How to Hire Great Engineers

Re:How to Hire Great Engineers by cyberdrunk on Friday July 31, 2020 @08:24AM (#24007959)

In civil engineering world, great engineering would be proposing a novel design of a bridge (for example, a first large bridge built out of steel) and delivering it. Of course, most situations don't require novel designs, you just need competent implementation of something that is an industry standard.

In software world, you can also satisfy 99.9% of cases with existing approaches. You mostly don't need great engineers for that.

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Re:How to Hire Great Engineers by zbentley on Friday July 31, 2020 @04:40PM (#24013737)

> In software world, you can also satisfy 99.9% of cases with existing approaches. You mostly don't need great engineers for that.

Unlike other engineering disciplines, software has a constant pressure for pseudo novelty and fad adoption. One dimension of "greatness" is resistance to those temptations and pragmatism in the face of constant change. In that regard, lower quality engineering talent often correlates with increased tech churn and defects, even given a simple business domain.

Tl;Dr engineering excellence doesn't only imply innovativeness, it also implies discipline.

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