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Wendy Stocker
Wendy Stocker

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You Can't Pay Your Bills with Craft Beers.

Culture is a very interesting thing in the tech community, and it has really come a long way. Over the years I've worked with an array() of wonderfully talented people, from all sorts of walks of life, and it has been a really cool ride.

When I first began cutting my teeth as a Developer, it was right around when the dot-com bubble had fizzled out. Web Development was a fairly new thing, Flash was everywhere, and mobile app development was a twinkle in Steve Job's eye. CSS was just beginning to replace that god awful table markup, and everyone and their dog was coming out with a new CMS in their preferred language. It was the new frontier, back when learning something new meant gasp opening a book.

The tech culture then was similar to something you might find in the movie 'Office Space'. Depending on your organization, you might see a definite delineation between tech department and everyone else. You know, the weirdos that look at that black cmd prompt all day, and if your computer breaks they will definitely know how to fix it.

Over time, agency work began to get more popular. Many upper management positions were replaced with PMs. Around this time I began to notice a cultural shift forming. Office casual was replaced with the sweatshirt, backpack, jeans and sneakers ensemble, and you could definitely tell that companies were starting to place fly traps in their job descriptions that attracted this type of individual.

You started to see things like, "Rock Star Developer", "Craft beers on tap", "Ping-pong table","Free Spotify subscription". All of those things are well and good if you are a 20 something male fresh out of college, but as someone who is not, let me tell you that those things don't actually have too much value.

Which brings me to the point of this post: You can't pay your bills with craft beers.

Though it's not always the case, be a little bit weary of an organization that tries to sell these things to you as part of the package deal. Money is definitely not everything, and working with a team of great people is invaluable. However, in my experience when an organization tries to do this, it's because they might be lacking in other areas.

All of those things can be pretty good bonuses, but when you're weighing the pros and cons of accepting a position take those things out. Ask yourself instead

  • Is this the best fit for me culturally and personality wise?
  • Is this a position where I can really see myself growing into what I want to be both short-term/long-term and inside/outside the company?
  • Will they see the value in what I can potentially bring to the organization?
  • Most importantly, will I be happy there?

If all of those questions are answered with a yes, then you can take a look at their craft beer selection.

Cheers! :)

Top comments (17)

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

Which brings me to the point of this post: You can't pay your bills with craft beers.

Especially if you work as a remote worker :D

I hope no one uses "Rockstar developer" (which actually means "young white male with no interests outside of binge programming") any more but I wouldn't be surprised if some companies still do

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moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

One of the agencies I worked for used to put out ads like that, and they got the recruitment agency treatment to turn them into, well, "my client, a fast-growing up-and-coming city-centre cool fortune-9000 forward-thinking company" sort of thing. Their use of the phrase "rock star" used to get us a lot of applications from people thinking we were Rockstar, whose offices were around the corner. Pointless.

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

ahhaha

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wstocker profile image
Wendy Stocker

That is hilarious! LOL!!

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wstocker profile image
Wendy Stocker

Haha right! It's less common now, but I still see it every now and then!

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jess profile image
Jess Lee

All of those things are well and good if you are a 20 something male fresh out of college, but as someone who is not, let me tell you that those things don't actually have too much value.

YEP.

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wstocker profile image
Wendy Stocker

Very frustrating. I feel myself responding more to positions that just list requirements, and seem more family friendly, because the cool bro culture has always been difficult for me. I'm not a cool bro. lol!

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adampb profile image
Adam Piechocki-Brown

"We have really comfortable desk chairs" would be a bigger pull for me than craft beer

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wstocker profile image
Wendy Stocker

Agreed! A comfortable desk chair might eventually save you money on a doctor bill, however depending how many craft beers you drink, it could be argued that this would save you some money too. ;)

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Mihail Malo

The beers might increase your doctor bill though.

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annarankin profile image
Anna Rankin

...I've worked with an array() of wonderfully talented people...

...annnd I'm hooked 😄

In seriousness though, you make some wonderful points here. I agree 100% with the items on your list, especially the second point. The right environment to grow and develop is so vitally important - I've seen more than one promising dev career derailed or cut short because of a bad fit. Thanks for the great article!

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wstocker profile image
Wendy Stocker

I have definitely been in the position where it was a bad match! That is very important! Thanks Anna!

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threedeeprinter profile image
Dan Benge

Offer free naps, and I'm IN!! :)

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wstocker profile image
Wendy Stocker

Hahah can't argue with that!

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wstocker profile image
Wendy Stocker

Precisely and if they serve free dinner there too, I would think twice about working there!

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stevezieglerva profile image
Steve Ziegler

Great post introduced with a perfect title. Well done. Happy Coding!

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isalevine profile image
Isa Levine

this is really helpful, grounding advice--i'll be starting my first dev jobhunt in a few months, so i'm grateful to have this in the back of my mind now :)