11–20 of 34 posts
I constantly amazed at the stupid stuff software engineers get paid big bucks to do.
There are plenty of possibilities and what-ifs. Nobody has a crystal ball.
But as of now, there’s no reason to think our pay will permanently crash.
Obviously . At some point supply will catch up with demand. Software development is vastly overpaid compared to how complex it is, imagine a 6 month Bootcamp for becoming a civil engineer. High wages are purely the result of the enormous and continually increasing demand for the profession.
If anything, I think the past couple years have belied the idea that you can become a competent software developer in 6 months. It is this "lowest level" dev work anyway that I see under the most pressure from outsourcing.
Obviously . At some point supply will catch up with demand. Software development is vastly overpaid compared to how complex it is, imagine a 6 month Bootcamp for becoming a civil engineer. High wages are purely the result of the enormous and continually increasing demand for the profession.
> Software development is vastly overpaid compared to how complex it is, imagine a 6 month Bootcamp for becoming a civil engineer. If anything, I think the past couple years have belied the idea that you can become a competent software developer in 6 months. It is this "lowest level" dev work anyway that I see under the most pressure from outsourcing.
Of course there are also things which you absolutely need significantly more knowledge for. But pretending that these two are the same thing, have the same title and roles is the actual issue.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Software development is vastly overpaid compared to how complex it is, imagine a 6 month Bootcamp for becoming a civil engineer. If anything, I think the past couple years have belied the idea that you can become a competent software developer in 6 months. It is this "lowest level" dev work anyway that I see under the most pressure from outsourcing.
A lot of development activities absolutely can be done by someone with 6 months of bootcamp. Of course there are also things which you absolutely need significantly more knowledge for. But pretending that these two are the same thing, have the same title and roles is the actual issue.
You forgot to add "with a lot of hand holding and guidance and that too if that 6 month bootcamper is competent enough and cares about learning on their own".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of development activities absolutely can be done by someone with 6 months of bootcamp. Of course there are also things which you absolutely need significantly more knowledge for. But pretending that these two are the same thing, have the same title and roles is the actual issue.
"absolutely can be done by someone with 6 months of bootcamp" You forgot to add "with a lot of hand holding and guidance and that too if that 6 month bootcamper is competent enough and cares about learning on their own".
Just compare it to engineering disciplines. Imagine a civil engineering bootcamp, 6 month of that, some motivation and coaching from your coworker is enough to evaluate the structural soundness of public infrastructure?
I think you completely underestimate how high the barrier to entry is for engineering disciplines compared to software development. The high pay for software engineers in the US is a phenomenon that is driven by absurdly high demand. For no other discipline is the barrier to entry so low and the reward so high, even outside of the US this isn't the case. In Europe software development is paid very differently.
They very much are, right now. Lots and lots of big layoffs, the FAANG/MAGMA companies have completely dropped the halo effect they had over the industry. Everyone had to chase them on comp to get the best people; now they're ejecting people left, right and centre and there's no incentive for the smaller players to try and keep up with the competition anymore, because the competition in gone. I've definitely noticed…
In the US, in general? I believe so, yes. For a couple of years at least. In many European countries the salaries are already much lower (than US), so perhaps not as much wiggle room there.