- condemned to the "cost" category.

Re: Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets

#263

Post by CRConrad » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:28 AM UTC

vanderZwan wrote: post #33

w4tty wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Because COBOL maintenance is outsourced to the third world.

Do you seriously suggest that banks outsource the maintenance of the mainframes that process their money transfers? If so I'd like to see a source, because the only articles I have read about on this topic (e.g. [0]) tell me the exact opposite: it's all in-house the risks are too high. For larger banks it's practically a national security risk. Maybe the software they use is from abroad (usually ancient IBM shit), bu…

> https://ezali.substack.com/p/interviewing-my-mother-a-mainfr...

404, Ezali seems to have left substack.

Re: Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets

#264

Post by CRConrad » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:51 AM UTC

vanderZwan wrote: post #110

nijave wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't "out source", they in-source by opening technology hubs in cheaper locations.

Again, I would like to see a source. I'm not saying you're wrong. Maybe you're talking about small banks in the US or something, of which I know basically nothing. I am thinking of examples like Nordea, the bank in the article I linked, which has a market share of around 20% in Sweden[0] and handles the government's bank accounts. Especially that last part makes me extremely skeptical that the Swedish government woul…

> Especially that last part makes me extremely skeptical that the Swedish government would be OK with handing over the keys to their economic kingdom to cheap digital labor abroad so a company might save some money.

Well, to begin with, the Swedish government seems to have known for a rather long while that Nordea has been doing quite a lot of other shady shit abroad, and still stuck with them... From your own WP cite, a bit further down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordea#Scandals .

Not that the Swedish government is much of a guarantor against sending sensitive data abroad in the first place: They were quite OK with the Swedish Transport Agency letting a contractor (Oh look, IBM again!) hand over data, including higly secret (protected identities, military vehicle registry, security van routes and timetables) to sub-contractors abroad with no Swedish security clearances: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Transport_Agency%2... (very cursory article; much more in the Swedish-language version). So them trusting Nordea... Isn't much of a recommendation for Nordea either.

Re: Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets

#265

Post by CRConrad » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 2:06 PM UTC

lazyasciiart wrote: post #244

geodel wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? If anyone frequented this or many other forums they'd know employers can terminate employee any time without any reason whatsoever. Leave the job with as little notice as possible because employers absolutely do not care for you. And when last year it did happen people here are feeling hurt as if forever job promise is broken.

"As little notice as possible" as in send an email 3am Wednesday that you have left the job and as of sending this email you are no longer able to be contacted? I would have a very negative opinion of that person, just as I do of the employer who conducted layoffs that way.

You clearly need to spend more time on /r/antiwork.