.NET world

I was just rereading some of my posts from this blog, and I realize that it was born out of a desire to capture my thoughts as I ventured down the path on Android development.  If you've read them, you probably picked up on the fact that I'm really a .NET developer.  I "think" in C# when it comes to programming, and that's because I've been doing it for a long time and it's been burned into my brain.  I think that every programmer has a "mother tongue", which is the language they think in.

But I wanted to take a moment here and get back to .NET.  Because my resume and professional experience are so .NET heavy, I typically land myself in jobs that are .NET jobs.  And my current position is no different.  I've spent the last year and a half in ASP.NET MVC  / JavaScript / CSS /  SQL Server land.  I am in the insurance sector writing line of business apps, and we use these tools because they help us just get stuff done. 

I'm excited that Microsoft under Nadella have embraced open source, and made some shrewd business moves to attempt to remain relevant.  I'm excited for selfish reasons, because in some ways I've hitched my wagon to Microsoft technologies with regards to my livelihood.  I have no real loyalty to them, and I'm always intrigued by non-MS technologies (see previous posts).   Tools are tools.  Let's not get into a religious war because you like a 16" long claw hammer and I prefer an 18" curved claw hammer.  At the end of the day, we're both just driving nails.

Over the past 20 years, I've flitted around different industries.  And the more exposure I get to different businesses and domains, the more I believe that the technologists who add the most value are the ones who understand their customer.

I'm a believer that a good, battle tested developer can pick up a new tools very quickly and outperform mediocre ones who've been using the same tools for years.  It's a shame that we still live in a world where hiring managers want to know how many years of technology X you have, rather than assessing what kind of problem solver you are.  But I get it.  Measure what's most easily measurable.  But I would still love to work for a company that is not quite so lazy.  Like, if a candidate lists git repos on their resume, maybe you should go take a look.  How about a job interview over a beer where you can get a more pure signal for your bullshit meter to read?

Which really brings me to this:  small companies and start ups are where it's at for me.  The enterprise and it's heavy process rigamarole and constant fear of being sued creates an environment where the pay is decent, but the culture is one step removed from a government job.  I don't mind engaging with MegaCorp, but it needs to be on terms and conditions where they act like a small company.  For example, I'm in the middle of changing teams right now inside an enterprise-y company.  But I'm going from a team that sits in an open office plan and must dress business casual, to a team that sits in a satellite office, wears jeans every day and has an impromptu work space setup using folding tables.  Those kinds of details that may seem small to some, mean a great deal to me.

Can you talk the talk?

We've all the heard the saying, "You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?"  It’s a close cousin to “put your money where your mouth is.”  It’s intended to goad someone into action, because “talk is cheap”.

There are a lot of people in the technical space that pride themselves on being doers and not talkers.  Sometimes people who are introverted, whose fight or flight reaction kicks in when they need to talk with someone outside of their inner circle, will begin to justify why they don’t need to interact with other human beings.  “I let my actions speak for me,” they think to themselves, “I’m a maker, not a taker.” 

I’ve been there, holding an irrational disdain for salespeople, because they sell and profit off of the product that the engineering team built.  But for me it’s mostly jealousy, because they make their own schedule, while I am expected to be visible and in a chair for 8 hours a day. 

Several years ago, I took steps to steer my career down the management track.  And it didn’t feel natural.  I didn’t take to it.  I was working for MegaCorp and saw how little they valued the smart engineers, treating them as pawns on the board.   And I didn’t want to be a pawn.  So I got my MBA and got sent to leadership courses by my employer.  But I eventually was drawn back to software development, and it felt right.  

But the game hasn’t changed.  There are still plenty of highly intelligent, timid engineers who are happy to stay out of the chatter and politics.  And if one is truly happy in that position, then great.  But if you’re not, then I challenge you to invert the question.  It is no longer, “You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk”.  It becomes, “You walk the walk, but can you talk the talk?”

Talking and communicating in a confident manner is not just mindless banter, not just small talk.  It needs to happen, for a host of reasons.  The thing that engineers need to understand is that communicating with other human beings equates to getting things done.  And if you can form thoughts and arguments in your mind that are well thought out, and you can put them on paper, then you can look someone in the eye and verbalize them too.

I believe that there is a decently sized contingent of tech workers who are frustrated with the false dichotomy that you must either be an engineer OR a business person, but you can’t be both.  We’ve all heard something along the lines of “If you have technical chops and business acumen, you’re a rare double threat and opportunites abound for someone who fits that profilie.”  But, in my experience that turns out to only be the case if you make those opportunities.  They’re not just out there waiting to be filled.