When I was younger I used to say that I was a jack of all trades, master of none. Many years later I feel like a jack of all trades, master of many. I no longer fit any of the profiles presented here.
Short fat engineers are undervalued
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Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#32People who have broad interests with no depth of knowledge have not identified (for themselves) where their value lies.
I would imagine that this type of engineer needs to be carefully managed to stay on tasks that add business-value.
As such, it's not unfair that they are seen as juniors. They are juniors.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#33The article itself isn't about this but one could theorize that the headline taken literally is also likely true.
And that’s true even more if they are bald and with a beard.
I knew a senior software engineer who was in his 60s, who was short, fat (pot bellied), completely bald (or shaven), and had a large white beard.
He also used to ruffle the feathers of HR. Once, when a woman from the talent acquisition team tried to give him generic instructions about conducting interviews, he told her “Lady, I don’t need all this, I’ve been doing this since before you were born”. (She was born in the mid-80s.) She reported him to HR, and obviously they didn’t do anything, since he was one of the most valuable engineers at the company.
He had a great breadth of knowledge and experience, and was really good at what he did.
So what you’re stating doesn’t necessarily always hold true.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#34"Junior in every department" really struck hard for me.
I know just enough of basically everything to get by or as a starting point, but I lack that really deep knowledge that comes from using a small group of skills and tools for years. I feel that switching languages and frameworks and tools and OSes a bunch of times early in my career has really held me back.
I don't mind supporting my team, what I don't like is how companies will structure an entire team as support around one or two people. I am not a rock star but I am still capable of contributing more than "support". I want to build real features.
Especially when I know I'm capable of doing the things those devs do, just maybe not at the speed they do.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#35The article itself isn't about this but one could theorize that the headline taken literally is also likely true.
Ngl for a minute before clicking I was slightly curious if this was some random study of the literal interpretation.
I believe there is ample research showing height and attractiveness (one could reasonably consider weight to be one determining factor in attractiveness) do play a factor in career success, compensation, and selection for leadership.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#36Is it really true? A lot of companies are focusing on hiring "short fat" engineers. Especially companies having "dev ops" engineering model, where engineers must be able to work on all stages of the product lifecycle - from design, development, testing, to deployment and operations.
"Full stack" (for whatever definition) is valued because it cuts down on coordination costs, but you may run into limits of what you can expect one person to know. Interestingly, as I've had to hire some "skinny" specialists, my Kanban board has gotten wider to coordinate between them.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#37None of these things exist. A taxonomy of three kinds is entirely inadequate to describe the potential of anyone working today. These sorts of quick fix mental models are pretty poisonous. There are literally recommendations for all three saying how useful they are. This is some of the dumbest snake oil to infect software development.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#38No sources and a lot of assertions here. I'm not sure how true this is tbh. Some of the best TAs I've worked with have a very broad knowledge of a lot of technologies, without being much of an expert in any specific technology.
I'm also personally somewhere between a tall-skinny and t-shaped engineer. Admittedly jobs seem to be a little harder to come by, but there are some jobs (especially with small startups) that really appreciate engineers who have a wide range of skills.
I'd love to see some data, confirming this. I suspect OP is right, but I don't think "short and fat" engineers are under valued as a rule, it's more that 90% of the time companies are looking to hire someone with a very specific skillset to fill a very specific role.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#39Wisdom comes from depth and breadth not breadth alone. That initial bolder claim was a major turn off for me. The “wisdom” you get from breadth is the same kind of “wisdom” you get from seeing a lot of faces go by on the street. It’s surface level, and mostly wrong.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#40And what about us short, skinny engineers? I guess we're just happy to be here.