Comment by 1_2__4 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 1_2__4 | Hacker News Reader

I’m watching tech companies be more and more infested with these business types. As in, it used to be you’d see technical product managers, but they’re largely MBA types now. Ditto for engineering upper/exec management. Ditto for sales engineering. Ditto for professional services. Ditto for customer support.

They churn through technical H1Bs at a shocking rate, treat engineering like shit, and add almost no value beyond blowing hot air and shorty software development practices. They always have lots of reasons why things aren’t getting done predictably and slide decks on how to fix it, all of which involve further neutering engineering and especially engineering management. They like to build fake engineering teams outside the engineering organization with absolutely atrocious engineering practices but because they deliver on short notice - never mind what they’re delivering is garbage - the sales idiots and execs love them to death.

They and PMO are cancers on the tech industry and it’s just getting worse.

> atrocious engineering practices but because they deliver on short notice - never mind what they’re delivering is garbage

I am pretty sure this is true for most companies. Product and sales never care what the code looks like. They care about velocity. Remember your code can be a work of art, well tested, and the epitome of best practice; none of that means anything if you don't ship or if you're always pushing back on deadlines or wont switch context to fix something more high in business priority. (as engineers we build our own dream or someone else's)

I wouldn't apply startup thinking to "most companies." Things are really weird when you're just trying to build an empire to sell it off. Obviously other companies care about growth too, but knowing that your company and its products will continue to exist in five years gives everyone a reason to focus on quality and maintenance.

Doesn't bother me too much. Companies who succumb to this trend will quickly head sideways and eventually become irrelevant, creating more opportunities for startups and new entrants.

I think of it like a parasite. They will extract everything from the host, propagate to several other hosts, and kill it. If you look at it that way it is something we should all actively work to control or cure it as it will continue to wreak devastation upon the whole of the community. That is unless of course you wish to join the parasitic parade yourself.

> but because they deliver on short notice - never mind what they’re delivering is garbage - the sales idiots and execs love them to death.

You seem bitter that you cannot treat your workplace as an opportunity to experiment with new technologies and pad your resume, and I'm uncomfortable having to tell you this[0], but companies outside the infinite SV investment bubble have to deliver products and not proof-of-concepts of tech stacks or methodologies du jour. Software engineers ignoring business use cases and delivering technically correct, but completely useless products are quite common.

[0] Actually I'm not, of course

What you've quoted (or any other part of the parent post, for that matter) is not an example of the attitude you are attacking.

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