Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

bls.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 115 posts

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#21

Post by lofatdairy »

dc-programmer wrote: post #2

“Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers typically need a bachelor’s degree in computer and information technology or a related field. Some employers prefer to hire developers who have a master’s degree.“ Interesting that the government continues to peddle credentialism for software developers. I personally think a CS degree is still a strong positive signal but it’s hardly a requirement anymore

I think there was a comment on HN once to the effect of "Imagine you had 2 candidates, same work experience, both at a fairly prestigious company, one with a degree, one without, which do you hire? Personally, I think the fact that the non-degree holding one is more likely to be the better hire, just because of how much harder they had to work to get into that position".

Not saying that not having a degree is somehow a more-positive indicator, just that I agree with your sentiment that it's hardly a requirement, and that it's just one signal among many.

FWIW, I have an inclination to believe the reason why node+express+react stacks are so popular among startups (at least in the NY scene) is because all the full stack bootcamps use that stack, so it makes it easier to hire. I also decided to use a similar stack that only used JS for the same reason. I feel as though some aspects of "software development" are closer to to a trade skill. Certainly there are far more complicated directions, and that's where degrees and advanced education are meaningful, but if you just need a simple CRUD app you probably don't need a masters in anything.

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#22

Post by blahyawnblah »

bradlys wrote: post #13
dc-programmer wrote: post #2

“Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers typically need a bachelor’s degree in computer and information technology or a related field. Some employers prefer to hire developers who have a master’s degree.“ Interesting that the government continues to peddle credentialism for software developers. I personally think a CS degree is still a strong positive signal but it’s hardly a requirement anymore

Unless you have really good projects to show off and have been studying LC a lot in your spare time - it’s gonna be hard to get a job for normies without one. Entry level is absolutely flooded with overqualified candidates. It’s no surprise that almost all boot camp grads I’ve seen in the industry come from Ivy league colleges or are URT.

URT?

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#23

Post by tra3 »

I've been startled to find out that the global population is stabilizing or is actually reducing [0]. To me that means that any shortages that are apparent now (and Software Dev shortage has been trumpeted about for years) will continue into the future.

If you look at the demographics of US [1], you see that dip below the age of 30, so there are fewer folks coming online to take the jobs of the people retiring.

Of course there's immigration, various other methods to incentivize more people to join the IT sector, but ultimately it looks like there's fewer people to handle more work.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population see especially the projections in the side bar.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#24

Post by xwdv »

coffeeblack wrote: post #14
dc-programmer wrote: post #2

“Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers typically need a bachelor’s degree in computer and information technology or a related field. Some employers prefer to hire developers who have a master’s degree.“ Interesting that the government continues to peddle credentialism for software developers. I personally think a CS degree is still a strong positive signal but it’s hardly a requirement anymore

I have not seen any correlation between a person’s abilities as a developer and their university credentials.

I have, you really start to see the difference between developers without formal education and those who have computer science backgrounds once you start going into deeper things than CRUD applications or other solved problems, the kinds of things you can’t just google a solution for.

Kind of like how most boot camp grads will do the specific things they learn in boot camp very well but then fall apart when you change it up on them.

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#25

Post by irrational »

dc-programmer wrote: post #2

“Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers typically need a bachelor’s degree in computer and information technology or a related field. Some employers prefer to hire developers who have a master’s degree.“ Interesting that the government continues to peddle credentialism for software developers. I personally think a CS degree is still a strong positive signal but it’s hardly a requirement anymore

Anymore? When was a CS degree a positive signal? I don’t work with any programmers who have a CS degree (or even a STEM degree). Most of us have been in the field for 20+ years. We have degrees in ancient history, music performance, educational psychology, linguistics, etc. I read thousands of resumes over the years and have never paid any attention to what someone studied in college.

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#26

Post by aliasxneo »

dc-programmer wrote: post #2

“Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers typically need a bachelor’s degree in computer and information technology or a related field. Some employers prefer to hire developers who have a master’s degree.“ Interesting that the government continues to peddle credentialism for software developers. I personally think a CS degree is still a strong positive signal but it’s hardly a requirement anymore

I would say it's a soft requirement in most cases. One must be prepared for an extra uphill battle trying to secure a job without one. As someone who just broke into the industry this month (with no degree), my biggest assets were an existing portfolio of work and leveraging my ten years of professional experience working on complex/critical problems in various fields.

I don't think this is strictly related to software engineering, though. I think most people doing horizontal career transfers use some form of the above to achieve success.

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#27

Post by 3pt14159 »

ZoomerCretin wrote: post #8
d883kd8 wrote: post #5

What did this look like in 2011?

https://web.archive.org/web/20121002002433/http://www.bls.go... The BLS predicted 30% growth, but it looks like growth in number of positions from 2010-2022 was 77%. The old figure only included software developers. The new figure includes QA and testers.

Thanks for pulling this up.

The total number of software developers has gone up so much that I fear that its going to start dragging up the salaries of peer-occupations like Civil Engineering, which are fairly easily retooled as junior software developers, as the demand starts to outstrip relative supply.

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#28

Post by notch656a »

blahyawnblah wrote: post #22
bradlys wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you have really good projects to show off and have been studying LC a lot in your spare time - it’s gonna be hard to get a job for normies without one. Entry level is absolutely flooded with overqualified candidates. It’s no surprise that almost all boot camp grads I’ve seen in the industry come from Ivy league colleges or are URT.

URT?

"Underrepresented in tech" AKA when you use racism / sexism to hire people.

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#29

Post by philipov »

tra3 wrote: post #23

I've been startled to find out that the global population is stabilizing or is actually reducing [0]. To me that means that any shortages that are apparent now (and Software Dev shortage has been trumpeted about for years) will continue into the future. If you look at the demographics of US [1], you see that dip below the age of 30, so there are fewer folks coming online to take the jobs of the people retiring. Of co…

If it's a global trend, immigration isn't going to fix that. At least, not in the long-term.

Re: US Job Outlook for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

#30

Post by fnordpiglet »

dc-programmer wrote: post #2

“Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers typically need a bachelor’s degree in computer and information technology or a related field. Some employers prefer to hire developers who have a master’s degree.“ Interesting that the government continues to peddle credentialism for software developers. I personally think a CS degree is still a strong positive signal but it’s hardly a requirement anymore

Anymore? In 1995 I worked full time at Netscape without a college degree and had a good career in the valley. I eventually went to UIUC in CS as an late student. It allowed me to get jobs I couldn’t, but not in the software area - I didn’t know advanced math, and I learned it at school, and worked at the intersection. There has been opportunities without degrees throughout my 30 years, but there are some opportunities that definitely need them.
Post reply on HN