Words in quotation marks because it's probably more of a spectrum than binary, but let's talk about the difference between tech/code first work and code work for other types of orgs.
Ben Halpern
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What are the big differences between working for a "tech company" and being a dev for a "non-tech company"
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Non-tech companies hate you because they need you (or a cost-equivalent version of you). Tech companies hate you more because they're paying you to fix some non-tech company's ugly untested code based on some deprecated library.
See,
non-tech company : you only a support guy, with a 'support a like' salary package
tech company : you are the precious one, with a super-benefit salary package
At a tech company the c-level people say: "we're an IT company". At a non-tech company the c-level people say: "we have an IT department" (or they just outsource IT). The difference between the two is how much influence the dev/IT managers have over leadership. That being said, tech companies don't always fully comprehend the state of the art in information technology; e.g. "Dev Ops" may be considered a team instead of a company culture, similar to the concept illustrated in the DevOps literature.
When you work for a tech company your prime directive is to sell their products or services; everything else you do is in support of that effort.
When you're a dev in corporate your primary goal is to produce functional, bug free code, as per Enterprise standards (if they have any), while meeting project milestones within a specified time.
I got into a non tech company but they didn't do any technical interview or tests. That being said, my quest was over in a week.
I’m the lead developer for one of the largest solar companies in the nation.
For over a year I was the only dev in the entire company (now I manage a total of five other junior devs). It gets a little isolating sometimes when there is nobody else I can turn to who knows what my job is
I did my internship at a non-tech company a few years ago, then I know it was not what I wanted to do in my life!
Some of my experience working with "non-tech company":
I've worked in exclusively non-tech companies so far, and it's been a challenge while also being super rewarding bringing them into the modern tech space!
I also wrote a fun article about it: dev.to/justsharkie/just-a-big-tech...
Opinionated response ahead. Disclaimer, not all companies and made or run equally, there are good and bad non-tech companies and good and bad tech companies. These are just some ramblings, and should be read with a pinch of salt.
From my experiences managers in non-tech companies tend (not always) to be promoted because they have been at the company for a long time and the company need to make them feel like they need to be promoted. They are usually (not always) promoted because they have knowledge of the company and sound like they know what they are talking about from a technical point of view.
Those who are technical enough to sound like they know what they are doing are the most dangerous type of people (to me). You will end up being dragged into situations where they will say things without truly understanding ramifications (there is a good chance blame will be passed around, (in some ways its not their fault they are in a position they think they understand).
As a dev you will will probably be taking on more work where the spec might be "fuzzy", the spec will be something like: Make A do Y. The work will tend to be constrained to cost rather than accuracy. There will be technical debt.
In tech companies you tend to have two types of people on the tech side. Those who are "tech people people", and those who are "tech people". Those who are the "tech people people" will start going up the management career ladder, team lead, dev manager. The "tech people" will tend to follow the technical career path, senior dev, architect, principal engineer.
As a dev in these organizations early on you should be given a talk or your manager should be aware of your preference, would you rather go down the technical manager route or the technical dev route.
In technical companies the work tends to be about doing things right, minimizing technical debt where possible.
It really depends on the kind of people you find there.
If you find a mentor in the non tech company that's going to help you a lot more compared to a dev working in a tech company with no one to mentor him.
The speed of learning is very less when everything is self taught. saying this from personal and past experiences.
but, most of the time you will find these diff
It's easier to explain the problem you are facing while implementations when compared to non tech company
The amount of investment on better and needed technology is way more plausible and doesn't need recommendation from the CEO's software engineer friend who doesn't like the idea.
Non Tech companies you'll find a lot of people that have other hobbies and you can talk about it. This point is only based on my experiences and I'd mostly find people I could talk about tech, which I like but can't really do that 24/7. on the other hand because you can't expect everyone to know what you are doing in a non tech environment, the conversations get a little more casual.
Worst thing for me right now, in non-tech, is the feeling of all your work and effort being underestimated. They think everything is a push of a button, few keystrokes away. Yesterday some were shocked when they realised how much work just 1 simple piece requires. They behave like a startup while having enterprise requirements.
Also you get to be "smartest guy in the room" too much time - in terms of your job/career. So there's no space to learn from others you just work.
This finnaly boils down to the fact that I think I'm degrading professionally.
On the other hand it's much more satisfying to see the purpose of the software and be directly involved with solving real world issues by thinking not by tasks in Jira or patterns. You feel more useful, at least that's my case
Many true things were already said, I'll add one more: feedback.
When working in tech, you are creating the actual product. People interact ith what you create and you will get back feedback about what you did.
In non-tech you are only creating an addition, even if it's customer-facing. I never heard anyone saying "wow, this shipment tracking on your e-commerce is AMAZING", people will always speak about the product they bought.
Now, this is not good-bad spectrum. But for some people this kind of feedback is more important that for others. I've also met people who don't like this and prefer to work behind the scenes. For them it might be important factor when choosing between tech or non-tech.
Having worked at both, I think the biggest difference is the problems that tech solves. At a "tech company", tech is often the product and there will likely be a shared vision of what this should look like. In a "non-tech company", developers may have more of a role to play in helping the company identify what business problems tech can help with, and then delivering on that.
I wrote about this at the beginning of the year. Excuse the external link - linkedin.com/pulse/celebrate-new-y...
A typical problem with non-technical companies is that their managers see IT only as a necessary but annoying cost factor.
They try to save costs by hiring people who can do a lot at once, instead of hiring several people who are really experts in a field.
Furthermore, managers often do not understand tech. They make promises without being able to estimate the necessary effort.
Testing the project? Just unnecessary costs.
If you talk to them about it, they often feel attacked (people are afraid of what they do not understand). Therefore, everyone should have learned basic knowledge imho (which is not hard nowadays).
But it is relatively easy to avoid these companies, because you can usually recognize them by the job advertisement.