I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work

Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by derialstrazus on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:16AM (#14247034)

I'm just starting out in my career, but what do they mean by "good enough to work for us"? Is there a way to measure this metric? And how do I know if I'm there?

My personal understanding (as a web developer) had always been, someone who is "good enough" is someone who can build a system from the ground up, with the capability to handle requests at high capacity and manage performance. BUT, this would just be an advanced CRUD app and I fail to see how that would reach a salary of $500,000 a year.

It looks like ShellyPalmer has a special focus on machine learning and data science. Perhaps their requirements are beyond what I am even aware of.

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Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by Alex3917 on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:22AM (#14247101)

> someone who is "good enough" is someone who can build a system from the ground up, with the capability to handle requests at high capacity and manage performance

Being a good developer (usually) doesn't mean writing especially performant code, at least not beyond what's noticeable in terms of the end user's experience. It means creating products with:

- intuitive database schemas

- clean code architecture

- good overall readability

- simplicity and optionality

Being a developer isn't much different than being any other type of writer. The best way to figure out if someone is likely to be a good developer is to ask yourself whether they'd likely be successful as a contributor to the New Yorker.

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Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by CoolGuySteve on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:43AM (#14247303)

I agree with all of this, these are the most important skills for a developer, but none of these things are tested for in the typical programming interview.

If you want to min/max your stats, all that matters is mastering the 'Cracking the Coding Interview' style. So many companies cargo culting Google interview style such that it's now pretty dominant, at least in NYC.

On one hand you'd think this would be self correcting, more nimble companies would find more effective ways of interviewing. On the other hand, software development is one of the most fad driven industries out there.

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Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by randomdata on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:46AM (#14247331)

My takeaway from the article is that they are looking for someone who is famous, at least as far as fame among programmers goes. I gather they are not so much concerned with your ability to write good code or solve particular problems, but your ability to market their products/services to your fan base. The article emphasizes having a large following on GitHub, and wants to see your GitHub profile specifically (i.e. to measure your popularity).

Same reason famous actors, athletes, etc. are paid more than others doing the same job: Their marketing ability brings more customers to the theatre, stadium, etc. That brings added value and the leverage from that brings added compensation.

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Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by ben_jones on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:25AM (#14247127)

You actually just broke down quite a few skill sets that can be qualified by experience or interviews.

* Build a system from the ground up => Understands how to build custom solutions with or without frameworks and pre-established libraries in order to reach the optimal business solution for the company/client which may include time and resource constraints

* Capability to handle requests at high capacity and performance => Understanding of development operations including but not limited to linux, networking, automation, cloud solutions, databases

Now the extent to which a developer has trained those skills would greatly effect earning potential however having them at a basic level would certainly qualify one for most dev jobs.

Machine learning and data science are particularly valuable because their is simply so much unexplored territory and so few candidates. $500k could easily be the salary of some of the primo researchers working for Uber, Google, Etc.

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Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by tonyedgecombe on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:29AM (#14247171)

"Perhaps their requirements are beyond what I am even aware of."

It's just another consultancy business.

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Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by imhoguy on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @01:20PM (#14248375)

Yes. Sounds that they want a lone alpha wolf rockstar ninja to make another Youtube or Facebook asap but had learned $100 butget is not enough.

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