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There are 2 types of jobs I will avoid for the rest of my career

1) Jobs that encourage technical certifications.
I understand why companies want developers to get technical certifications. They think certifications are a proof of skills. From a certain perspective they are. A certified developer has memorized some syntax and design patterns. Hooray.

But a certification doesn’t prove that he can solve problems and think creatively. Memorizing a few physics equations doesn’t make someone a great physicist. Understanding the fundamentals and using them to conduct real-world experiments to learn about the world does.

So if a company wants you to get certified, it means one of two things. a) They have their head up their ass and they don’t know how to tell a good developer from a code monkey. Or b) the position they want to fill doesn’t involve much creative problem solving.

Certifications can be good. They’re just not for me.

2) Jobs that require me to dress up.
Call me arrogant, but software development is an art (I mean the type development that can’t be measured by certifications). There is a beauty to a well-written algorithm, there is a value in balancing simplicity vs complexity, code can be elegant, there is an iterative design and implementation process, and of course, there is a huge amount of creativity involved…

Would it be acceptable to make a painter wear a suit when he paints? No, unless that’s how he feels most comfortable. If you want to motivate someone to produce quality work, you must make sure they are comfortable. Forcing an engineer to wear something he’s not comfortable with is sending him the message that management’s first concern isn’t producing the best possible product. This destroys motivation.

Ok maybe I’m going a little overboard here with this example, but my point stands. I want to work for a company where the quality of the product is the number 1 concern, and motivating engineers is a means to getting there. True, not every company has that goal. In consulting, for instance, the goal is to meet the requirements, not to build a quality product. If your requirements are fucked, so is your product. Not my game.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Startup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.