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Could be - But for me the hardest part of the job is now mostly dealing with illiteracy in tech from mid managers and up - I don't blame them as most go up the

Could be - But for me the hardest part of the job is now mostly dealing with illiteracy in tech from mid managers and up - I don't blame them as most go up the ladder mostly because they're not really decent at anything else [sorry] - but all this to say - The pain of seeing blank eyes when you have a very simple conversation let's say on input validation just kills me - A decade ago these conversations took 5 minutes - now people want to talk about it for hours as they don't get it - basically lack of core knowledge...

ryandrake 1y ago
When interviewing, one of the ways I try to discover how good a particular tech job is: How far up the management totem pole does the "tech illiteracy" start? I've worked at companies where everyone, all the way up to the SVP (who reports to the CEO) is still very sharp technically. Meaning, the SVP and everyone below them could legitimately pass the Senior Software Engineer interview, or at the very least speak intelligently about the sw architecture, the reasoning behind the technical and design decisions made, performance trade-offs, security, and so on. If you've never worked for a place like that, it's almost hard to believe what it's like. I've also worked at a (fortunately only one) company, where as a leaf-node employee, my first level manager was effectively tech illiterate. Those kinds of places need their individual engineers to all 1. have good tech skills, and 2. have those rare communication/translation skills that translate tech concepts/problems into business-speek. At most companies, the point at which a technically literate employee reports to a tech-illiterate employee is somewhere up the management hierarchy--usually around "Director" level. Wherever that point on the org chart is, that person's direct reports are the ones who need to have those tech-to-non-tech translation skills.
- SebFender 1y ago
  Absolutely & very well said - my contention lies in the fact that certain skills are just that - technical. Especially when it comes to architecture, code, complex systems and so on. I don't mind an illiterate Executive when it comes to basic manufacturing, cosmetics and so on - but when it comes to STEM subjects it becomes a dangerous gamble - especially when it comes to recognize a strong vs weak player. Too many times I've seen weaker players get bumped up as the executive in charge is somewhat incompetent... I've been lucky as my family forged my communication skills at a young age - but these days this is rare and I see extremely competent young players get sidelined quite rapidly... Hope is a mystery, but can be found.

ryandrake 1y ago

When interviewing, one of the ways I try to discover how good a particular tech job is: How far up the management totem pole does the "tech illiteracy" start? I've worked at companies where everyone, all the way up to the SVP (who reports to the CEO) is still very sharp technically. Meaning, the SVP and everyone below them could legitimately pass the Senior Software Engineer interview, or at the very least speak intelligently about the sw architecture, the reasoning behind the technical and design decisions made, performance trade-offs, security, and so on. If you've never worked for a place like that, it's almost hard to believe what it's like. I've also worked at a (fortunately only one) company, where as a leaf-node employee, my first level manager was effectively tech illiterate. Those kinds of places need their individual engineers to all 1. have good tech skills, and 2. have those rare communication/translation skills that translate tech concepts/problems into business-speek. At most companies, the point at which a technically literate employee reports to a tech-illiterate employee is somewhere up the management hierarchy--usually around "Director" level. Wherever that point on the org chart is, that person's direct reports are the ones who need to have those tech-to-non-tech translation skills.

SebFender 1y ago
Absolutely & very well said - my contention lies in the fact that certain skills are just that - technical. Especially when it comes to architecture, code, complex systems and so on. I don't mind an illiterate Executive when it comes to basic manufacturing, cosmetics and so on - but when it comes to STEM subjects it becomes a dangerous gamble - especially when it comes to recognize a strong vs weak player. Too many times I've seen weaker players get bumped up as the executive in charge is somewhat incompetent... I've been lucky as my family forged my communication skills at a young age - but these days this is rare and I see extremely competent young players get sidelined quite rapidly... Hope is a mystery, but can be found.