Ask HN: Software Engineer Role Abuse?

codingdave · on Oct 7, 2022

> I currently work as a solo Software Engineer for company, developing internal apps.

Yes, if you are the only dev working on internal apps, the variety of the work expected of you sounds about right. To specialize on just coding, you need an entire team working with you. It sounds like you would prefer to be on a larger team. There is nothing wrong with that desire, but that doesn't mean you are being abused.

At least, the variety of work expectations are not abusive - if the leaders are treating you poorly because of expecting too much work in too short of a time that is a different story.

tjr · on Oct 7, 2022

If you got into software engineering, at least in part, because you prefer to not deal with people directly, then I imagine being the only software engineer for an organization doesn't give you a lot of space to avoid dealing with people. You might consider looking for work in another organization with more software engineers, where there is likely more opportunity for some people to be out front talking to users/customers, and for some people to stay behind the scenes.

For example, in many larger companies with large software teams, each of your bullet points may well be a different person, or even team of people, so if you wanted to focus on doing #10 and nothing but #10, you could do so.

And nothing wrong with that! Some people do their best work wearing a little bit of all of those hats, others do their best emphasizing just one or two of them.

uberman · on Oct 7, 2022

For better or worse, people will often judge you and set expectations via a halo effect. If you're good with writing backend code they likely assume you are good at writing front end code and thus also good at UX.

I sometimes find that I need to reset expectations myself when a business person say for example asks me to create some vector art because I used to do web dev.

Be clear to your co-workers about where your strengths lie and where they would be more productively served by someone else.

frou_dh · on Oct 8, 2022

I mean it sounds like you already have a pretty clear understanding of the issue: Some companies respect Software Engineer/Developer as a distinct and fairly high-status role, but some don't. You've discovered that working at the latter kind of company irritates you. Realistically, you're not going to be able to drastically change a particular company's culture, as a self-described non-people-person.

neophyt3 · on Oct 7, 2022

I have Sr. SWE(Backend) title and my work is limited to 9th and 10th point only and nothing more.. Rest are taken care by Product Owner + Business Analyst + Tech Lead + Scrum Master + Frontend Dev for frontend Stuffs + Devops team. All of them are individuals and they manage their own responsibility and do not interfere with other points out of their scope