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Me: I want to try Angular2 as a frontend framework.
Boss: Just use jQuery.
Me: That's not a framework but syntactic sugar for JavaScript. I rather not use it at all and rely more on ES6 shims. Let's maybe try vuejs.org?
Boss: Other devs know jQuery, just write it in jQuery. We'll need to build it fast and you have used jQuery before, haven't you?
Me: Yes, but ...
Boss: And you haven't used these recommendations.
Me: Yes, but ...
Boss: I won't take the risk. I want something that is known to work.
Me <dying on the inside>: If you insist.

Image source: https://hakanforss.wordpress.com/20...

PS: I don't work there anymore ;)

Comments
  • 4
    So, Angular and Vue aren't "known to work"? 😶 At least Angular is quite a solid choice (don't know Vue, can't comment that). I don't get it, with this attitude the company should be using like assembly or C on a backend... Good choice to leave that place, OP. 👍
  • 7
    IMO you definitely want to show at least some basic knowledge in the new technology of choice before even suggesting to use it on a client project // production.
  • 0
    My boss wants to deploy on Friday afternoon, wants it done yesterday and wants it to work. I can't afford to try anything other than jquery and it's stagnated my growth.
  • 3
    I really hate that people who become so comfortable with one technology and refuse to work with anything else
  • 1
    Imo, if you said you've at least made some of the groundwork in angular, this pitch would have had a different outcome. I think this is more of not following through a proposal rather than your manager shooting down novel ideas.
  • 3
    Actually, I agree with your boss. If none of the members of your team, including you, have never used Angular, it's not a good way to build something that you need quickly done.
  • 1
    @vish The problem could be that *everything* has to be done ASAP. In that case it's important to leave such poor job ASAP as well, because that bad management will cause you a lot of unnecessary stress and can lead to a burnout.
  • 1
    @monnef In that case, I totally agree with you. If everything is needed ASAP, it's best to leave the company. At the place I work, we have a clear definition for what urgent is & it is used very rarely to keep its value.
  • 4
    @vish This is a modified version of the the junior's paradox:

    You don't have experience? Get a job. How to get a job? Have experience.

    If you only use known technologies within a team, how do you learn new ones that might save you weeks of development time? How do you grow?

    Working time should not only consist of "getting things done" but also of "getting things right".

    Learning new technologies is part of our daily job. If they thought I was not a fast self learner, they could have invested in a course. They did neither and defaulted to the most "known" technology. In the end, I implemented a project of a scope I never had done before and I had to learn a lot of new stuff I had no experience with. All that changed was where I invested my time to learn and the quality of what I produced within it.

    As my jQuery solution, to me, was a reinvented square wheel. (Yet at least I now know that building a single page app is hard. With jQuery it's even harder.)
  • 2
    @k0pernikus Hmm.. Reading this makes me realize how good my company is. I see a point in your argument.
  • 0
    @k0pernikus learn one thing at a time, i.e. add a new d3 visualization to the jQuery app or something small. Learning a whole new framework takes months and I suppose you did have a deadline. Take 1 hour every morning/afternoon to read about angular and next time you interact with your boss about a new task show him the brand new app you made in angular.
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