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Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

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Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#331

Post by treis »

marcusverus wrote: post #323
giantg2 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an intermediate dev, masters degree, 9 years experience, non-FAANG, higher cost of living area (not SV, NYC or NVA), and work with obscure tech and proprietary tools. It sucks that I suck. Oh well.

You might suck, but it seems more likely that you're getting ripped off by an employer who hopes you don't know what your skills are worth. Are you on LinkedIn? Do you ever speak with recruiters about other opportunities? That's a great way to get a feel for the 'market rate' for your skillset in your area. When's the last time you changed jobs?

They're stuck because they work with proprietary tools on obscure tech. Nobody else wants them because their experience doesn't translate.

I recently made the transition but it was extremely difficult. I ended up with 1 offer after ~10 or so interviews and ~50 or so applications.

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#332

Post by tharkun__ »

jjice wrote: post #189
vageli wrote: post #3

> The most underrated skill to learn as an engineer is how to document. Fuck, someone please teach me how to write good documentation. Seriously, if there's any recommendations, I'd seriously pay for a course (like probably a lot of money, maybe 1k for a course if it guaranteed that I could write good docs.) I agree but think it is more than just _documentation_: effectively communicating ideas through text was one o…

> effectively communicating ideas through text was one of the most underrated skills in software engineering Absolutely. So many hour long meetings could be shortened by better communication skills (just more targeted), or even a small email chain. Communicating in short form confidently is a skill. Many people, including myself (something I've been working on) struggle with saying something that was a complete idea…

And many many people don't do it well. On both ends. Reading is a skill too.

I find 'small email chains' don't help at all. Too many people just don't read past the first sentence or paragraph. And email is slow.

I usually 'escalate' quickly. Support didn't understand a ticket comment I made on how this isn't a bug or why there really is a workaround for it?

I send them an IM trying to coax it out of them/get them to understand for a few minutes. Doesn't work? Quick call and do screen sharing. Problem usually solved after a few minutes. Problem is they might stay longer than that took just to 'catch up' ;)

This is really not that different from when we were all at the office just that the last part would be walking over to their office and looking at the computer together. In some situations that makes it even easier nowadays because I don't need to take an elevator down 20 stories and back up again after.

Having asynchronous means of communication is great. But as soon as the back and forth is more than maybe twice on each side, there's probably a miscommunication happening somehow that will be much easier to get solved with a really short feedback loop. Some people you have to call right away coz they just type soooooo slowly ;)

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#333

Post by OJFord »

> Hacker News and r/Programming is only good to get general ideas and keep up-to-date, the comments are almost worthless

That's a weird one. I don't know anything about that subreddit, but HN comments are frequently great. I submit stuff because I want there to be HN comments on it for me to read. I typically read the comments first and only bother opening the link if they were interesting.

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#334

Post by nojvek »

josalhor wrote: post #305

> Tests are important but TDD is a damn cult. I don't see people commenting on this one! That may be a good thing because it means people are not questioning it :)

I like TDD when I’m mostly dealing with functional/library like code where I have a solid understanding of the interface/api.

Just put all the expected input/outputs in a big table test and iterate.

TDD is awful when you don’t have a clear idea about the interface and need to mock a whole bunch of internals that are likely to change.

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#335

Post by tharkun__ »

brundolf wrote: post #216

> It's not important to do what I like. It's more important to do what I don't hate. This one has started to dawn on me. I'm never going to love my job as much as I love my personal projects, so a job that I don't get very excited about but doesn't drain my energy is better than one that I get somewhat excited about but does drain my energy (not that it's impossible to have both, but it's rare)

This is a really really big one if you ask me.

It seems to me that many if not most people I meet fall into one of two camps.

The folks that just don't care at all and do the minimal amount of work they can get away with not to get fired. The other side is folks that care so much about it that they spend so much energy on as to ultimately be unhealthy for them and also making it worse for the rest of us (not taking vacation, unpaid overtime etc.

It is very rare to find people that care 100% while at work. But after ~40 hours each week that's it. Sure I'll stay later for that one meeting that's sorta important and needs to start at 4:30p.m. But you better not try that every day from now on. Want me to be on call for a fixed rate that has nothing to do with my salary? I can't log an hour for a 5 minute call at 1am and I can't take time off in lieu? Good luck getting me on that rotation!

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#337

Post by giantg2 »

tolbish wrote: post #304
giantg2 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean exactly? There are tons of problems with the company. Stay long enough at any large company and I'm sure there are plenty. The issues can change dramatically from department to department.

The lack of documentation/procedure, and the process issues with others contacting you needlessly instead of the SME. They just seem like structural issues that would not be specific to one team.

Oh. Other departments are better in those areas. We had troubleshooting and recovery procedures in the previous team.

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#338

Post by ww520 »

daenz wrote: post #18

>Don't meet your heroes. I paid 5k to take a course by one of my heroes. He's a brilliant man, but at the end of it I realized that he's making it up as he goes along like the rest of us. I thought they were going to go the direction of "he's an asshole" and was ready to accept that, but this particular criticism is actually disturbing. People with strong visions can often appear to be "making it up as they go along,…

It just means don't blindly trust the experts.

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#339

Post by giantg2 »

treis wrote: post #331
marcusverus wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might suck, but it seems more likely that you're getting ripped off by an employer who hopes you don't know what your skills are worth. Are you on LinkedIn? Do you ever speak with recruiters about other opportunities? That's a great way to get a feel for the 'market rate' for your skillset in your area. When's the last time you changed jobs?

They're stuck because they work with proprietary tools on obscure tech. Nobody else wants them because their experience doesn't translate. I recently made the transition but it was extremely difficult. I ended up with 1 offer after ~10 or so interviews and ~50 or so applications.

Yeah, this is my situation. I am AWS certified and started working on a team that uses it, sort of. So maybe I can transition off of there in a year or two because the subject matter sucks.

Re: Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Sr Engineer

#340

Post by giantg2 »

alexeldeib wrote: post #311
giantg2 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an intermediate dev, masters degree, 9 years experience, non-FAANG, higher cost of living area (not SV, NYC or NVA), and work with obscure tech and proprietary tools. It sucks that I suck. Oh well.

I really didn't mean for the comment to come across that way. I fully agreed with "it sounds great because it is great". I just wanted to provide another perspective too.

No, I completely get that. I'm just adding some of my background to show my thoughts. I know there are other areas and other people that command higher prices.
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