[Hidden-tech] Thanks to all those great Web designers - curious about the new generation/work expectations

[Andy Klapper]

To me there a several aspects that make one a good software engineer, and
I'll assume a good builder of web sites.

1) Personality/communications aspects.  Can you get along with people,
understand what they are saying, or not saying, and get them to understand
the pros and cons of different solutions.
2) Creativity, intelligence and the focus to follow through with a solution.
3) Knowledge of the technologies needed to produce the best solution.
4) The experience of successful and failed attempts.  Failed is too strong
of a word, though it certainly does apply at times.

Number 4 is what you get with somebody that's been around the block a few
times.  I've never finished a project and not wished I hadn't done something
differently.  It's just my nature, and my experience.  The thing is, I'll
work that knowledge into the next project or some other project in the
future, and that knowledge tends to be something that transcends the
particular technology used on a particular project.

The type of experience is also important.  Designing a system from scratch
is worth more than being a cog in a large company building slightly similar
widgets every year, there just isn't all that much you learn making the 5th
widget that you didn't learn from the first four.

In reality number 3 tends to be more important for consultants than full
time employees.  My experience is that a great engineer is a great engineer
in any setting.  What is important is how they grasp and solve problems.
The language and libraries can be learned, the gift of how to use them is
just that, a gift.  Employers don't want to pay for somebody to learn a new
technology on their dime, for a six month contractor that may make sense,
for an employee that you hope sticks around for 3 to 30 years it's
incredibly short sighted.


Andy.


Andy Klapper

Senior Consultant
Asgard Technology Group, LLC
Making solutions to complex problems simple

5 Anna Marie Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
(860) 805-1189 (c)

please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to.



-----Original Message-----
From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Bethany
Seeger
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:12 AM
To: Tom Kopec
Cc: hidden-discuss
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Thanks to all those great Web designers - curious
about the new generation/work expectations

   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
   ** If you did, we all thank you.



I agree.

And it's sad for me to hear that experience of 15-20 years doesn't count 
for much in web designing - I'm a software developer, not a web designer. 
But still, it's sad to hear that experience doesn't count for much in that 
field, to some.

It is something that I, a thirty something, have been bothered by for a 
while. Most companies want cheap, and they get what they pay.  If, 
perhaps, a college grad has as much knowledge as I do, in my field (and 
I'm guessing that some the top notch students might), then there's a very 
good chance they haven't learned exactly how and when to apply it yet. I 
imagine thats the same in any field.  With experience comes the knowledge 
of setting realistic timelines, staying organized, realizing when to use 
the latest and greatest technologies and when to stick with what you know 
is older, but functions just fine.  And design (software and web, I'm 
sure) only gets better in time -- you try something, it doesn't work, you 
move on, having gained that experience.

Anyways, just my .02,
-Bethany


On Tue, 9 Mar 2010, Tom Kopec wrote:

>   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>
> Lynn, I'm glad you said it so tactfully..
>
> I (now at 52) have been working with startups for the past ten years,
> getting their products out the door.. all I add is making their ideas
> functional, reliable, desirable, manufacturable, supportable, and
> affordable.  Pretty much what I'd done for corporations for decades
before.
>
> baby-boomer != good old bloated hierarchy.. you can find unmotivated,
> underperforming people in every age group.
>
> just my $0.02.
>
> ...tom
>
> Lynn Nichols wrote:
>>    ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's
area.
>>    ** If you did, we all thank you.
>>
>>
>> Hey Nestor - I'm a 54 year old web designer (hence a baby boomer) who is
>> at the top of my game with the web and social networking (you can find
>> me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social sites and I
>> follow lots of others  through RSS feeds with iGoogle). And my business,
>> which I started in 1999, is busier than it has ever been. So please
>> don't put us boomers in the same box -- not all of us are ignorant of
>> the ways of younger folks (in fact, some of us are heavy into
>> cross-generational collaboration). I stay current with technology and
>> cultural changes to keep my business moving forward and keep me from
>> becoming a "dinosaur" at the top... ;)
>>
>> Lynn
>>
>>
>
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