[lug] Career advice

[Nate Duehr]

On Jan 1, 2010, at 12:46 PM, Michael J. Hammel wrote:

> On Fri, 2010-01-01 at 08:03 -0700, Rob Nagler wrote:
>> Michael J. Hammel writes:
>>> Become a software architect.  We have plenty of people who can write
>>> code.  We don't have nearly enough who can define how systems should be
>>> built.  That's because most engineers are terrible communicators.  And
>>> software architects can't afford to be the same.
>> 
>> I strongly agree with "this is so much fun".  It's really great to
>> hear you (Michael) are having fun.  I think that's the most important
>> thing in any career path.
> 
> If you can't get up every morning anxious to do what you do then you're
> probably in the wrong job.  Note I say "job" here.

Not everyone can grow up to be an Astronaut.  Just sayin'.  :-)  We all have things we "must" do vs. things we "want" to do.  80/20 rule... if you get to where you're hating your job 2 days out of every 10 business days... you probably should look for something else.  All these "self-help" cheerleaders who say we can all find the perfect 100% love-it-all-the-time jobs, have days they don't like their jobs too.  They won't ever admit that, though.

> Coding is as much a career as "Albertson's bag boy".  Both are honorable
> professions.  Neither is a career.  It would be shortsighted to think
> that learning to code is sufficient to make a career.  What does one do,
> for example, once you get to be a really great coder?  Then what?  Pat
> yourself on your back till you retire?


More companies need to utilize their great coders in mentor roles.  I've seen many coders who don't want to move to management, don't want to "Architect" who become the de-facto "go to" people who teach, and exhibit leadership for their teams, but don't have the title to match.  It's often what keeps them coming to work.  The coding really isn't difficult for them at that point.

> Anyone can nail two boards together.  An architect tells you where those
> boards go to keep the house from falling down.  Otherwise, they remain
> just two boards, nailed together.


Sneaking back to my "Where's the Building Codes for Software Engineering?" posts of last year, are we?  ;-)

--
Nate Duehr
nate at natetech.com

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