In my experience there is a huge gap between those that are smart and enthusiastic and those that are just average. I consider myself part of the former group and I can’t blame coworkers for just doing their job and go home. But it means the gap just widens.
Average in my mind is what the hiring process should be looking for. I would think the average one is someone who gets the job done. Like there is some diminishing returns trying to find above average or hire. The effort needed to get that best of the best turns into what we have now. Plus what I see, the best of the best are job hopping anyways.
This has been my experience as well, since I started in community college in the early 2000s.
There is an unfortunately large difference in tech between a person who has an innate interest and someone who is checking the boxes to get and keep a job.
But one you can underpay and abuse because they are excited. The other has a lot better idea of what they’ll accept and will leave when it’s not worth it anymore.
Depends on what you see as “the job”. I would prefer many projects to be better than they currently are, both from the end user and the developer side.
When I think about the projects I have seen, you need very good people to clean up technical debt in a viable and sustainable way, as well as develop in a way that is sustainable and maintainable in a good way long term.
If you don’t have very good people, code quality devolves quickly, whereas the negative impact is felt a bit later, and at that point, it’ll be hard for most people to clean up and improve the project in a reasonable fashion, and it usually never happens.
The skill, experience, and being able to grasp what needs to be grasped gap is one thing, the time people are in a project or firm is another.
In the end, it depends on what the job is. Sure, most apps work. But there are so many applications that annoy and hinder me as a user. Even as a user, it’s a mess. I’m sure the dev team doesn’t have it much better on those projects.
With very good people acting as mentors and guidance, others can certainly get the job done, and contribute in productive ways. Most importantly, they learn and improve significantly.
I guess overall it’s not really about the big gap, but more of a continuum of skill. There’s certainly a weighted spread though.
You went on though to describe how difficult and technical the skill is needed to wade through this code. Which is kind of in my mind what I’ve seen with so many jobs. People in roles for long periods of time have this ability to make their job seem like the most difficult thing possible. Lately I’ve been watching these window tinting competitions. Listening to those guys describe putting on window tint always reminds me of tech guys. It’s like at some point just chill out. It isn’t that important.
In my experience there is a huge gap between those that are smart and enthusiastic and those that are just average. I consider myself part of the former group and I can’t blame coworkers for just doing their job and go home. But it means the gap just widens.
Average in my mind is what the hiring process should be looking for. I would think the average one is someone who gets the job done. Like there is some diminishing returns trying to find above average or hire. The effort needed to get that best of the best turns into what we have now. Plus what I see, the best of the best are job hopping anyways.
This has been my experience as well, since I started in community college in the early 2000s.
There is an unfortunately large difference in tech between a person who has an innate interest and someone who is checking the boxes to get and keep a job.
Both would get the job done wouldn’t they?
But one you can underpay and abuse because they are excited. The other has a lot better idea of what they’ll accept and will leave when it’s not worth it anymore.
Not in the same way… which is the issue.
It’s a skilled profession, so ideally you want someone who is more skilled, and the person who has interest is more skilled.
It works similarly with other skilled professions like carpenters.
I’ve been in both industries. Hiring carpenters you’re hiring people who have qualifications and experience. The way it should be.
You’re not trying to make the carpenters calculate the roofing truss cuts through convoluted 3 days of interviews.
I believe Tech hiring is more about ego of the hiring managers and team more than it is about hiring qualified people.
I’ve never been on a team or seen a team where this was the case. We just wanted people who could do the job well, and they were hard to find.
I actually don’t understand where manager/team ego ever fits in, as someone who hired a lot of bootcamp grads.
Depends on what you see as “the job”. I would prefer many projects to be better than they currently are, both from the end user and the developer side.
When I think about the projects I have seen, you need very good people to clean up technical debt in a viable and sustainable way, as well as develop in a way that is sustainable and maintainable in a good way long term.
If you don’t have very good people, code quality devolves quickly, whereas the negative impact is felt a bit later, and at that point, it’ll be hard for most people to clean up and improve the project in a reasonable fashion, and it usually never happens.
The skill, experience, and being able to grasp what needs to be grasped gap is one thing, the time people are in a project or firm is another.
In the end, it depends on what the job is. Sure, most apps work. But there are so many applications that annoy and hinder me as a user. Even as a user, it’s a mess. I’m sure the dev team doesn’t have it much better on those projects.
With very good people acting as mentors and guidance, others can certainly get the job done, and contribute in productive ways. Most importantly, they learn and improve significantly.
I guess overall it’s not really about the big gap, but more of a continuum of skill. There’s certainly a weighted spread though.
I don’t think you answered the question.
You went on though to describe how difficult and technical the skill is needed to wade through this code. Which is kind of in my mind what I’ve seen with so many jobs. People in roles for long periods of time have this ability to make their job seem like the most difficult thing possible. Lately I’ve been watching these window tinting competitions. Listening to those guys describe putting on window tint always reminds me of tech guys. It’s like at some point just chill out. It isn’t that important.