tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?
I’m not sure - do you have any moving parts?
Kick the .NET programmer
Quick – suppose you need to recruit a particular type of programmer, and you are having trouble finding him or her? Well, how about a bit of guerrilla marketing? How about creating a post on your blog that generates a lot of controversy, and a lot of traffic to your site?
That, in my opinion, is what David Barrett (The CEO of Expensify) did with his classic, taunting troll post Why we don’t hire .NET programmers on his “CEO Friday” blog.
Now, by posting a link to this post, I know I may be generating even more traffic for Expensify. That’s okay. I hope Mr. Barrett finds his programmers, and I hope some programmers find jobs.
I conclude that this post was written in an inflammatory way on purpose for two reasons:
- This post could have easily been written in a way that would have been totally inoffensive. The central points – that Expensify is looking for a particular type of programmer, and that not everyone is cut out to work for a Startup – are not terribly controversial.
- The previous week’s post was titled “The Hunt for Engineers: Expensify and the surprisingly difficult challenge of finding the right people”
(However, I will take Mr. Barrett at his word that he believes .NET experience is a disqualifier, along with the idea that being from the Bay Area is also a likely disqualifier. WTF?)
With this post, Mr. Barrett has generated a lot of traffic to his site. Personally, I’d never even heard of Expensify before, so I guess it worked.
It is true that I was offended by the post, having recently concluded that my best option job-wise at this point is to pursue .NET development work. You see, that’s one reason people choose one technology over another – job opportunities.
I was offended, but not driven to a blind rage. After all, I know I’m not cut out to work at a startup. (I’m also not cut out to work at Microsoft or Google, for what it’s worth).
Also, for years I developed using Delphi, the Rodney Dangerfield of programming languages. If Mr. Barrett doesn’t like .NET, he’d hate Delphi. The classic Win32 versions of Delphi made it incredibly easy to develop applications – easier than .NET really. If programming in .NET is (as Mr. Barrett says) like working at McDonalds, then Delphi programming is like working at Burger King.
Now, on the other hand, in my so-called career, I’ve used a wide variety of technologies. In spite of Microsoft’s dominance in the small-business area where I’ve made my living, I also found time and advantage to using open source technologies. It’s true I can’t program in assembler, and I know just enough C to shoot myself in the foot (and enough C++ to…. Well, you know…) but on the job I’ve had to work with Perl, PHP, & Java, and shell scripting. I’ve used MYSQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLlite in addition to Microsoft’s SQL Server.
I’ve setup and administered *nix boxes and know a fair bit about configuring all these services as well as Apache & Tomcat (and Postfix). In Mr. Barrett’s world, I’d be the idiot little brother to his genius programmers, but – to the people who need me - I’m a useful guy to have around.
I just think it suited Mr. Barrett’s purposes to “kick the dog” to draw attention to his recruiting drive and his product. All I can do is pledge never to use or recommend “Expensify”.
"Rock Stars" and "Ninjas" Need Not Apply
Centro’s technology team is building a web application for streamlining digital media placement. We are seeking talented developers with experience working with Javascript, Coffeescript, SproutCore, JQuery, Ruby, Sinatra, Rails, MongoDB and Postgres. We’re not throwing those in there so we show up in more searches, we actually use all of it in varying amounts….
http://www.centro.net/careers/were-hiring
This makes me feel like someone’s been reading my blog.
Never use a web hosting company that has a cartoon character for a logo.
Once a Dynamo, the Tech Sector Is Slow to Hire
From an article in the New York Times.
“If there’s the one enclave that has been completely unaffected by recession, it would be Stanford computer science students.”
— Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin,
The programming language “C++ is now an international language. If that’s all you know, then you’re competing with people in India or China who will do the work for less.”
—Catherine L. Mann
The Actionscript Ninja
I should know better than to look for gigs on Craigslist. The following is an example of the type of ads I dislike:
Flash Developer who is a rockstar at Actionscript (AS3 & AS2)! The person must be able to travel to Parsippany, NJ…
While I’m not interested in this gig (I’m not an actionscript developer) I have to wonder - when did we start calling developers “rockstars”? Also, assuming such a thing exists, why would an Actionscript Ninja want to go to Parsippany?
On the subject of competence
In thinking about my previous blog post, I realize some of my insecurities are showing. Like, maybe I’m not all that good, and maybe I won’t be able to find a job as a developer. This got me thinking about the Dunning–Kruger effect
…The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority…
Delphi
For years, I developed Line of Business Windows apps with Delphi. My employers didn’t know or care what tool I used. If I told them what I used, it didn’t register, and they soon forgot it. They just cared that the apps worked, and solved the problem at hand. Oh, and they liked getting those apps quickly.
Perhaps it’s just my insecurity, but I feel like people don’t take Delphi (or Delphi developers) very seriously. I feel kind of funny putting it on my resume, and try to emphasize my C# and PHP skills.
I’m actually a bit surprised to see Delphi listed at #10 on the TIOBE Programming Index for August 2010. You certainly don’t see many jobs listed for Delphi. I have to assume that most users are like me - individuals or small shops using a tool they are familiar and productive with.
When I started doing web applications, I briefly considered using Java and JSP, but concluded that PHP (#4 on TIOBE) performed much better. Delphi was never a consideration as I didn’t think putting a Windows server on the internet was a good idea at the time.
I never could see a good reason to switch to Visual Basic, and wasn’t much into Microsoft’s offerings until C# came along. At that point, with .NET gathering steam, the writing was on the wall for Delphi, and I started using C#.NET (#6 on TIOBE) for Windows development. (It’s probably no coincidence that Anders Hejlsberg was the lead architect for both Delphi and C#)
At this point, I don’t think I’ll use Delphi much, except for quick little Win32 utilities, but honestly, it is still easier to whip out a quick little database app with Delphi than it is with C#.
