Current Events > Any software developers in here?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Serious topic.

Specifically software developers. I wan't to know if I'm onto something by asking a couple of questions about personality/character.

And to get even more specific, software developers working/worked in mid to large software companies, no freelance.

If any hands come up I'll post what it's about.

Thanks!

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Yes.

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bndluesr posted...

I wan't to know if I'm onto something by asking a couple of questions about personality/character.

...............This sounds like it can only end well. I'm not a developer but I'm interested in what you're getting at.

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Hi. 4 year software dev at a major retailer.

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lone dedicated dev at a midsize company reporting in

but i'm going to sleep very soon

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Cool.

I have to preface this with my experience as a software developer. Bare with me please.

In my software developer career I've been at 3 companies, the first one mid size and the last two large size. Besides my work responsibilities, the aspect that really started to catch my attention was the work culture, I don't mean just how it would naturally occur given the people involved, but what each company attempts to implement for the workplace.

And the larger the company the more "culture control" they implement, from which they start suggesting and sometimes enforcing many types of "activities", maybe some for:

• some social thing
• prepare some presentation
• attending meetings about ethics and compliance
• inclusivity meetings
• the newest work paradigm
• to write up and share some experience
• to complete multiple encyclopedias of trainings
• etc

There's plenty more, but those are the ones that come to mind. On the surface, all of these sound just fine, and in practice too. These things are also used at some capacity for annual evaluation purposes, sometimes you MUST have a couple of goals or priorities each annual cycle.

End of preface, which leads me to the meat of my post.

Putting aside that all departments and areas within a company are necessary, the role of the software developer is the one that, if it is to be done at any effective level, needs the person to be focused and "in the zone" if his work hours are to be truly effective. "Do not disturb", "turning coffee into code", "devs have no life" and such memes although funny do speak to a certain truth, if we're doing our thing leave us alone! Just a single interruption can derail our train of thought and the nice little rhythm we had managed to achieve, and to get back in the zone is a drag, even more so because you're probably pissed off.

As software devs we are so into solving the current thing occupying our minds that we end up thinking about it even after working hours, and in many occasions we happen to stumble upon the solution in this way.

It appears that in this regard we are very narrow focused in this particular craft, this is what lead me into thinking about software developers in terms of personality types.
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Personally most of the time I feel the things I mentioned earlier in the bullet points like annoyances and things that distract me from kicking arse in whatever my current project is. But at the same time they actually are positive things. This is an annoyance that other departments either don't experience, don't mind, or they actually like and enjoy, I can only attribute this to their type of work not being as super-focused/don't-bother-me-ish, I tend to see it being more laid back.

So now I sense a problem, if I as a software developer am expected to kick arse at my projects and ALSO kick arse at all these other time consuming activities, well I'm not sure if we can have it both ways, which leads me back to the topic of annual evaluations and just having a tough time trying to achieve both things.

What I would suggest is having us devs accomplish the equivalent of these metrics in another more dev friendly way, or something more aligned with the personalities of devs.

Ok, now a little about me:

Creative type
Introverted type
Extremely focused (on things I like) type
(I'm no psychologist so I don't know the correct lingo)

• Is this something you resonate with?
• What type of personality are you?
• Am I making a big fuss over nothing?
• Am I making the dev role be more than what it actually is?

This is by no means an attempt to imply that devs are some sort of superior being that mustn't be bothered with anything else.

Please share your thoughts, if this is actually "a thing", I'm willing to make it a thing at my current employer.

Let's call this a first rough draft of "something".

Thanks guys.


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You've kinda got it, but I want to take it a step beyond. Software development is resistant to metrics and analysis of performance on a large scale. Documentation is write only. A lot of the rituals that they're asking you to do are antithetical to doing your job well.

I'm an introvert who loves public speaking.
Need to thrash /task switch frequently.
I have a serious mean streak when it comes to working and generally dislike authority.

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being the only dev in an office filled with extroverted outward-facing personnel (now working from home, thank god) definitely took a toll on my concentration

when things got too excessive i thankfully had authorization from my boss to just work at home for the rest of the day

for a brief period i did collect data and analyze my productivity out of personal curiosity (the result mainly revealing the times of day, days of week, and daily duration of peak productivity) but unfortunately i never thought to factor the state of the work environment into the equation

work environment concerns aside and occasional development requests from other coworkers/departments, however, there aren't many external interruptions - particularly from higher-ups/corporate - that really disrupt the workflow, and the department operates with a significant degree of autonomy

perhaps to a fault since the dept leadership puts data analysis requests from the marketing department at minimum priority, which may have adverse long-term ramifications but i'm not sufficiently qualified to say this with certainty

that all said, however, there seems to be an intuitive sense with our leadership that letting the devs do our jobs is sacrosanct; our folly seems to lie in priorities, as the mission-critical infrastructure projects seemingly often take a backseat to projects which might yield growth or internal efficiency or are otherwise of superficial appeal, but do not shield us from worst-case scenarios which cost us more than the "growth" projects yield

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Thanks for your replies guys. I'm starting to see there's something to it.

Please, I'd like to hear from more of you!

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been a developer for ~15 years. i'll tackle those types of tasks when i'm already "out of the zone" -- after a meeting, after another interruption, etc. i also specifically set aside / schedule time for certain things, like updating documentation or personal development (learning).

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Giant_Aspirin posted...

been a developer for ~15 years. i'll tackle those types of tasks when i'm already "out of the zone" -- after a meeting, after another interruption, etc. i also specifically set aside / schedule time for certain things, like updating documentation or personal development (learning).

Yeah, that work also.

So maybe just plow though all of this and call it a day?

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basically. and as you noted, that stuff is more prevalent at larger companies.

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