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The emphasis on "team" to the exclusion of the individual (thanks in no small part to Scrum) is destroying the software developer career. It's a pendulum. There are always team/company goals AND personal goals. However, these days, the rhetoric is ALL about the team: everybody on a team has the same title, get rid of people who don't conform to some "collaborative", "open space", "colocated" ideal, etc. OKRs are entirely about giving everybody the exact same goals. I remember sitting down with managers throughout my career to talk about where I want to be in a year. What skills I wanted to explore. There were no guarantees, but the generally accepted idea was that nurturing the employee helped retain the employee. Now, there is only the idea that every developer should have the same "T-shaped" skillset, that all team members are the same, that all teams are interchangeable, that all developers are nameless cogs. It is demoralizing. If I were to give any advice to those looking to enter the industry as a developer right now, it would be "Don't". Because you will be told that being a "hero" is a bad thing. In what other industry does management tell its producers that they don't want people to go "above and beyond", and that if they do, they won't get credit for it because the credit always belongs to everybody.

Comments
  • 3
    I agree. And that's because software is moving from craftsmanship to assembly line. When I started I was fascinating about the creative process involved in development, but today I noticed a good developer is the one that fits (like a cog) to a mass production style of delivering software. We have to server millions of users, with high quality and and super fast, so there is no space for individuality.

    It's frustrating, indeed.
    But we have to adapt and find different ways or situation when this necessity can be fulfilled
  • 2
    @monkeyboy @nanl

    I agree with both and I feel like I'm getting a taste of it, I've had some interviews and I'm overqualified or (I feel) seen as too ambitious. I guess I am.

    People and specially devs seem eager to conform, in my experience, with comfy salaries, fancy titles, kind words and straight forward chores. In fact I'm doing kind of a social experiment with one of the classes I have in which, by following simple principles, I've climbed to the top of the "cog machine" to allow myself personal growth while keeping everyone else comfortable in their pre-designated position corporation style.
  • 2
    I absolutely dont see this happening. The company i work at is working completely scrum and agile. Sales and finance included.
    But our individual growth is at lest as important as the production of new software. And yes the company will get better because of that too.

    Personally I recognise none of your points.
  • 0
    @Codex404 I work for a company where they think similair to your company.

    But, a big corporate company hires our people to come and work for them, where they have a similair mindset as OP posted.. I dont like it aswell
  • 0
    @LilDev then we might work for the same company, my company is the same.

    But if I have complaints about my project I just have to tell my company and they will try to fix things. If they cant they will find me another project.
  • 0
    @Codex404 We are both dutch but we dont work in C# or PHP tho
  • 0
    @LilDev we do anything our devs know
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