I know managers love that term, but I think I’ve come to hear it as an insult… Sorta like being called an unprofessional “jack of all trades” budget handyman that does everything mediocre…

  • Scrubbles
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    8 months ago

    Nah, code is code. I’ve done a good chunk up and down the stack. DB specs, angular, no SQL, sql, react, jQuery, c#, node, infra, k8s, pho, java, blah blah blah

    Fact of the matter is if you really want to be marketable you have to learn everything thrown at you, and usually fast. I say my number one skill is being able to pick up new tech, and recognizing where I need to learn more.

    Not trying to sound arrogant, there is a ton I don’t know, but to be employable now as an engineer you pretty much have to say yes when they ask if you know something, or prove you can learn it.

    I was rejected for one job because I hadn’t learned python fully.

    Oh yeah but I can pick it up, probably before starting. I’ve done C++, C#, NodeJS, Go, Ruby, what’s another language haha

    " Sorry we really need someone who can code in python"

    :| k well bye, guess it’s just impossible to fathom that I could learn yet another scripting backend language. 15 years into my career I’m pretty sure I can just go learn another language now. If you bothered to test my skills at all you’d see in qualified, but sure. I learned it anyway just to spite them.

    • @SpaceNoodle
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      128 months ago

      I was rejected for a role because I had experience with C++98, but they were developing exclusively in C++11. 🙄

      • Scrubbles
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        8 months ago

        Wow, too bad the Venn diagrams for those two are two completely separate unconnecting circles. I swear recruiters, just so freaking dumb

        • @SpaceNoodle
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          8 months ago

          It wasn’t the recruiter, it was the HM that made the decision. Dodged that bullet. The recruiter was great, we actually hung out some time after. He even bought me one of the devices I would have been working on and gave it to me after the interview, possibly as an attempt to butter me up, because he was excited about landing me.

          • Scrubbles
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            48 months ago

            that’s fair, mine was a recruiter so I just assumed. Always frustrating that our careers hang in the balance of people who don’t understand what we do

            • @SpaceNoodle
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              38 months ago

              My current employer is run by highly technical people, and I know for a fact that the CTO is smarter than I am. It’s refreshing.

    • @[email protected]
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      48 months ago

      Many languages today share so many common roots that if you know one you know enough of the others to get the ball rolling. I went from strictly front end to suddenly working in Python and PHP and similar languages. If you know the basics you know enough

      • Scrubbles
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        28 months ago

        it’s very rare that I learn something that I can’t pull some knowledge from somewhere else. I think moving to frontend was the largest leap as a whole, just that I’m not coding purely for efficiency and that things are reactive, where on servers most times you want to not be reactive. (Oversimplification). Overall yeah, code is code, every language and framework has it’s quirks, but learning your first one is the hardest, second one is the biggest one that you realize how languages differ, and then after that it just gets easier. I haven’t learned Go though… should probably do that at some point