Research software engineers need to be more recognized.
In my workplace, I am the rare one who can code C++ to work with drivers for real time stuff and develop C# GUIs for convenience and automation. Everyone else is happy with Python or Matlab scripts that are only usable to one person and always need to be edited even for the simplest parameter changes. I would do analysis stuff in real time in a camera feed and adjust the experiment in real time, while others could only analyze an image after being saved. The difference in productivity is literally a hundred times. In most cases the job would have been impossible otherwise or at least painfully inefficient.
Unfortunately, research leaders cannot tell the difference (or pretend to), and just label everyone the same. They are not software engineers themselves, and are probably even insecure. I feel my opportunities and potential are not being recognized either. I also feel that they don't respect that software development needs more time as they will just dump as much tasks to me as the other non-software engineers.
I have to eventually leave such groups as I don't see their willingness to step up in their coding skills despite being heavily reliant on my output. Draconian intellectual ownership rules don't help either.
In my workplace, I am the rare one who can code C++ to work with drivers for real time stuff and develop C# GUIs for convenience and automation. Everyone else is happy with Python or Matlab scripts that are only usable to one person and always need to be edited even for the simplest parameter changes. I would do analysis stuff in real time in a camera feed and adjust the experiment in real time, while others could only analyze an image after being saved. The difference in productivity is literally a hundred times. In most cases the job would have been impossible otherwise or at least painfully inefficient.
Unfortunately, research leaders cannot tell the difference (or pretend to), and just label everyone the same. They are not software engineers themselves, and are probably even insecure. I feel my opportunities and potential are not being recognized either. I also feel that they don't respect that software development needs more time as they will just dump as much tasks to me as the other non-software engineers.
I have to eventually leave such groups as I don't see their willingness to step up in their coding skills despite being heavily reliant on my output. Draconian intellectual ownership rules don't help either.