

“You WANT to be pigeonholed. I'm #1 on Google because of being pigeonholed.” - philipmorg
http://www.philipmorganconsulting.com/blog/jonathan-stark-on-the-key-to

======
sdeveloper
You don't understand what pigeonholing really means.

When programmers talk about pigeonholing it usually means they like Python and
want to go at Python conferences where people talk about math, science and
machine learning, but they are pigeonholed in Java EE and surrounded by people
who only talk about POJOs and beans.

And to top it all off, Java experience is badly regarded in Python tech
companies and long term pigeonholing usually cuts you off from the world you
want to be in.

~~~
philipmorg
"they like Python and want to go at Python conferences"

What prevents them from doing this?

~~~
csixty4
$1500 ticket prices and employers that won't pay unless it's directly related
to the work you do?

~~~
philipmorg
I see--thank you!

I was thinking of this more from the independent consultant's perspective, not
the FTE viewpoint.

~~~
csixty4
Oh yeah, that's one thing I miss from being independent. "Conference"? You
mean "tax deduction"!

------
csixty4
I second sdeveloper's comment. This is about establishing authority, not being
pigeonholed. Pigeonholing is something done to you regardless of what you do.
Pigeonholing doesn't make you the #1 result on Google for a term. Pigeonholing
tells you that because you're the #1 result for "French chef" in Google,
you're not qualified to make tacos.

~~~
philipmorg
You're right, that part of the interview really was more about the _fear of
pigeonholing_ for the independent dev/consultant, not the actual results of
pigeonholing for the FTE.

