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What Is a Rock Star Programmer?

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday August 19 2015, @07:37PM   
from the most-positions-do-not-require-guitar-skills dept.

HughPickens.com writes:

Carina Chocano writes in the NYT that once, a long time ago, a rock star was a free-spirited, convention-flouting artist/rebel/hero/Dionysian fertility god who fronted a world-famous band, sold millions of records and headlined stadium concerts where people were trampled in frenzies of cultlike fervor.

Now 'rock star'' has made a complete about-face and in its new incarnation, it is more likely to refer to a programmer, salesperson, social-media strategist, business-to-business telemarketer, recruiter, management consultant or celebrity pastry chef than to a person in a band. The term has become shorthand for a virtuosity so exalted it borders on genius — only for some repetitive, detail-oriented task.

According to Chocano, posting a listing for a job for which only ''rock stars'' need apply casts an H.R. manager as a kind of corporate Svengali; "That nobody is looking for a front-end developer who is addicted to heroin or who bites the heads off doves in conference rooms goes without saying. Pretty much anyone can be a ''rock star'' these days — except actual rock stars, who are encouraged to think of themselves as brands."

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Original Submission

• Re:Here are a few. Hiring them can be hard to do. Re:Here are a few. Hiring them can be hard to do. (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @08:12PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @08:12PM (#225159)

  Jim Gray, his life's work was database transactions? So in his entire career, he memorized the handful of SQL statements related to committing transactions on a database? This guy sounds like he was a total loser, who could only do one simple thing, and he never bothered learning anything else. If he were not dead, I certainly would not hire him.

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• Re:Here are a few. Hiring them can be hard to do. Re:Here are a few. Hiring them can be hard to do. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @08:42PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @08:42PM (#225168)

  One of the people who helped design and define what we call a relational database? And you consider that 'memorized a few sql statments'? I would not hire you either.

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  • Re:Here are a few. Hiring them can be hard to do. Re:Here are a few. Hiring them can be hard to do. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @08:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @08:44PM (#225169)

    YHBT HAND

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    • Re:Here are a few. Hiring them can be hard to do. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @11:04PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 19 2015, @11:04PM (#225210)

      Someone who spends time pissing off others? Still not hired.

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