The valve employee handbook talks about the T shaped engineer (page 32) https://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_Handbook_Low...
That's before their model is rigged properly.
Short fat engineers are undervalued
61–70 of 269 posts
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#62Is 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.
> 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.
This is what DevOps is _supposed_ to be but often not what "DevOps Engineers" are hired to be. In my experience most companies hire DevOps Engineers that are one of two things:
1) Sysadmins that also know Python and whichever public cloud dominates the vertical the company operates in
2) Developers that don't actually develop but spend all of their time managing CI/CD pipelines, SCM, JIRA, etc.
In either case their roles are obviously secondary to the developers that build actual solutions; they are the mechanics for the software engineers, which inherently means that their contribution to the value stream is not holistic and it's just another way of enforcing the traditional dichotomy between people that build solutions (developers) and people that keep them from falling over (operations).
I've held the title of "DevOps Engineer" at least once professionally and when I would talk to recruiters or new employers about a software engineering position they'd often ask me what "got me into DevOps" or why I'm trying to "get back into coding". If you know and like working with dev tools and infrastructure then my advice to you is to be a Software Engineer that does DevOps, not a "DevOps Engineer".
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#63The article itself isn't about this but one could theorize that the headline taken literally is also likely true.
I'd agree if its most other jobs but I thought devs were one job where appearance doesn't matter as much?
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 t…
Sometimes when people refuse to learn something new because they think they know better they are right, and sometimes they are wrong. Sadly it is difficult to know in which of these group you are, so it might be a good hedge not to refuse to listen to the young people. Even the most knowledgeable engineer can become a net negative quite easily.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#65How about "tall and fat" (square)? I'd consider myself fairly expert in C and C++, SQL, Windows programming, UNIX/Linux in general, Delphi and a few other technologies, in that quite a few people have paid me for writing important applications using them, teaching them and writing about them.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#66Great title. Great article.
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#67Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#68The article itself isn't about this but one could theorize that the headline taken literally is also likely true.
thatsthejoke.png
Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#69Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued
#70The argument of specialist vs generalist is futile. They simple fit in distinct parts of the journey and evolution of a software product. Generalists are highly valuable for many types of orgs and projects especially nascent projects. But sometimes you need the precise output of a specialist to achieve something. If my business has a product that is highly dependent of let's say OpenGL, then an OpenGL specialist will…
> you're likely in the wrong project or too involved in phases of a project where your contribution can't move the needle significantly anymore
to expand on this, I've found most of my happiness as a generalist in early stage startups. to me, a larger company looking for a generalist with no concrete role is a sign that they don't have their stuff together. obviously there are exceptions to this rule - some companies just prefer generalists - but usually once teams get big enough, people settle into specific roles, even as a generalist.