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You don’t know what you’re talking about. The typical Indian H-1B contractor does repetitive task IT. Or repetitive task QA. They do not do software engineering. A software engineer creates intellectual property. You don’t normally use contractors to create the crown jewels of your company that are protected by patent and copyright law. You use full time employees for that. You pay them well. The good ones get raises, promotions, stock options and the rest of the usual compensation because it’s really important that you retain them. If you’re using Indian contractors to write software, it’s probably pretty meatball stuff that has little commercial value.
LOL, ok. Pretty sure I know what is going on at my company.
And this isn’t the only company that does things like this. I’ve seen lots of people from India do SE activities. Sorry...
LOL, ok. Pretty sure I know what is going on at my company.
And this isn’t the only company that does things like this. I’ve seen lots of people from India do SE activities. Sorry...
Software engineers do product development. What product is this?
It's a stereotype...certainly not everyone fits that. And it's a little insulting to think firstly that you can't be "normal" and be a good engineer and secondly that engineers aren't "normal" to start with.
In my experience the most successful ones are those that can code well and make friends with those outside the development group and are able to speak in public for presentations and such. They go on to be directors/VPs/etc.
Can they be "socially" normal though-- that is what I was asking. Its not a bad thing to be different by the way. But the perception was on some boards is SEs can barely look someone in the eye when talking or can't talk about anything not code related.
I'm all for being different but being able to carry on a conversation and not look at your shoes is very important. Wouldn't you agree? That is the perception of CS students turned SE by a career minded site.
Depending on where you grew up, looking someone in the eye may be considered rude.
I've dealt with a lot of engineers - who are the folks who could have grown up to be programmers if they had programmers in those days. There are quite a few of them who are not socially skilled and have a hard time talking with non-engineer types. A lot of it has to do with their precision in thought which then comes out in their speech and the non-engineer types just have a totally different bias. It's really hard for them to find enough "congruent database to interact" (engineer speak) or "matching vibes, man" (non-engineer speak). An engineer can come up with "air embolisms entrained within the system pathways" whereas non-engineers would say "bubbles in the pipes". Sort of the same thing for general purposes, but for conciseness, generally the engineerese will allow for more critical thinking on the subject.
As for if a socially astute person can thrive as an engineer, it probably depends on if that person also has the ability for logical and critical thinking.
In my experience the most successful ones are those that can code well and make friends with those outside the development group and are able to speak in public for presentations and such. They go on to be directors/VPs/etc.
Correct, of course.
You've just described most, if not all, technical management consultants, too. Those that work for big names like McKinsey, Boston, Accenture, PWC. And lesser-known, that I deal with here in Seattle like Slalom, Bridge Partners, and so many others. Tens of thousands to thousands down to just tens of people. Common theme is ability to hope from business the tech and back.
Sure, the hard core tech prefer to stay there. They can be a little tech-centric. But the bulk of them are customer-facing. There are some exceptions, but not many. The product and project managers are definitely customer facing. Senior and exec managers, clearly. Architects, too, though I sometimes deal with a few who prefer to be out of the limelight...they limit themselves a bit, though.
End of the day, agreed. There is no escaping that ability to fit in and present well to others is an advantage to the career.
who the F cares? I am a software engineer because is a good career and it pays the bills. But i do have a life outside of that. I read, I take dance classes, I travel, I cook, I'm artsy... yes, there are nerds and such but you deal with them at work, conferences, perhaps go have beer with them a few times and talk about science fiction and AI but you don't have to marry them or live 24/7 with them, so why do you care so much?
Life is the way you make it. You have other interests, pursue them. There is no software engineer police to come after you if you have other interests. Best of luck!
You don’t know what you’re talking about. The typical Indian H-1B contractor does repetitive task IT. Or repetitive task QA. They do not do software engineering. A software engineer creates intellectual property. You don’t normally use contractors to create the crown jewels of your company that are protected by patent and copyright law. You use full time employees for that. You pay them well. The good ones get raises, promotions, stock options and the rest of the usual compensation because it’s really important that you retain them. If you’re using Indian contractors to write software, it’s probably pretty meatball stuff that has little commercial value.
Do I know you??
Sounds very much like my experience.
But times have changed, and outsourcing/H1B workers are likely much more common.
Software engineers are often perfectly normal, after all I am one and I have been doing it for near on a decade now.
*puts on clown costume and walks off into the night*
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