DEV Community

George Hanson
George Hanson

Posted on

I'm a R&D Developer. Ask me anything!

I recently got promoted within my company from a Full Stack Developer to R&D Developer.

Ask me anything!

Top comments (18)

Collapse
 
kayis profile image
K • Edited

What's the difference? 🤣

Collapse
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

As an R&D developer I spend a lot of my time researching new technologies and creating proof of concepts for software products.

Whereas before it was working on a production product itself, following along to the product roadmap.

Collapse
 
kayis profile image
K

What are some examples of task you're given in the new job?

Thread Thread
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

Once of the examples I have looked at is how we can use machine learning to better analyse our customers data to predict future patterns

Thread Thread
 
kayis profile image
K

Ah, so you are choosing your projects yourself?

Collapse
 
prasathsarath profile image
sarathprasath

What will be your suggestion for a software developer who want to move into R&D developer? What's the best & not so good part about switching to R&D?

Collapse
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

I think you just need to have an interest in using new technology and being able to quickly assert if it is worth continuing or to move onto the next thing.

In terms of pros and cons, the best thing is being able to work outside of the main product roadmap as well as testing and trying out techology I probably wouldn't have used otherwise.

However I think the biggest con is not seeing something all the way through to fruition. Once a proof of concept has been created and it has been agreed to progress with it, I then hand it off to the product development team while I move onto the next thing.

Collapse
 
k_penguin_sato profile image
K-Sato

Do you like Japanese food?

Collapse
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

Sure, why not.

Collapse
 
maniflames profile image
Maniflames

What are some technologies that are interesting to you right now?

Collapse
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

I really like Docker. While it has been out for a while now, I haven't got a massive amount of experience in it. So it's something that is now getting a lot of my attention.

Collapse
 
ibrahimisad8 profile image
Ibrahim Isa

Do you need a PHD to be in R & D

Collapse
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

No, but I guess it depends upon your employer's requirements

Collapse
 
radicalbee profile image
Abdu

You were a Full Stack PHP Developer before. As RnD developer now, do you recommend your company to continue developing in PHP? If not what else?

Collapse
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

We use a variety of different languages in different areas of our stack, so we use things like Node.js, Java and C#.

Collapse
 
subsr97 profile image
Subramanian 😎

Congrats George!
What was your recent roadblock in R&D and how did you overcome it?

Collapse
 
kyleljohnson profile image
Kyle Johnson

You have my dream job. Seriously. So how did you land this job? The R&D developers I have seen have a PhD.

Collapse
 
georgehanson profile image
George Hanson

Personally I think it is a lot more about attitude and your approach to things that makes the difference. Knowing when it is ok to cut corners because you are creating a proof of concept, communicating well with other key members of the team to make sure what ever you are looking at could fit well within our stack etc.