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Comment by Swizec | Hacker News Reader

I have had great success with saying things like “I have 10 years of web engineering experience and have been looking into X for N years/months”.

Engineering skills translate well between stacks and framework/library skills are only good for a couple years. Can you break down a complex problem into estimatable chunks that can potentially be delegated as well? Can you design a system that solves a business problem? Awesome! Nobody will ask you about framework du jour.

Honestly I’d say that if you’re talking at the level of which libraries/frameworks you know, you’ve already lost. That’s junior/midlevel engineer stuff.

Senior engineers solve problems. Junior engineers code in frameworks.

Most code that’s used in production has so much custom stuff anyway that it might well be its own framework.

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I guess I'm different in that I care that people understand the pluses and minuses of the various frameworks. I think anyone can pick up a framework or solve a problem. However, can they understand why and when to use x framework to solve a problem and back up why they chose to solve the problem in the way they chose to do it.

Additionally I want someone who can be passionate about the tech stack and frameworks they are using or plan on using. Otherwise, I've got a code monkey who may get things done in the short term but their code and problem solving abilities actually has negative implications in the future when it comes time for maintenance and to add additional features to things.

I don't understand why people label others who care about their craft and the tools they use as junior/midlevel. I think that's lazy. Many times there really is a best way to solve a problem or a best framework for your particular situation or problem. All engineers should care about the tools and what is being used and why it's being used.

I guess its just not enough for me to have an answer so much as to understand why its the answer and under what conditions assumptions can fail. To me that is more valuable when hiring someone who is switching careers than being able to solve a problem in a generic sense.

>I don't understand why people label others who care about their craft and the tools they use as junior/midlevel.

Because we’ve gone through 10 different frameworks already.

I’m not a jQuery engineer or a Backbone engineer or an Angular engineer or a React engineer or a Redux engineer or a MobX engineer or a Node engineer or a Rails engineer or a PHP engineer or a Python engineer. Yes I’ve used all od those to deliver real world projects that made money for my clients/employers, but they’re just a tool I use. Many such tools have come and gone since I started building stuff for the web in the early 00’s and many more will come and go before I stop. I love building stuff and I have a deep understanding of the web, but tools are just tools, they don’t define me.

Yes you want a carpenter with a good understanding of hammers and nails and you need them to know which to use when, but do you really want to hire a carpenter who identifies themselves as “Expert hammerer of 5 inch nails”?

Ultimately, if you are looking for an expert hammerer of 5 inch nails, I am not a good fit. And that’s okay.

> ...passionate about the tech stack and frameworks they are using or plan on using...

I usually lean towards the pro- side in arguments about passion for one's career but even I would have to say that's a rather dubious viewpoint. Tech-stacks/frameworks are the among the least important parts of a software engineering career; they're the means to accomplish the craft, not the craft itself. (And that's even if frameworks didn't go into and out of style almost as fast as the fashions in the clothing industry.) It would be like asking master chefs to be passionate about spatulas and whisks instead about creating great food.

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