tinker_james

joined 1 year ago
[–] tinker_james 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Some great comments here. Tangentially, I occasionally day dream of running or working for a company that flips typical corporate "intention" on its head -- Specifically by placing employees at the highest place of priority and let profits, progress, customers, share price etc. be what they'll be. I think that would be a very interesting experiment.

As far as how that relates to pay, part of the experiment would be to pay each employee more than they are "worth" to market. Just to see how it changes things for them and the company.

At the same time, "freeloaders" and folks that just can't cut it would need to be identified and separated from, to protect those that recognize and appreciate that the company is truly looking out for them and are reciprocating with true hard work and value creation.

[–] tinker_james 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Ya this article was great. I wish I could convince my coworkers to take a deep dive into Git. I do it probably once a year and it's helped me be the "hero" with confidence several times.

Git is exciting/interesting to me....it is not normal.

[–] tinker_james 1 points 9 months ago

I just took a stab at git worktree at work this week after rereading this article. It's amazing. We were in the process of upgrading our UI component library and I was able to checkout pre/post upgrade branches without having to continuously npm install to swap between dependencies.

Plus I'm pretty sure I could have both "versions" of our repo locally running at the same time so I could do UI comparisons...but I didn't actually get that far.

[–] tinker_james 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm going to be honest. I like this thread. Not only is the article long and "thorough" (whether you agree with this form of thoroughness or not) but the responses are too.

I can appreciate what the author is trying to express. I also related to how he's trying to express it because it's very similar to how I try to explain my opinions, shower thoughts, meanderings....which typically earns me eyes glazing over from my conversation partners haha.

I have many many thoughts on everything being discussed here, but rather than contribute, I'm going to sip on my coffee and keep reading.

P.s. I'm liking PD better than Reddit. Actual conversation happening.

[–] tinker_james 2 points 10 months ago

Thanks for the detailed write up! Send the "whole rant" my way. I'd read it.

[–] tinker_james 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thanks for the in-depth reply!

15
Current environment at Amazon (self.cs_career_questions)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by tinker_james to c/cs_career_questions
 

Hello all! I'm a senior dev at a bank and am considering making my second attempt at Amazon's interview process. My first attempt was almost two years ago. Made it through the code challenge but not the four interviews.

I wanted to hear from current Amazon devs what it's like there right now. Pros? Cons? Any insight given current market dynamics?

I have a young family now and so going through the process again would truly be an investment for me. My main motivation is the comp package, having the big A on my resume, and seeing what it's like in the big leagues.

Do sane people still try to get jobs there? Are you walking on egg shells waiting for the layoff hammer to drop?

[–] tinker_james 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

3.5 years. But that's because I haven't found "the place" yet like it sounds like you have.

[–] tinker_james 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

8-10 hours with few breaks. (I used to skip breakfast and sometimes lunch too...coffee diet) It started as a necessity and then became a habit. I have to retrain myself to take breaks and walk away and give my brain some breathing room and fresh air. This doesn't include the time I spent thinking about problems while driving or in the shower.... I've made progress breaking those habits though.

[–] tinker_james 3 points 11 months ago

Nice, congratulations! Sounds like all good things!

[–] tinker_james 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm happy that I switched from electrical engineering to software engineering. I feel like the prospects are better and still feel that way even though things are rough right now.

I regret being scared during my first 5 years as a software engineer. I've stayed in jobs too long. Going forward, once I get that feeling that I've outgrown a role I know its time to start looking for the next thing. No more lingering for that extra year. I'm in my mid 30s and so am feeling the age pressure to make my next couple big moves soon before I'm looked at as too old to be an "IC with a bright future" haha.

[–] tinker_james 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Nice! Is this your first dive into programming?

[–] tinker_james 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That sounds tough. What's your job search criteria? And... What kind of work are you trying to do?

14
What's new!? (self.cs_career_questions)
 

Who here has gotten a dev job in the last few months and is excited about it?

Did you bump your pay? Improve your work life balance? Get a better manager or team? Are working on something you enjoy?

I want to hear all the positive career news you folks have to give!

4
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by tinker_james to c/nodejs
 

I'm a full stack web dev that uses Node on the server-side. When I see job postings for a NodeJS developer I'm not really quite sure what that means.

Node is just javascript + a standard library/API + an ecosystem.

When someone is looking for a Node developer, are they just wanting someone who knows the ins and outs of the standard library?

 

What is your opinion about full-stack teams? I'm referring to teams where the desire is for every member to competently contribute at every point in the stack.

  • Do they work?
  • What has been your experience?
  • Does team size and/or experience level inform your opinion?
  • Do you notice an increase/decrease in quality?
  • Do you notice an increase/decrease in team and product cohesion?
39
Are there others like me? (self.ask_experienced_devs)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by tinker_james to c/ask_experienced_devs
 

I'm a senior engineer (web full-stack) at a bank. I've been doing this for about 5 years.

When I write code, I find it similar to authoring a book or even writing a poem. I love trying to write code that reads really well, has beautifully designed boundaries between dependencies, great structure and so on. I also find that I write code with a big focus on making it a joy to work with for developers that touch it later on.

I struggle with the emphasis on collaboration and quick iteration approach in this field. "Co-authoring a book" with 6 other "authors" in two week chunks just seems crazy to me. And what I've seen that passes as shippable code is also crazy to me -- but hey, "it works".

I also have never been a guy that gets overly excited about using technology to solve problems or using software to satisfy business needs. I really just like writing code, setting up development environments or CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure or whatever...just for those things themselves. (Again it's like an art form to me. And I really really like reading other's well thought out code and appreciate for just that rather than the use-case or problem that the code is actually solving)

Anyone else out there like me? (Not arguing the merits one way or the other...just curious if I'm a weirdo)

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