Comment by JonFish85 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JonFish85 | Hacker News Reader

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Question, and I realize that you said you want a "job for a developer"... Have you considered interviewing for a job a level above that? I imagine with a few years' of experience at startups, you've learned a lot at a "design" level rather than simply an implementation level (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Consider interviewing for a developer management position. Instead of focusing on specific languages & technologies, maybe take a step back and figure out how to apply other things you've learned: how to direct a project, how to take higher-level ideas and turn them into realities. Those types of jobs tend to be more marketable than "I use X, Y, Z technologies".

If not management, I'd still say try to get a little more "meta" than just "I know Rails, Node..." Market yourself at a business-level, if that makes sense. In my opinion, the tools you use to solve a problem aren't as interesting as how you approach a problem and solve it.

Just some thoughts, good luck!

> If not management, I'd still say try to get a little more "meta" than just "I know Rails, Node..." Market yourself at a business-level, if that makes sense. In my opinion, the tools you use to solve a problem aren't as interesting as how you approach a problem and solve it.

This is fantastic advice for every programmer, and once I actually started believing it was when I started getting interesting jobs that pay well.

Stop thinking in terms of the technology you use. Don't focus on it in interviews. What you should stress is the problems you've solved & how that delivered value to the company (revenue, efficiency, etc.)

Being a Ruby master means nothing. Being able to deliver a tool that lets the company fulfill their million-dollar contract is what makes you a rock star.

For me, jobs and projects come and go. Working with good tools is something I do all day. That matters a lot to me.

I can't help but visualise an empty suit when people start talking about "delivering value" in the abstract, with a smug sense of superiority. People like you are mostly just lip service.

http://www.yosefk.com/blog/do-call-yourself-a-programmer-and...

There's a happy middle ground here, no need to split hairs or be black and white. One formula that works is, be a legit programmer/developer/hacker, but be able to communicate with business people on the business level about business problems. Preferably using your own original language, rather than pre-packaged MBA-speak (though sometimes even that stuff is useful if a particular client needs to hear it).

>One formula that works is, be a legit programmer/developer/hacker, but be able to communicate with business people on the business level about business problems.

That's what I'm really getting at.

At the end of the day the person who decides to give you money in exchange for your code is a business person who wants to pay you to solve their business problems. Showing them that you understand and have experience solving those problems is as important as proving your mettle to other programmers.

And personally I've always had a much harder time with the business people interviews than the technical interviews. It's something that I have had to really work at, but it's helped me much more than I could've imagined.

Yup. I'd say if you're capable of doing both, do both. But if not, focus on being the best programmer you can be. It's the foundation for everything else.

"People like you are mostly just lip service." Err, ok? I'd argue that the interviewer's job is to determine that. If the interviewer just wants to banter back and forth on specifics of languages and whatnot, that's fine, but in the big picture I don't find it helpful.

So to use an example, if you want to hire someone to build a deck onto your house, do you quiz the person on Craftsmen hammers, Stanley measuring tapes and Black & Decker saws? I wouldn't. I'd ask what similar projects they've done, what problems they've run into, etc.

Call it lip service, but I think the big picture is more valuable. Specifics of language syntax & conventions is OK, but knowing how to wield the tools is far, far more valuable in my opinion.

Nope I hadn't because I always considered myself 'just a coder', and immediately discarded any other kind of job. Thinking about it I have full stack experience and have often been part of the design process, so thanks for the advice I'll consider other areas too!

Product Management might be a role worth considering. There simply aren't enough technically-savvy PMs in tech companies.

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