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Comment by bavila | Hacker News Reader

Where do I find more people like you when I'm job hunting? :)

I used to work as an attorney before getting into software engineering, and I clearly took for granted that other educated professionals (particular those in a field where precision is required) would write clearly, logically, and succinctly. My expectations have frequently not been met.

It's particularly humorous, as everyone who has hired me has acted like they were taking a big risk because of my non-technical background. Yet, each time, they quickly realize it was a good idea to hire someone with a strong command of the English language and a ruthless attention to detail.

Of course, the technical skills are required as well, but I don't think people appreciate how easy those are to pick up for someone who is capable of reading and distilling voluminous amounts of information in a short period of time.

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I have a journalism degree, and spent a short stint as a reporter before transitioning to engineering.

I share much the same experience: both encountering a distinct lack of effective communication based on what I had expected, and being written off (pun intended) during the hiring process.

My biggest daily struggle is with those who want to verbally discuss every single issue, or worse, chat over informal DMs. Typically those conversations are somehow both circular and meandering all at once.

For me personally, I feel my commitment to writing-competency-over-technical-prowess has been my biggest asset throughout this second act. I'd like to think it allows me to back in to the technical aspects and keeps me better organized overall.

I also have diagnosed ADHD and a form of dyslexia so perhaps I'm just too easily distracted.

p.s. Please don't judge my grammar or spelling on this reply -- I'm writing from the bath with a fever!

>> My biggest daily struggle is with those who want to verbally discuss every single issue, or worse, chat over informal DMs.

That's interesting - I tend to have mixed feeling about this. Sometimes I wish I had all communication done in writting.

But the reality is that as a dev and seminconsultant I work in 10 different domains at the same time and there is no way for me to have enough time to encode all my clients knowledge in structured writing - the only way for my situation to be bearable is to encode this into code and working applications. And the only way to quickly gather knowledge and and have feedback loop on it is to encode it as working applications. Because lets face it even if I was master communicator and writer most clients areny and never will be. And most areny paing for writing text but for providing solutions.

So I'm in this dissonance here where I would love to be better writer but the reality is that its not really that useful in my situation. Ok, and now I feel depressed, thank goodness I just this moment went into confectionery.

>Ok, and now I feel depressed, thank goodness I just this moment went into confectionery.

Where do we order?

Some of the best people I worked with did something else professionally before becoming a software developer. For example army, accountants and electronic engineers. They are the good all rounders, good at going from ambiguity to decent code.

>They are the good all rounders, good at going from ambiguity to decent code.

That's useful for day-to-day issues, but if you're getting a lot of ambiguity that these folks have to address, someone higher up needs to write more.

most business problems require good understanding of the goal and only mid-level technical expertise.

Ive seem more projects fail because requirements weren't understood, often by the customer themselves, than because of tech

just like most cars are not F1 racecars and revolutionary engineering - other concerns like costs and aesthetics dominate

Which is why domain knowledge is so important for software engineers. In most projects. Not always the way the industry works to stay in a given business domain though.

I have only worked in small companies. Developer means developer and all other gaps.

My theory is that the field has a big population "on the spectrum", and they're just not great communicators. Maybe because the "theory of mind" deficit.

They do have extra gifts in writing code which compensates somewhat. But it's a huge problem when half your team struggles to carry a conversation.

I'm not sure there's a correlation between austistic people and (lack of) ability to write "clearly, logically, and succinctly." I think there's a variation of skill there among all people. Some autistic people are excellent technical communicators and documentation or specification/standards writers.

Not exactly a theory that this field has a higher percentage of autistic people. I think the communication deficit is more of a deficit between non autistic people and autistic people.

Big hiring criterion for us as well! Details in my profile if you're looking.

I'm good now, thanks. :)

> particular

And of course I would make a typo. That should say "particularly". :)

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