December 18, 2008 at 10:58Programmers and megalomania
In one of my articles ( How to play "programming" or the path of a programmer ), I wrote about the five stages of development of a programmer, and here I called the fourth stage "Mania of greatness." A couple of months have passed since then, and I am more and more convinced that this is the true truth! Actually, once again I was convinced of this unfortunate fact yesterday, when I decided to score for freelance, I drew attention to the studio that had just appeared, where I was called to work as a web-programmer for a pretty decent salary. My relationship with start-up studios is a separate issue, it always attracts me to everything “beginner”, apparently the organizational needs make themselves felt ... but the article is not about that, so when I came for an interview, I met their programmer, let's call him ... well let it be Vitaly.
The interview was conducted by the General Director, but Vitaly, as a knowledgeable person, was present. And it was immediately clear that the initiative to hire another programmer was clearly not from him. Vitali kept his head like an eagle, in the company of sparrows, proudly shoving a white i-pod earphone in one ear, looking down at me, occasionally typing something on his cell phone. After answering general questions about former places of work, experience, education, life priorities and the rest of the garbage, the director went away somewhere, giving, as he said, two specialists the opportunity to talk. Vitali did not show initiative, but I, as a completely sociable person, decided to start first.
First of all, I was interested in what technologies the studio uses.
“ PHP ,” my interlocutor proudly answered, and climbed to print something in the mobile.
In general, I guessed without him that they were unlikely to make sites in assembler, so I decided to clarify. Then Vitaly realized that he would not get out of the conversation, and condescended to an explanation. Looking at me as an idiot and making an indefinite hand gesture, he added:
- Php, mysql, html .
Of course, this is already something, but again, I was not interested in that at all ... Then I asked a clarifying question about using CodeIgniter, because I love this framework. Vitaly grunted, and said that “ KeMES ok"He doesn’t use, because he likes to write all the code himself, and not use someone else’s ... No, well, I can understand when people don’t use ready-made cms and write their own ... but firstly: not for ordinary corporate sites, which the studio does , because it’s a waste of time, and secondly: Vitaly, blah, well, who, who told you that CodeIgniter is cms !? It was this exclamation that just came out of my chest, but I suppressed it and changed the subject by asking about jquery. A pleasant surprise was waiting for me, Vitaliy knows what jquery is, but I am sure that he owns javascript at a sufficient level to " not use someone else's, raw, unreliable libraries ."
In general, during the conversation, I found out that they have no such position as “Project Manager”, because “ We do not need him”, And Vitaly, in addition to the programmer, performs the functions of a layout designer, a system administrator, and even a web server administrator. The last one was of particular interest to me, it turned out that Mega Vitaliy successfully administers virtual hosting from the master host, at the Professional rate.
I do not want to say that Vitaly is a bad programmer, no matter how he works, and in the three months of his existence, the studio made five sites, and he made these sites. Let them make up crookedly, let them be full of sql injections, let now, Vitaly does not understand that he is not a real programmer yet, and there are a lot of people like him. It’s not enough to learn a programming language, it’s not enough to make a couple of sites, you also need to improve, constantly increase your knowledge, read books and articles, communicate with other programmers, do not look for competitors or rivals in them, you need to learn from others, and in our profession, always there is something to learn, which is probably why we love her so much.
While writing the article, they called from the studio and said that I could start working when it was convenient for me ... Apparently Vitaly’s voice was not decisive. I referred to other suggestions, and took a couple of days ... to think. And there is something to think about. Will it be comfortable for me to work next to such a person, can we get along in the same office, and, in the end, what is more valuable to me, money or nerves?
Job interview
The interview was conducted by the General Director, but Vitaly, as a knowledgeable person, was present. And it was immediately clear that the initiative to hire another programmer was clearly not from him. Vitali kept his head like an eagle, in the company of sparrows, proudly shoving a white i-pod earphone in one ear, looking down at me, occasionally typing something on his cell phone. After answering general questions about former places of work, experience, education, life priorities and the rest of the garbage, the director went away somewhere, giving, as he said, two specialists the opportunity to talk. Vitali did not show initiative, but I, as a completely sociable person, decided to start first.
Intimate talk
First of all, I was interested in what technologies the studio uses.
“ PHP ,” my interlocutor proudly answered, and climbed to print something in the mobile.
In general, I guessed without him that they were unlikely to make sites in assembler, so I decided to clarify. Then Vitaly realized that he would not get out of the conversation, and condescended to an explanation. Looking at me as an idiot and making an indefinite hand gesture, he added:
- Php, mysql, html .
Of course, this is already something, but again, I was not interested in that at all ... Then I asked a clarifying question about using CodeIgniter, because I love this framework. Vitaly grunted, and said that “ KeMES ok"He doesn’t use, because he likes to write all the code himself, and not use someone else’s ... No, well, I can understand when people don’t use ready-made cms and write their own ... but firstly: not for ordinary corporate sites, which the studio does , because it’s a waste of time, and secondly: Vitaly, blah, well, who, who told you that CodeIgniter is cms !? It was this exclamation that just came out of my chest, but I suppressed it and changed the subject by asking about jquery. A pleasant surprise was waiting for me, Vitaliy knows what jquery is, but I am sure that he owns javascript at a sufficient level to " not use someone else's, raw, unreliable libraries ."
In general, during the conversation, I found out that they have no such position as “Project Manager”, because “ We do not need him”, And Vitaly, in addition to the programmer, performs the functions of a layout designer, a system administrator, and even a web server administrator. The last one was of particular interest to me, it turned out that Mega Vitaliy successfully administers virtual hosting from the master host, at the Professional rate.
Conclusion
I do not want to say that Vitaly is a bad programmer, no matter how he works, and in the three months of his existence, the studio made five sites, and he made these sites. Let them make up crookedly, let them be full of sql injections, let now, Vitaly does not understand that he is not a real programmer yet, and there are a lot of people like him. It’s not enough to learn a programming language, it’s not enough to make a couple of sites, you also need to improve, constantly increase your knowledge, read books and articles, communicate with other programmers, do not look for competitors or rivals in them, you need to learn from others, and in our profession, always there is something to learn, which is probably why we love her so much.
PS
While writing the article, they called from the studio and said that I could start working when it was convenient for me ... Apparently Vitaly’s voice was not decisive. I referred to other suggestions, and took a couple of days ... to think. And there is something to think about. Will it be comfortable for me to work next to such a person, can we get along in the same office, and, in the end, what is more valuable to me, money or nerves?