
Ask HN: What else is there? - taway_1212
I am not happy with how programming is done in my part of the industry (Java, Scala, some Big Data, some Docker, some web&#x2F;Javascript). The work is usually organised in such a way to prevent one from reaching mastery of any specific part of the subsystem - team members are assigned tickets to work all over the system. This means that you spend a lot of the time in parts of codebase where you consider yourself merely a &quot;tourist&quot; and have neither incentive nor time to master it.<p>I believe that it&#x27;s not accidental - the companies prefer to have swatches of replacable cogs producing mediocre-to-okish software vs having people who are masters of their respetive domains&#x2F;subsystems, who can produce good quality product, but who also have lots of leverage when negotiating raises. It is most managers&#x27; dream to have a Ford factory level of organization and worker replaceability and in the projects I&#x27;ve worked on it&#x27;s been pretty much realised.<p>I wonder if there are still parts of the industry where people are not just resources assigned tickets to work all over giant codebases? I&#x27;m thinking maybe small teams working on embedded software&#x2F;device drivers or other areas where bugs are more costly. I do not know anything about those places though.
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Tempest1981
The situation you're describing sounds like the software is relatively mature.
Maybe you can find a project that is in the early stages, where people are
creating/owning the various subsystems.

Have you discussed the issue with your manager? If he isn't technical, maybe
he's unaware of the product architecture, and sees it as one homogeneous blob.
Try "I was thinking it would be more efficient if we could specialize in
specific areas..." Then you'll have your answer.

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taway_1212
I work at a startup, the CTO is extremely technical and I bet he's aware of
the dynamics. I think I kind of agree that this policy is good for the company
- currently, we're in an early "market grab" phase, so it's all about velocity
(adding as many features as possible, we're selling to enterprise and for a
lot of clients a lack of a specific feature is a no-go) and not so much about
quality. The fallout of this approach will be burned out devs, but most of us
aren't going to leave because it's pretty much the same thing in most other
dev jobs. Hence my question - has anyone witnessed a workplace where mastery
is possible and (preferably) even encouraged?

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Tempest1981
What you describe may not be uncommon for a junior level position, especially
under a strong technical leader.

If you've demonstrated more senior skills, maybe you can discuss with him a
more senior role. Or silently accept your role. You bet he's aware, but he may
not be aware -- some highly technical people lack people skills.

~~~
taway_1212
From what I'm seeing, the most senior people are sadly all over the place as
well. Because they know a lot about different subsystems, they're often pulled
in to help on them (it's partially the consequence of aggresively growing the
dev team - there's a lot of arcane knowledge required to be efficient and most
folks are too new and don't have it). So, the seniors' jobs do not look fun at
all. But yeah, maybe being a senior on a more stable team could be fun.

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drvdevd
My $.02 - write/find/research security exploits and other bugs in your free
time. If something feels too low level, try similar AppSec work in the stacks
you're already "stuck" in (think: Java app logic errors, monitoring
specifically for security, SQL injection, etc). Just find something to break
and/or defend and do it. Note that defense is complex and each application
deployed has plenty of edge cases to consider.

I'm kinda in your boat and I've been meaning to make this pivot myself for
quite some time and know others who started out doing this long ago. So I
can't really give the best advise about how to get _hired_ in that industry --
I just know it's very possible.

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Kepler-131b
You must not be doing scrum right if you feel about it that way

