The operational focus. Half the company is working to get the most work out of the blue collar workforce for the lowest price. What do you think they see when an engineer walks through the door. They see another blue collar job that costs five times as much as normal. True or not, that's how management at e-commerce companies want to approach engineering.
Management doesn't even understand software development. E-commerce management is hardwired to expect a simple action-change-reaction cycle that lasts a couple of days. You don't 'develop' software over a few months or years. You make a software 'change' and things start happening immediately with bottom line improvement in a few days or weeks.
Their thinking is "we're going to optimize forklift operator costs by having people work 2 hour shorter shifts and position forklifts differently so costs next week will be $x less." Their equivalent idea of what software development is is "write a program to reduce shifts by 2 hours and reposition forklifts so costs next week will be $x less." The industry is hardwired to think of software as a tactical tool instead of a strategy.
Even if the company doesn't have operations and is just a website, its still 'make a change to increase conversion so that revenue next week is $x more. Again, software is not a strategy, but a mechanical 9-5 type job.
Management doesn't even understand software development. E-commerce management is hardwired to expect a simple action-change-reaction cycle that lasts a couple of days. You don't 'develop' software over a few months or years. You make a software 'change' and things start happening immediately with bottom line improvement in a few days or weeks.
Their thinking is "we're going to optimize forklift operator costs by having people work 2 hour shorter shifts and position forklifts differently so costs next week will be $x less." Their equivalent idea of what software development is is "write a program to reduce shifts by 2 hours and reposition forklifts so costs next week will be $x less." The industry is hardwired to think of software as a tactical tool instead of a strategy.
Even if the company doesn't have operations and is just a website, its still 'make a change to increase conversion so that revenue next week is $x more. Again, software is not a strategy, but a mechanical 9-5 type job.