“why did you decide not to be a developer”

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Last week, I got asked “why did you decide not to be a developer” by a junior developer while we were pair programming. My first reaction was “I am a developer”. My second was confusion as we were writing Selenium/JUnit code at the time of the question. She was typing and I was the navigator. (In this particular pairing session, she was the driver for 95% of the time as I’ve worked with Selenium extensively and she had never used it before. The only times I drove were for a few “Java idioms” where I wanted to show how it was done.)

After I got past my first two reactions, I gave a far better response. Another teammate IM’d me to say it was a good explanation and I replied that it would make an excellent blog post. So here’s that blog post.

There’s different types of developers

I’m currently on a Dev Ops type team. We do tools and consulting to teams creating business applications. (usually web apps but not always.) I consider myself a developer. I write code. I deliver software. Sometimes that software is a standalone tool we wrote. Sometimes it is automation for an open source tool. Sometimes is it is customization. Sometimes it is automation of a task. Sometimes it is a requirement that the open source software doesn’t meet. But I write code regularly at work. I also read code regularly to troubleshoot open source code.

Frequency of coding on my previous team

On my previous team, I was a business/web application developer. Towards the end, I had advanced to the point where I was the tech lead and SQE (software quality engineer). And this was a decent sized team so it took up time. I spent a lot of team mentoring others, doing analysis, in meetings, etc. I didn’t code every day on that team, so typing code can’t be the measure of a developer role. Interestingly, the code I write on my current team is often harder/more technical than the code I wrote on my previous team!

First time idea of being on the dev ops team full time

A teammate floated the idea of me being on the tooling team full time a good number of years ago. At that point, I wasn’t even able to think about it. I needed the experience of being a tech lead/architect/whatever of a larger team before I was willing to “specialize”. So I understand the question. But it’s not a matter of not being a developer. It’s a matter of being a different type of developer.

My title/department

My title is still developer and I’m still in a development department. That hasn’t changed. So my company thinks of me as a developer too. It’s just that our customers are now developers too while they used to be the business.

Programmer vs developer

This wasn’t in my answer, but I want to include it here. There’s a difference between being a programmer and a developer. We aren’t just boxes that take in detailed requirements and spit out code. That’s true on any team.

Finally

Finally, the good news is that she asked the originally question because she was impressed with my coding skills.

how easy should be it reach an author?

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I was reading Deep Work:Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. On page 243, the author writes:

Most nonfiction authors are easy to reach. They include an e-mail address on their author websites along with an open invitation to send them any request or suggestion that comes to mind. Many even encourage this feedback as a necessary commitment to the elusive but much-touted importance of “community building” among their readers. But here’s the thing: I don’t buy it.

Scott and I are non-fiction authors of three cert books. We don’t encourage email. We do encourage communication. All three of our books encourage readers to contact us using the forums at CodeRanch.com. This works well for us because there are others who have the possibility to answer and it doesn’t come with a quick reply assumption. (Although we often do reply within a day or two if nobody else has first).

We do like hearing from readers. We like hearing about their success on the exam. We like hearing when they find an errata. (see why posting errata matters). We like hearing what they are looking for clarification.

I wonder if this comes from our domain. Computer programmers don’t write a book expecting to make loads of money. And we aren’t required to publish for our jobs. The author of this book is a professor. So I wonder if he thinks of his book differently? Or if it is that Scott and I were active on the forums before writing a book so wish to remain accessible?

why do i speak as a programmer

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I was at Toastmasters officer training and someone in my group asked if being a DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) has helped professionally. The trainer for our group doesn’t work in a field where she speaks so not really. I mentioned that it has helped me. I joined Toastmasters to get better at presenting technical content in a humorous and engaging way. I’m definitely better at that than when I started. I’m also more comfortable dealing with unexpected events while speaking.

But what really surprised me was the sharp decrease in the time it takes me to prepare for a presentation. That alone has helped me professionally. I had an opportunity to speak to between 100 and 200 people at the NY Java User Group. I joke that I was the “opening act” for Maurice Naftalin. People registered to hear him speak about Java. He wasn’t able to arrive at the start of the meeting so the group needed someone to speak for 30 minutes. On three days notice, I was able to do it and do a good job. (And I spent most of that three days doing other things.) That decreased preparation time is something that Toastmasters has helped me with!

The person with the question asked why I speak as a programmer. He commented that it makes sense for business analysts. But implied us programmers only talk to computers. So why speak do I as a programmer?

  • Teaching and mentoring – Whether it is a short training session and work or speaking at a conference, being a more effective speaker helps people learn better.
  • Audits – I work for a bank which means we have regular audits. Being able to explain what we do (without being nervous) is a useful skill.
  • Work presentations – Pitching an idea, design meetings, etc.
  • Writing – Scott and I have written three books and this blog. Yes, I know writing isn’t speaking. But some of the skills translate. Like organizing your material.
  • Networking – It’s useful when people google you that they find stuff :).