Do you work for a Software Company or a Company that Sells Software?

You may be asking yourself, what’s the difference, plenty.  If you are a developer who only codes because it is your job and you make a good living, which there is no problem with that, you may not enjoy working for a software company.

Both companies need those types of developers.  But if you align yourself as a software engineer, who likes solving problems and is passionate about the profession of Software development, then you want to work for a Software company. 

A company that makes and sells software is usually founded by a domain expert who wrote or had a friend write an application he needed, and they started reselling it.  A software company has usually evolved from a company that sells software but learned that the value they are providing to their customers is a high-quality system and high-quality customer support that improves the user’s lives.

 My goal is not to state that one type of company is better or worse than the other, my goal is to make you aware to see what type of company you are working for or applying to.  If you are looking for a position in a Software company and end up in a company that sells software, you could end up being frustrated and not enjoying your job. On the other side, if you are not as passionate about software engineering and you work for a software company, you could be left behind as others better their skills and advance.  You may also feel overwhelmed with what is required of you outside of just coding.

 Some of the differences may seem settled, coding practices, the software life cycle, and application quality. But they are the key differences.

 

Coding Practices

Software Company	A company that Makes and Sells Software
Coding standards	We just follow how the source is already formatted
UI Libraries used for consistent UX	Just 3rd party or no UI libraries
Application frameworks and templates are used	No custom framework or templates are used; everything is created fresh
Developments tools standardized	No tools are used or shared
Unit tests are supported	Thinks unit tests are not important
Has custom NuGet Repository	No custom NuGet repository

 

SLDC (Software Development Life Cycle)

Software Company	A company that Makes and Sells Software
Defined process from idea to release and support	Says they use Process X like or worse they use a Hybrid.
CI/CD	Maybe automated builds for the main branch
Automated Deployment	Does not have
Automated Build Smoke Test	Does not have
Automated Regression Test	Does not have
Hotfix process	Does not have or is reactionary
Provided visibility in to process and release	Has status meetings to track progress

Quality

 

Software Company	A company that Makes and Sells Software
Focus on quality and adding customer value	Date orientated
Has hardware and software available to test and develop what their customers use	Tries to get by with minimum testing environments
A foundation of automated test	Does mostly manual testing.  States “We are moving towards automated”
Provides a Product owner who knows and can explain the product	Uses a long-time employee as the “domain” expert
Requires new employees to go through product training as part of the onboarding	Provide no or incomplete documentation and assume you will ask if you have questions.

 

 

Summary

To repeat myself, I don’t think there is anything wrong with either type of company.  I wanted to explain how I see the difference so you can see which company has the same values as you do and when you are interviewing you can determine if the company has the same values.

If you accept a job with a company that has different values than you do, it would be like marrying someone that doesn't have your values, may be fun at first but those differences will cause you grief.