Career Deadends
You gotta watch out for career deadends.
I just interviewed this guy who was a steady and solid performer in the past three companies he's worked for. BUT....he was sort of permanently stuck doing things in technology that is being phased out of popularity. He had no real knowledge of the web frontend technologies which is fine. But he had no real knowledge of data modeling or database persistence which would be fine too except he was sort of permanently stuck in the middle without thinking about things with an architecture overview/design in mind. I don't know. He wasn't overtly enthusiastic but he did seem eager. But no spark of excitment that would have made me believe that I could hand him a small project and he would just run with it, do the diligence needed, find the answers on the web, whatever it took to learn like a sponge. You'll get that in a great college hire. I felt sort of sorry for the guy but at the same time I didn't have time to volunteer to coach and mentor him.
If I learned anything from meeting him it would be to NOT invest so much in one layer or one tier only and to be constantly curious about what technologies are out there even if you don't code in them for work.
I guess the other thing that I thought of is that if I ever took a break from work, it might be hard to get back into it because technologies and trends do move so quickly.
But then your kids grow up quickly too.
I guess given the choice, I'd rather have the memories of watching my sons do their "firsts" than fill my head with technologies that might lose favor before my kids are potty trained.
Not that I'm taking a break from work or from having babies. I'm in the long haul on both fronts. I've got atleast one more baby if not two more babies in me (or so I think after being caffinated) and I'm enjoying work enough that I'd go stir crazy without it.
I just interviewed this guy who was a steady and solid performer in the past three companies he's worked for. BUT....he was sort of permanently stuck doing things in technology that is being phased out of popularity. He had no real knowledge of the web frontend technologies which is fine. But he had no real knowledge of data modeling or database persistence which would be fine too except he was sort of permanently stuck in the middle without thinking about things with an architecture overview/design in mind. I don't know. He wasn't overtly enthusiastic but he did seem eager. But no spark of excitment that would have made me believe that I could hand him a small project and he would just run with it, do the diligence needed, find the answers on the web, whatever it took to learn like a sponge. You'll get that in a great college hire. I felt sort of sorry for the guy but at the same time I didn't have time to volunteer to coach and mentor him.
If I learned anything from meeting him it would be to NOT invest so much in one layer or one tier only and to be constantly curious about what technologies are out there even if you don't code in them for work.
I guess the other thing that I thought of is that if I ever took a break from work, it might be hard to get back into it because technologies and trends do move so quickly.
But then your kids grow up quickly too.
I guess given the choice, I'd rather have the memories of watching my sons do their "firsts" than fill my head with technologies that might lose favor before my kids are potty trained.
Not that I'm taking a break from work or from having babies. I'm in the long haul on both fronts. I've got atleast one more baby if not two more babies in me (or so I think after being caffinated) and I'm enjoying work enough that I'd go stir crazy without it.
posted by Mommy Coder at
7:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home