Ask HN: How many non-techies are employed in software for every engineer?

#1

Post by michaelvkpdx » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 9:07 PM UTC

Just wondering if anyone has stats or stories about the number of non-engineers who have jobs as a result of the work of engineers.

A casual look at job postings these days shows a huge number of openings for sales, finance, customer support, marketing, HR, and managers, but I'm not sure there's a corresponding increase in engineers. It seems the number of non-techies working in the tech field is increasing while the number of techies isn't growing at the same rate, at least in software-driven companies.

Re: Ask HN: How many non-techies are employed in software for every engineer?

#2

Post by michaelvkpdx » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 9:09 PM UTC

And a corollary question: how many US engineers in US companies are employed for every non-techie? My experience has been that the more non-techies come on board, the more inclined the company is to offshore development.

Re: Ask HN: How many non-techies are employed in software for every engineer?

#3

Post by omnivore » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 9:15 PM UTC

Well..you can't hire more developers if you're not getting customers, keeping them happy or paying your suppliers. So those other roles matter just as much as hiring a huge conclave of developers.

Re: Ask HN: How many non-techies are employed in software for every engineer?

#4

Post by michaelvkpdx » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 9:19 PM UTC

omnivore wrote: post #3

Well..you can't hire more developers if you're not getting customers, keeping them happy or paying your suppliers. So those other roles matter just as much as hiring a huge conclave of developers.

Thanks, but that's not really the question. I'm trying to find out how many non-techies are supported by each engineer, and my hypothesis is that the number is increasing.

My hypothesis for US companies is that the number of non-techies supported by each US citizen engineer is going up at an even greater rate.

Your comment is based on the assumption that engineers cannot do any of the non-technical tasks a company has, and as an English major who is also an engineer, I think that's a false conception being perpetuated by people outside of engineering.

Re: Ask HN: How many non-techies are employed in software for every engineer?

#5

Post by michaelvkpdx » Mon, Aug 03, 2015, 9:27 PM UTC

See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9999935 ("On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs")