Is there a FO and BO divide in tech?

SWE/coding

From experience, programming (SWE) would be "MO". The accounting & finance, in-house IT that keep the servers running and HR folks would be "BO". The account executives, outward sales staff, solutions architects and post-sales relationship managers are "FO".

And you're spot on about as you get more mature you realize you can't do your job without everyone else's contributions. Not saying "it takes a village", but you will live the adage of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" if you actually want some help and have your BO people help you out and vice versa so you don't have directors and clients raining hell fire down on you. Been there, done that, and no thank you I don't want a second serving.

Listen to this guy!

Life is not a binary path where you either dig ditches or discount cash flows.  There are plenty of individuals who are happy putting in their 40-50 hours for that upper 5 figure/low six figure job so they can rush off to be a part of the PTA and involved in the booster club for their kids' sports.  I see plenty of the binary thought on WSO and it pains me as some individuals may see themselves as a failure coming out of NYU and working in compliance at Citi for $75k/year.

I went to lunch with a rainmaker at one of my jobs.  Guy was a legit 7 figure contributor to the organization and was often at my desk for help with models/pitches for potential clients.  I did the annual forecast at this job and I was well aware of his total comp.

We talked at lunch and he went full mentor/coach like, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  How are you going to get there? What are the immediate obstacles to overcome? bla bla bla."  I told him I used to be a careerist with dollar signs in my eyes, but after going through a few life experiences, I was more than happy to be a loyal employee, do good work, and let the rest take care of itself.  He was kinda taken back as he learned something personal about me.  He then said something to the effect of, "Yea, I am pretty impressed with your place.  When I was your age, I wanted the financial status.  After going through my second divorce and missing nearly school related event for my kids, I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it.  Yes, I make a lot, but kids don't need a lot to be happy or expect a lot to respect you as a parent."   I'm butchering the exact statement, but it was something to that extent as we were driving away in his six figure car.  We've loosely kept in touch over the years and I did see he's reached a new pinnacle that many would kill to be at, but I wonder if it's all worth it in the end.

Having lost a friend last week to cancer who worked in education, I am incredibly impressed at all the love that is spilling into the comment area of the obituary.  I'm sure most people here would think being a school teacher in a rougher community would be loser work that only nontarget broke losers would pursue.  This person made a material and quantified difference in a community which is entirely evident.  I would be less than 1% of the organization I work for would bother commenting on my obituary let alone show up to my funeral.  Wolf is dead, who's the next corp dev BOM?

I know this isn't what you asked, but yes, every job has a production staff and a support staff.  The individual I'm describing above respected me as I would help him immediately in anything he needed as he wasn't that good at Excel.  Literally saw him asking for help to no avail one time with something trial that a pivot would fix and I offered to help him.  What he lacked in Excel he made up for in sales and proved it by a 8 figure annual revenue production.  He couldn't do my job and I wouldn't have wanted to do his job, but together, we did great work and both got to earn a living.

You're not trying your best despite the username. And you seem to have no clue about how the real world works either (and I'll be diplomatic on the grammar). "Oh no...you just have a BSc. Economics, but you want to work in fintech with our clientele of F100 CFOs and controllers because you also have a self taught tech background without an EE or CS degree?!! Or just run FP&A because you know SL/GL?!  You only have that philosophy degree but can run HR at a major firm or run IR? You can't do that with ealistic experience and but some other diploma! The sheer audacity! Forbid if someone without an MBA can get a CPA!" Or likewise. Your attitude would be an automatic fail.

Some people do want to go into BO as a career and punch it out in a cubicle for 30 years out of safety. They have a family at home they want to feed. Kids to raise to potentially do more grand things. A mortgage to pay, etc. If the FO you work with is cognitive, forward looking and has etiquitte, they will pay respect to MO/BO to make sure projects get done. Because that's how everyone gets paid.

Gonna have to agree to disagree a bit. The power dynamic does get as lopsided. You run into the issue of sales over promising and forcing people to underdeliver and then dragging dev or legal into it and pissing off the client, Whether it's about timing or features or something else. Then there is FO/MO/BO but it's divided up differently. There is definitely FO in terms of sales, solutions architects, professional services or post sales CRM. Then MO of the programmers, QSA and support. BO is the usual stuff life HR and accounting. Obviously so long as they can all work together you're good and that's where I get your idea of meshing and blending and can agree.

Bump, set, spike. MO QA and product manager works on an issue and fixes it, FO account manager or CRM nails the upsale and new user addition. Then BO accounting says that'll bring in more cash with more users renewing and everyone gets a raise or bonus. Just as an example.