I think we've all been somewhere that had a laughably incompetent "architect". I can think of at least 3 in my own relatively short career, at three different firms. The rest I would describe as... harmless?
And yet I can see the value of having a strong leader in this role, especially on large-scale enterprise projects and similar.
My own limited experiences and the countless anecdotal similar experiences I've read on HN, etc. over the years raises the question of how some of these people get hired. I assume it's because architects are hired by C-level executives and managers, not technical staff. Probably lots of odd coincidences where everyone used to work at the same place...
But I can promise you this: if I am ever invited to sit in on the interview for an architect, those candidates will get nothing but questions about the fundamentals of networking and development from me.
> My own limited experiences and the countless anecdotal similar experiences I've read on HN, etc. over the years raises the question of how some of these people get hired.
I think I clued in to part of that a couple of weeks ago: they tell management what management wants to hear in a language that management understands. This sort of rapport leads to a completely misplaced trust and the associated trainwrecks make for interesting projects from a recovery point of view.
In a nutshell: it's all people and psychology and being antagonistic will more often than not cause you to be ignored, even if you're right and so the bozos get to have their run.
I've noticed the same thing. Management tends to be older white men with MBAs and there's a big culture divide between them and the developers who control their destiny. So what do they do? They go hire a guy about their age with a CS degree and an MBA to be the trusted representative and they pay him more than any developer. It doesn't just happen in software either, I've seen the same thing with biologists at bio tech companies. Some brand new white baby boomer ends up in charge of the biology team that's been there for years all because the white baby boomer boss doesn't want to handle the mostly female and non-white employees.
And yet I can see the value of having a strong leader in this role, especially on large-scale enterprise projects and similar.
My own limited experiences and the countless anecdotal similar experiences I've read on HN, etc. over the years raises the question of how some of these people get hired. I assume it's because architects are hired by C-level executives and managers, not technical staff. Probably lots of odd coincidences where everyone used to work at the same place...
But I can promise you this: if I am ever invited to sit in on the interview for an architect, those candidates will get nothing but questions about the fundamentals of networking and development from me.