* All of the bad developers I met at college are now working for the government or are contracted by the government. *
Interestingly, all of the government developers I know would run circles around almost any startup programmer. These guys design and implement systems that are designed to last decades without even minor bugs. Frequently, they manage to keep systems designed decades ago from collapsing under their own weight.
My guess as to why it happens this way is that they check your scores rather than your actual skills and anyone without a diploma is automatically disqualified. Their culture is the opposite of hacker culture.
Government hiring is credentials and experience based. Don't be bitter that you can't get a job because you lack the credentials or experience to make the cut.
Most hackers I know wouldn't go anywhere close to such a contract.
A certain level of professionalism is expected for a real job. Nobody cares what you wear, or where you work, or how you work when you're making yet another Instagram clone. When you are designing and implementing critical systems, being a professional matters. Most hackers simply don't have the self-discipline to get such a contract.
> A certain level of professionalism is expected for a real job. Nobody cares what you wear, or where you work, or how you work when you're making yet another Instagram clone. When you are designing and implementing critical systems, being a professional matters. Most hackers simply don't have the self-discipline to get such a contract.
Disagree.
I work in critical system infrastructure. Dressing up nice to talk the computer doesn't make the code better; aggressively making the code better does. It's my opinion that the better dressed the guy writing code, the more suspect his code is...
Everyone is making judgements, are you wearing black, are you wearing a suit, are you wearing fashionable clothing, etc.
My opinion/observation is that the more attention that is paid to your clothing, the more your engineering/code quality suffers. It like the IQ test: wearing suits impresses people who think highly of people wearing suits. Maybe it's better to impress people who think highly of quality work.
edit: It's foolishness to dress finely to make people think you're awesome. You're not more of a professional because you wear a tie and suit. You're just a guy in funny-looking clothing who looks like important people. If you want to be professional, do the job well, do it kindly, do it so it can be used for its intended purpose for a long time, do it with respect for other people. Dressing nice has so very little to do with professionalism.
I find it curious that most hackers associate dressing nicely with professionalism. While dressing up can be a marker of professionalism, it is only one factor of many that goes into acting "professionally."
"A certain level of professionalism is expected for a real job. Nobody cares what you wear, or where you work, or how you work when you're making yet another Instagram clone."
Let's see... you can wear shorts, work from home, and move fast and break things, or you can wear a tie to go to an office park and build DMV software. I'm not surprised that the people with a lot of options choose the startups.
Well, I suppose the difference between the two is that in the former, you do nothing of relevance for a product that doesn't matter (which is why it can break repeatedly without incident). In the latter, you are building a program/system that people are actually using to do things.
DMV software may not be sexy, but it is infinitely more valuable than yet another Instragram clone.
A certain level of professionalism is expected for a real job.
Yeah. All those slackers at Apple and Google must be constantly wishing they could be writing COBOL for the IRS and really making a difference in the world.
Interestingly, all of the government developers I know would run circles around almost any startup programmer. These guys design and implement systems that are designed to last decades without even minor bugs. Frequently, they manage to keep systems designed decades ago from collapsing under their own weight.
My guess as to why it happens this way is that they check your scores rather than your actual skills and anyone without a diploma is automatically disqualified. Their culture is the opposite of hacker culture.
Government hiring is credentials and experience based. Don't be bitter that you can't get a job because you lack the credentials or experience to make the cut.
Most hackers I know wouldn't go anywhere close to such a contract.
A certain level of professionalism is expected for a real job. Nobody cares what you wear, or where you work, or how you work when you're making yet another Instagram clone. When you are designing and implementing critical systems, being a professional matters. Most hackers simply don't have the self-discipline to get such a contract.