The reality of working in tech: We're not hired to write code (2023)

Posted by foxfired 4/3/2025

The reality of working in tech: We're not hired to write code (2023)(idiallo.com)

123 points | 132 commentspage 2

em-bee 4/3/2025|

While I was previously the go-to person for building new features, I was unable to contribute to the implementation of Angular due to my lack of experience with it.

was he unable or was he not allowed or simply not asked? it sounds like it could be the latter which is something i'd expect from that kind of dysfunctional company, but if he was really unable then this person should not be working as a software developer.

zombiwoof 4/3/2025||

We are hired to support whatever closed door management agreements were made. Mostly not even made for the company goals but the managers self interest

MPSimmons 4/3/2025||

>Does it mean that we shouldn't write code or shouldn't try to get better at it? Not at all. When working in a team, what matters most is that the weakest developer be at the very least competent. The rest is to try to build and maintain the company's product and features.

Yes. A company doesn't exist to hire programmers who write code. Software development is a means to an end.

mickael-kerjean 4/3/2025|

That's in theory, in practice a very large amount of companies only hire dev to bring jira tickets to completion where engineers are kept in a complete bubble and will never speak to a single actual customer.

Willingham 4/3/2025||

This article makes many valid points, but it’s important to remember 10%~ of devs are system developers(OS, compilers, firmware, database kernels etc.) For these jobs, the code itself often IS the core product. Correctness, stability, and compatibility come first, therefore the ‘out with the old and in with the new’ mentality is much less prevalent.

disambiguation 4/3/2025||

Yes the nature of employment is that you're paid to do whatever the guy paying you tells you to do. Roles and specializations are organizational tools - meaning, for the benefit of the organization, not you. There will never be an exact match between the "definition of a role" and "the work that needs to be done."

94b45eb4 4/3/2025||

I used to hear this all the time back in the early 2000's. It's far from a new idea.

The version I heard (or at least the one which stuck in my head) was "your job is not to write code, your job is to solve problems".

edit: I wish this was more mentioned more frequently these days. I see junior developers very focused on superficial aspects of code and specific "cool" frameworks these days. Often I find myself asking "what problem does this solve? What are the trade-offs with your approach? etc." and it's just crickets. I think we have made a lot of progress with modern frameworks, tools, etc. but I also think there is something from the "old days" of programming which we have lost, which I think we should have fought a bit more to keep.

skydhash 4/3/2025|

I mentor a few friends and my first question when they come to me for troubleshooting is: What's the problem you're having and what has you tried so far? Then I restrict them from talking in too specific technical terms. Instead I orient the conversation to the appropriate metaphor, and more often than not, they can see the solution by themselves (unless it's really a technical implementation issue).

dogleash 4/3/2025||

Managementbrain's definition of a well rounded developer is also the definition of people they're trying to promote out of development. Then they look around at developers wondering why they all just don't "get it".

Probably because they took the money to change role rather than keep the job they wanted.

renegade-otter 4/4/2025||

We ARE hired to write code, but it's our job to know how to write less of it.

Sometimes I go into the weeds and create a monstrocity bowl of spaghetti around a feature. Then I pull back, simplify it, and get amazed at how I missed that.

The trick is to STOP and think. Not everything is a "needful".

em-bee 4/5/2025|

this letter/piece of code is long and convoluted because i could not spend much time on it. had i had more time it would be short and concise.

yawnxyz 4/3/2025||

if this was true, then leetcode wouldn't be the cost of admission?

jimbob45 4/3/2025||

The article’s argument was that the company was able to migrate away from his code quickly, so his code didn’t matter.

That’s…an argument. I think most developers, myself included, find the idea of migration to be almost impossible in many cases. The author handwaved that away too easily.

Manuel_D 4/3/2025||

Writing code may not be the ultimate objective of software developers, but it is one of the primary tools to achieve that objective.

WalterBright 4/3/2025|

You're hired to make money for the company.

mitthrowaway2 4/3/2025||

... In theory yes, but company incentive structures don't always amount to this.

If you take that too literally and act on your own initiative in ways unrelated to your job description, you may well be dismissed for circumventing upper-management decisionmaking and not staying in your lane, even if you make money for the company in the process.

Or if you make tons of money for your company doing what you were hired to do, but do so from home in violation of a mandatory RTO order, you may quickly be replaced by someone who makes less money for your company but sits in the correct cubicle.

In reality, you're not merely hired to make money for the company, you're hired to do your job, even if it's not the maximally profitable action.

WalterBright 4/3/2025||

The company can absolutely be wrong in their idea of how to make money, no doubt. But it's still what motivates them.

I've stepped out of my lane to make money for the company, even when explicitly told not to, but the making money part meant they overlooked my transgressions. I figured they would, as businessmen really like making money.

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If you refuse a mandatory RTO order, you may be replaced with a less productive employee. But from a company standpoint, allowing you to violate it means others will demand it, and it may be a net loss for the company to keep you.

Apocryphon 4/7/2025||

Sounds like it's more complicated than it appears at first glance.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43603646

graphememes 4/3/2025||

most people forget this one

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