Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwaway936482 2139 days ago
Now that is a valuable skill.
2 comments

I think it's valuable in the sense that it creates value. It gets things built that work well, and fit into the bigger picture needed by the company. It might even be one of the essential skills in building a successful tech company.

But I don't think it's valued much on the open market.

As in, it's hard to be recognised for that kind of skill. Established, larger companies tend to have a structure in place and, at least on the open market, try to fit people into narrower roles. Even if there's a laundry list "tech stack", it's usually a narrow role.

As ritchiea said, it can seem as if the only place where the range is a good fit is at early-stage startups, with plenty to do and good judgement needed, but limited earnings on offer.

It depends? Certainly for some companies but I wouldn't be the right fit if you need a highly specialized infrastructure person at Netflix or AWS or something. Sometimes it can feel like I'm only a good fit at startups which isn't great for earnings potential.