The Water Cooler

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jcmeloni

12:12 PM

@BenBrocka I like the expanded text.

@BenBrocka Do you want me to take a crack at some text about functions vs place (my comment on that entry)?

Ben Brocka

@jcmeloni ohhh yeah, forgot about that

sure

jcmeloni

gave it a shot

Ben Brocka

@jcmeloni I'd like a "what is on topic" blurb too but I'm thinking of making a separate meta thread to vote on my changes in that Q to be moved in to the FAQ; thoughts?

We must close a question like one of those every day or two

jcmeloni

12:40 PM

@BenBrocka I have a positive though about a separate what's on topic blurb == new meta Q

thought

Rachel

@BenBrocka @jcmeloni In regards to "How do I learn to be a..." / "How do I perform the job of a ...", can you still ask "Is there a field for X, and if so what is it called?"

jcmeloni

1:07 PM

@Rachel I think it depends how googleable it is?

Ben Brocka

@Rachel Ehhh, I don't really know. I've yet to see a good question written as such. They're always "what job field should I go into" worded slightly different, which makes them recommendation questions

Rachel

1:29 PM

Sounds like the answer depends on if the question can be better answered by the OP or an HR manager. If the answer is best answered by the OP (what's best for me), it's off-topic. If it's best answered by an HR manager, probably on-topic providing it's not stupid-simple

jcmeloni

1:54 PM

@Rachel that's a good way of putting it

Ben Brocka

Q: Switching from mobile technology

I am currently an IPhone developer with 2 years of experience. I have a situation where my organization wants me to fit in as a C# developer because of significant rise in .NET business they are getting. Although I am assured that I'll be working on IPhone as well in future as well. But for now I...

Not constructive? Or even off topic

Rachel

I'd say off topic because of the way it's phrased (answer really only known to OP), however the accepted answer is great. Perhaps we could tweak the question to ask what to consider when considering the switch, so it won't invalidate that answer?

Ben Brocka

I'm not seeing any useful way to generalize it. Switching between any two jobs has lots of similarities and lots of difference, all of them different for all possible combinations of jobs

Rachel

2:31 PM

@BenBrocka Are questions about specifics in broad industries not for the Workplace?

I often see questions like that on Programmers, and typically people refer users to the workplace. I think that sort of question is suitable to a broader audience than just the OP

Ben Brocka

@Rachel Not sure what you mean. If it's something extremely workplace related like specifics of HR, maybe.

Rachel

Well if a question was about something like the tech industry... something like should I focus on trying to get a degree or an internship?

It's a question about a rather broad industry, and the answer depends on the industry specified, and is not really generic for the workplace

Ben Brocka

@Rachel Maybe. But that's a lot more generally applicable than "mobile development vs C# development"

Rachel

I suppose you're right

I guess I had hoped this would be a site for career advice questions about switching industries

Grr got distracted and can't edit that now. Should read "career advice questions that include questions about switching industries"

Since obviously this site would just be for how to switch careers

Ben Brocka

I don't know. Just seems out of scope to me; so much stuff is extremely domain specific. You could ask a Meta Q I guess though. The general switch (switching from a desk job to construction) seems fairly on topic. I just don't like the idea of a million "how do I learn C# as an F# developer?" questions, and I know they're out there

Rachel

2:48 PM

Maybe get someone to write up some extremely generic steps on How To Switch Careers, and close all questions as duplicates? :)

I agree that "how to switch from one language to another" questions are definitely off-topic. They're very domain specific

Ben Brocka

Eh, I think you might be right that there's some interesting stuff in switching significantly different careers; lots of stuff you wouldn't necessarily expect; people working standing jobs probably don't appreciate the sudden importance of ergonomics in desk jobs

@Rachel That's basically what the mobile tech question is about. Unless it's something about the general workflow (testing is different) it's pretty off topic

Rachel

Perhaps the answer is one you'd ask a generic career-guidance counselor, it's on-topic? You wouldn't ask a generic career guidance counselor how to switch from C# to F#, but you would ask them how to switch from a desk job to construction

5 hours later…

Jim G.

7:48 PM

@Rachel How's it going? Do you think that workplace.SE is going to make it?

Rachel

8:01 PM

@JimG. Hey :) I have no idea, I'm honestly not that interested in workplace topics unless they relate to me personally

I do hang out here more than I normally would because I see many parallels to Programmers, and really want them to succeed in a way that I feel programmers failed, and feel just maybe I can offer some input that might help out