Ask HN: Are you Enterprise, or Startup?

3 pointsPinbenterjamin7y ago2 comments

I've found myself reading a ton of HN lately, the quality is pretty high, and the topics only regularly make it over my head, instead of mostly, like the LWN.

I especially love OP ED pieces, no matter their quality, because it's kind of like a window into the soul of other developers, I'm not always looking to learn, sometimes I want to empathize.

One thing that isn't mentioned enough, is what environment you 'grew' up in as a developer. I think that shapes the way you write code more than almost any other factor, regardless of where you go after.

I think the Show HN: posts are the best examples of this. You have a huge volume of developers hoisting projects that solve problems in such a huge number of domains...I wish I knew why you wanted to solve a problem in that domain in the first place. I wish I had more background.

So I ask; What world did you start in? Did it shape the way you wrote code as you traversed your career? Where you predisposed to one environment over the other?

2 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

PinbenterjaminOP7y ago

I'm still youthful in my career. I'm not yet 30, and I've been working professionally in Enterprise for 6 years. I barely empathize with the kinds of problems being solved with these 'Show HN' posts. It's not glorious development, but I don't hate working in these applications at all.

We have 3 main domains, that consist of modern technologies (Angular > C# WebApi > SqlServer) And 3 applications that are legacy, and still require feature updates (JSP / VB6 / ASP.NET MVC)

We move at a regular pace, and have access to great, expensive tools that I would probably miss in the start up environment. (Local TFS, Jira, Enterprise VStudio, iDea, local Sql instances)

I can learn so much, because the enterprise environment provides so much, and the jobs around here are entirely enterprise development(Philly).

I love the idealism in the West, but absolutely nothing about my environment makes me think the grass is greener over there.

mindcrime7y ago

I work for a multi-national $BIGCORP by day, but in the course of my career I've worked for little 10 person companies, other $BIGCORPs, mid-sized consulting companies, other small-to-medium sized software companies, etc. I've kind of been all over the place experience wise.

Predisposition? I like the enterprise "world" in many ways, but I don't necessarily like working for a $BIGCORP in many ways. In fact, I don't really like the fundamental idea of having a traditional "job". My real passion is to run my own company. That's why I've been working on getting a software company of my own established. It's still a "nights and weekends" thing right now while the day job pays the rent and electric bill. But doing my own thing is my real passion.