Are You Depressed That The Industry Has Shifted Focus?

Feb 9 137 Comments

When I first got into the industry people were focused on the technical aspects of their jobs. We’d talk about how to write better code, new tech stacks, frameworks, what we need to refactor etc. Engineers and business analysts together knew every little in and out of the product they were building and took pride in it.

Now all I hear is people taking about their “career.” How to brand themselves, managing up etc.

New coder camp grads talking about how they’ll become an EM. Engineers brown nosing the LT, endless meetings and convos on process. Only time I hear about tech is when someone is overhyping it as their vehicle for “impact.” Zero fucks given about putting out great products, or actually doing the work personally to improve code bases. Even the people who do process have no idea of the how what’s or why’s of the product they are supposed to get built. I’ve personally been in situations where I had to explain to my PO the product she’s supposed to be building. Hands on engineers just totally checked out of this shit. Just keep getting pushed down on the org chart because they need the people who actually produce software to stay in their role. No value in the domain knowledge of the people who built the software in first place.

TC: 🥜 YOE: 10+

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TOP 137 Comments
  • Freaking magic numbers and lower case constants e v e r y w h e r e

    If(a == true){
    return true;
    } else {
    return false;
    }

    Would have been mocked when I started. Now this’ll get that promo.
    Feb 9 39
    • New
      cFsg83

      New

      cFsg83
      Just return the variable, and rename it. Make it clear that the variable is a Boolean. Something like:

      return isPowerOn;

      The above makes it obvious what you’re returning. True if the power is on. False if it’s not. Done
      Mar 10
    • New
      OYmY26

      New

      OYmY26
      @cFsg83 I believe they were mocking that style.. not claiming it was correct
      Apr 23
  • The US is in decline and a large portion of the population does not believe in their future anymore. That feeling extends to the tech industry. Look at the Olympic athletes like Eileen Gu and others playing for China as another example.

    Why should anyone work extra hard for a country that hates them?
    Feb 9 29
    • Lol, look at this thread. One person spouting that the U.S is doomed and over because the default white America is transforming into a society that is open for more than just the white male. How oppressive is that. Riots in the country causing billions in damage? Sure I wonder when in history that happened before - oh yeah the civil rights era.

      The industry is more diverse than it ever was, people have more power over where they want to work and what type of work they want to do. Our products are more robust and serve peoples purposes better than ever. Of course we’re in doomed times /s
      Feb 15
    • Oracle
      jotarosp

      Go to company page Oracle

      jotarosp
      Stop using sarcasm tags, go back to Reddit
      Feb 15
  • Amazon
    iclF75

    Go to company page Amazon

    iclF75
    OP: this sounds like a recipe for desaster and massive leadership failure by not nurturing a culture of technical excellence. There is a reason why our industry is so successful: the ingenuity and dedication of those that came before us. But now we have a bunch of mercenaries: either those who would have traditionally gone to Wall Street, or a bunch of visa slaves, who want to make a quick buck and retire early - as they say. There are only few people interested in building something for the future.
    Feb 9 4
    • It is a massive leadership failure. I don’t see it turning around, it’s just a cash grab for everyone. Companies (especially enterprise software) make money no matter what crap they push out the door
      Feb 9
    • Oracle is spitting mad facts! Yeap, all my non-CS friends are finding ways of getting into PM, EM….anything in tech that’s not SWE but still pays the big bucks . God knows these career tracks were made out of thin air to appease finance bros who had to have a piece of the pie…..guys who couldn’t stand nerdy CS kids raking in big money by themselves.
      Feb 9
  • Amazon
    bfd63ghcqd

    Go to company page Amazon

    bfd63ghcqd
    Depressed that you wrote all of that and didn’t write your real TC at the end!
    Feb 9 3
  • I think you can still find the passionate people, just need to look in the right places. However in the past 20 years with the explosion in demand for SWEs and other tech workers, a lot of people enter this field for the money, and it's just like any other corporate job such as finance.
    Feb 9 1
    • I guess you’re right. But I do see more people who don’t really care about software entering the biz. But at least with finance it’s more obviously about money lol
      Feb 9