jobs-discuss

Job hunting, interview process and anything related to the experience of a job writing the Clojure language.
lilactown 2019-05-31T14:29:40.002800Z

what are y’alls thoughts on Solution Architects?

lilactown 2019-05-31T14:31:40.004500Z

I recently was encouraged (and have) applied to a Solution Architect role at my company (large health care corp), but it sounds like I would: - Not be coding much - Mainly be working to help the business make decisions about procurement, or help teams make decisions on what tools/frameworks/approaches to take for a project

lilactown 2019-05-31T14:34:03.006500Z

also, I’m only 5 years into my career. I worry that if I take a non-coding job now, I put myself at risk of stagnating and not be able to find another job later, even if I’m able to effective at this role in my current corp

danielneal 2019-05-31T14:35:10.007700Z

I've never worked with or as a Solution Architect as such, and I personally think I would be reluctant to unless they also had a bit of a hands on role. We have a principal engineer that is responsible for the architecture, but he also writes lots of the code (including some of the most difficult), I'd be worried about the decoupling of those two things. That said, project management is a very useful skill, but a separate one from coding, I guess...

👍 2
dpsutton 2019-05-31T14:35:18.007900Z

"non-boots"?

lilactown 2019-05-31T14:35:44.008500Z

non-coding / delivery-oriented position? I guess I mean

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lilactown 2019-05-31T14:37:10.010300Z

principal engineer I think is the type of position that I would really prefer. that type of position doesn’t exist (in title/pay) at my current corp, but that’s the type of role I’d like to move towards

danielneal 2019-05-31T14:37:28.010800Z

if the place is friendly, there might be scope to make it more of that kind of thing...

danielneal 2019-05-31T14:37:56.011300Z

it sounds like you're being encouraged to move upwards, which sounds like a good and very encouraging thing

lilactown 2019-05-31T14:38:51.012Z

my boss and I have a great relationship which is part of the reason I’ve stuck around so long 😄

danielneal 2019-05-31T14:39:02.012300Z

that's really great 🙂

dpsutton 2019-05-31T14:39:11.012700Z

talk to him/her about this concern. see what they say?

dpsutton 2019-05-31T14:39:50.014Z

i've heard a good manager is one who wants to grow you and has a plan. it sounds like this person has that. explain your plan and see if they can merge that into how the company progresses people

drone 2019-05-31T14:40:39.016Z

but then you’ll be over 30 and coding! gasp

😱 1
lilactown 2019-05-31T14:40:58.016400Z

I have, and his stance is: Solution Architects are an anachronism, they’re not effective at doing what they are asked to do (for reasons @danieleneal stated re: uncoupling dev and architecture). But they’re a lucrative anachronism 😅

dpsutton 2019-05-31T14:41:43.017200Z

ah

lilactown 2019-05-31T14:42:16.018100Z

and that my force of personality might be able to shape it into something that might fit me more and be more effective than others

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danielneal 2019-05-31T14:42:18.018300Z

I wonder if its about where you draw the line between the tech and non-tech bits. 1. It's really nice having project managers who are responsible for comms and delivery but give the people working on the problems the choice of which tools/tech to use. 2. Maybe it gets a bit sketchy when people are specifying the tools/tech unless they also had to work with them in some way. 3. It then gets good again if the architect is also a leader / principal engineer who grapples with some of the thorniest bits

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lilactown 2019-05-31T14:44:23.019Z

@mrevelle I actually can’t picture myself not coding in my 30s+

drone 2019-05-31T14:46:50.020100Z

same, except for some older age since 30s are already happening here

emil0r 2019-05-31T14:55:29.021Z

soon entering the 40s and still coding. I’ve met people in their 60s that are still coding and sharp as ever

alexlynham 2019-05-31T14:56:22.022100Z

fwiw I got pushed that way in the old job - see the discussion about ‘glue’ from a few days ago - and ultimately decided that going back to line coding suited me better at this point in my career

alexlynham 2019-05-31T14:56:46.022800Z

I was good at the other stuff and it was much more useful to the business than just me working on code

alexlynham 2019-05-31T14:57:26.023700Z

but it didn’t make me as happy as ‘just’ being an engineer, so I went back to that and I’m much more chill and happy

alexlynham 2019-05-31T14:57:36.024Z

obv YMMV 🙂

lilactown 2019-05-31T15:10:13.024300Z

thanks all. this gave me some valuable perspective

rmprescott 2019-05-31T15:30:24.025400Z

Popular essay on this topic (language is a little raw) https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum/

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alexlynham 2019-05-31T15:34:13.025800Z

ahhh yes, that’s a great post

3Jane 2019-05-31T17:44:47.028100Z

'sup

3Jane 2019-05-31T17:45:33.029Z

afaict anything with "solutions" in title involves the product-company / customer-company interface

3Jane 2019-05-31T17:46:23.029600Z

anything with "architect" involves sketching out a bigger picture, and pitching it to some decision makers

3Jane 2019-05-31T17:54:40.031300Z

Becoming an architect or a manager is "career progression", because these roles are a step up in status.

3Jane 2019-05-31T17:55:14.032100Z

They can be annoying because people don't want to have to retrain: they are completely different in terms of skillset, so they are not really a natural evolution of a programmer.

3Jane 2019-05-31T18:00:05.032800Z

On this subject (health minister warns, may induce high levels of cynicism)