Absolutely NO TATTOOS For Software Engineers!

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hey folks we are going to the YouTube comments today and uh this one is from gaming Yun one and this says how do companies view people with visible tattoos in white color jobs such as software engineering with hand neck forearms and other visible tattoos hurt a candidate's chances or find work or chances to find work in a white collar job um so I'll give you my opinion on this um and total disclaimer there is some bias because I have tattoos um but I'll give you my perspective on this in just a friendly reminder that if you want your questions answered regarding software engineering your career in software development leave them Below in the comments or look for Dev leader on social media that's also my main YouTube channel where I have edited down videos tutorials things like that and live streams every Monday at 700 p.m.

Pacific um if you send me a message on social media versus in the comments uh if it's a message I will keep you Anonymous if it's in the comments it's already public okay um so I think the answer to this question is going to be it depends um and that's I want to I I think I need to say that it depends because I can't universally answer this um because I think there are probably some places that will care um but the thing that I would want to mention here is that like if you have tattoos or that's a way that you have uh you know whatever it happens to be if it's different colored hair tattoos piercings things like that um I would say that if that's a way that you express yourself and you are trying to get a job and that place

does not allow you to express yourself that way say it's probably not a place you want to work anyway like that's the reality of it in my opinion um if you were you know trying to maximize every possible chance of getting a job uh um regardless of any other Factor then I would say sure cover up your tattoos and stuff but I think that if you're in a situation like that you're almost like micro optimizing and I say that because going back to my first point like it so say you end up micro optimizing and you get into this position where a company's like oh great we'll hire you um and then they find out you have tattoos or something um and that's a problem like it's it's not going to be a place that you probably wanted to work any any way there's going

to be aspects about a culture like that that likely do not align with with your values so would it be helpful to get your foot in the door perhaps but like I just don't think that it would be a sustainable thing that you would value or enjoy anyway um so my my recommendation here personally is to not worry about that um I I could imagine that there are places and don't work in I don't work in places that are like super customer focused and I would say many software engineering jobs and sorry when I say customer focus I mean like directly sitting down with customers um and I don't think that many software engineering jobs do give software Engineers that opportunity it's not impossible it's I'm not saying that there aren't places like that in fact I would say probably it's more likely that if

you're in a smaller team smaller company there might be more of these opportunities just because there's less like layers and overhead between engineers and customers but it's not like a rule it's impossible for me to sit here and say like oh like this is just how it works everywhere but um if you're if you're more removed from customers right then the likely reality is that there's just less care for how customers May perceive and one right like there's just like these uh these layers these barriers between customers and developers uh and other roles too not just developers but if you had a customer base that for some reason based on image it really mattered then I could imagine that some companies would try to take a stance where they're like well we want to have you know our our identity viewed a certain way and

that would include you know the people that work there but like I'm saying this as someone who doesn't really agree with that um if you haven't seen my other videos I generally try to like challenge my own perspective so that I can offer different perspectives too so that I don't just like lean totally into my bias so what I'm trying to say here is that I can absolutely imagine there are places that would say hey like we don't want visible tattoos or we don't want funky hair colors or piercings and stuff like that sure I think that there are definitely places like that uh I don't think that it's that common like I in my entire career I've never encountered such a thing and I've been an engineering manager for uh just under 13 years uh admittedly like for the entire 13 years I wasn't

trying to like apply for jobs and stuff like that but I've just I have never seen it or heard it come up but this is the kind of thing that I might see people talk about in So on social media for like like all sorts of jobs like not specific to software development so I'm just trying to acknowledge it like it's it's probably a thing at some places but truly like like I'm I don't know a good way to say this without sounding factious like do you actually want to work at a place that is so hellbent on like you can't have visible tattoos that that like they won't hire people because of it like I think the answer is probably no right like it's why you have tattoos in the places you have tattoos or piercings that you have for hair color whatever else

that might be different or unique right it's it's a way of expressing yourself or you have some other reason for it and if that's going to be a dictating or deciding factor because of a company like to to not hire you I just think that that's probably not a place I would want to work at um yeah I think that's primarily it it's a pretty like for me it's a pretty straightforward question if I uh if I knew that about a company like I wouldn't be interested uh I was I'm trying to think of a good comparison I was talking to my I'll generalize this but I was talking to my wife about something the other day about um uh like different viewpoints and I was saying that there in some situations if we have a bias against someone or an organization to begin with

and then they make a statement it's almost like sometimes we're like automatically triggered by it we like oh well that's dumb like you know it's a stupid opinion to have but it's because we already have this bias from from whatever uh you know situation or uh scenarios from before and I was saying now let's try to take whatever scenarios being introduced that were like being triggered by and like what if it was someone that you really looked up to and respected and admired and they made that same statement to me it would like almost invalidate a lot of a lot of the reason why I admire or look up to to someone or respect someone so for example I can't I don't know if someone off the top of my head so I'm not going to pick someone but if I had if I had

a mentor and I like really trusted and respected them and then one day they were like oh yeah like visible tattoos like absolutely not that could not work with anyone with visible tattoos be an absolute no no for software developers or or whatever I would sit there being like wait a second like that's that's so bizarre and it would like me likely make me question like some of their other logic and reasoning it's not that they're not allowed to have an opinion everyone's allowed to have an opinion but it would make me start to question the rationale that they have on other things like Suddenly It's invalidating a lot of other things so just because it's someone that I look up to respect admire and they make a claim like that it's not like well I guess I have to change my mind that's probably

enough where I would be like hm that's suspicious like have I been have I not sort of had my eyes open to maybe other things they've been saying so for me it's more of like a I don't know I have my own values and if I have awareness that other other people are challenging those values then I need to decide like is that a big deal to me and a lot of the time from like a long-term perspective I think the answer is yes like it is a big deal to me it might seem like a small thing on the surface right so if I had tattoos and I my tattoos on my hands are visible if I wear a long sleeve in fact I would like to get my whole hand done so that when I wear long sleeves that they're visible but if

I had an employer that was like you have to cover that up it seems like it's a very small thing right it's very simple for me to well right now it's it's a little tricky because the tattoos poke out but for the most part it wouldn't be too bad to like cover up most of it right wear sweaters not so bad it's a simple thing to do but it's like it's against what I value why does it matter if I have tattoos it's not like I have I don't know like like I'm trying to think of a something I can even say like on YouTube that's not going to get me in trouble but like it's not like I have like profanity or nudity like on my hands if I had curse words and like naked women on my hands or something I could understand

if an employer was like maybe maybe don't have that um but I have like a tentacle of an octopus and then I have a jellyfish like that if someone was that bothered they were like you can't have a job because of that then I would say like do you actually like we don't value the same things and that would be a misalignment for me so anyway I'll wrap this up I think my you know tldr here is like yes there are probably some places if you were trying that care if you were trying to hyper optimize your opportunities for employment sure cover them up um I just don't think that that's going to be something that you're going to want to do from a long-term perspective because if you're like me it's against your values in the first place you're probably not going to want

to be there so hope that helps um keep your tattoos out enjoy them show them off I'll see you next time