Whats you guys perception on "true programmers"?

I have been working at this Help Desk which is my first IT job for two months now and one of the guys who started with my hire group quit. Someone told me about it and then said "the man was a true programmer, didn't know how to talk to people". Is this true of "true programmers" that they don't know how to talk to people? I've talked with a really really good programmer before (freakin godly) and she knows how to talk to people very well! I just think it's a stereotype is all.

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Comments

kingslayer

Maybe in a bigger company where other people can be hired to talk to clients about requirements etc..but in a small company (at least in mine) all the developers spend a lot of time talking to clients so their people skills are just as good as their coding skills.

N2IT

kingslayer wrote: »

Maybe in a bigger company where other people can be hired to talk to clients about requirements etc..but in a small company (at least in mine) all the developers spend a lot of time talking to clients so their people skills are just as good as their coding skills.

+1

Most developers I know spend a great deal of time with the requirements going back and forth.

DevilWAH

i agree i think it depends also on what you are programming. some one writng a database for example for a client needs to have very good people skills to gather info from the client and create a product fit for purpose. On the other hand some one programing a very specilised application. (such as modeling the heart). is more lickly to work in a small tightly focused group of "nerds/geeks" who although with in that group will have great people skills to outsiders may seem to struggle. People skills is a strange term, good people skills does not mean you have to be able to talk to anyone and every one. but the people you need to for your job.

Slowhand

It sounds like a term that could be switched out with pretty much anyone in a technical or scientific field. . . or even with the word "nerd" or "geek". Your coworkers have probably just latched onto the word "programmer" the way Scott Adams uses "engineer", just as a catch-all for someone with poor social prowess but highly-developed technical skills.

GAngel

Could have been one of those mainframe guys

. I still havn't met one who's not nuts.

ehnde

I know several skilled programmers that are very clever/witty, although I don't know them in their professional capacity. The guys I know mostly are people that are working on open source projects (not getting paid and doing it because they love programming).

VAHokie56

Slowhand wrote: »

It sounds like a term that could be switched out with pretty much anyone in a technical or scientific field. . . or even with the word "nerd" or "geek". Your coworkers have probably just latched onto the word "programmer" the way Scott Adams uses "engineer", just as a catch-all for someone with poor social prowess but highly-developed technical skills.

I agree I think what they where trying to say is that the person in question just lacked social skills.

never2late

VAHokie56 wrote: »

I agree I think what they where trying to say is that the person in question just lacked social skills.

I work with programmers and some fit the stereotype while others do not. Typically we do not let our developers communicate with clients, that's why we have a customer service department. I have noticed that many programmers know how to code but lack the front-end skills. Our CS people direct the developer on building the interface and the programming dept manages the underlying code.