Lately there have been a number of posts on Slashdot.org about older (40+) software developers or the half life of software developers.
I don't use the term software engineers because the majority of younger workers in the software field have not yet gain enough experience and wisdom to be able to consistently and predictable design, plan and implement complex software project without a lot of re-design and refactoring along the way. Being a bridge engineer does not afford the re-building of a bridge 2 or more times before getting it right. The same principal also applies to software engineers.
Back to the Slashdot articles. My though on the comments of the half life of software developers only be 15 years is what the company is using their staff for. If you are interesting in keeping wages down, have only simple to moderately complex projects, use 100's of staff (in this case 4,500) and expect them to not have a life outside of work, then yes, the half life would be about 15 years. In this context.
At 15 years of work, any person would expect to have gained a fair amount of knowledge at what they do and expect higher wages and additional challenges. This would also be about the time of finding a mate to share life with and maybe start a family. Hum, what a surprise!
This all reminds me of workers in a sweat shop. Young workers, starting pay and limited skill opportunity. Once they gain enough skill and knowledge and desires, they leave. The half life of workers in a sweat shop would be low, but that does not change the half life of these workers overall. It's all context related. In the software development field there is a great amount of lateral and vertical movement of staff. The sweat shop comprises the lowest level of this field and would have the greatest movement. This appears to be a sweat shop's self justification for not treating it's staff as valued partners in it's business.
No surprises here. Just some insight on how a single company views it's staff.
I don't use the term software engineers because the majority of younger workers in the software field have not yet gain enough experience and wisdom to be able to consistently and predictable design, plan and implement complex software project without a lot of re-design and refactoring along the way. Being a bridge engineer does not afford the re-building of a bridge 2 or more times before getting it right. The same principal also applies to software engineers.
Back to the Slashdot articles. My though on the comments of the half life of software developers only be 15 years is what the company is using their staff for. If you are interesting in keeping wages down, have only simple to moderately complex projects, use 100's of staff (in this case 4,500) and expect them to not have a life outside of work, then yes, the half life would be about 15 years. In this context.
At 15 years of work, any person would expect to have gained a fair amount of knowledge at what they do and expect higher wages and additional challenges. This would also be about the time of finding a mate to share life with and maybe start a family. Hum, what a surprise!
This all reminds me of workers in a sweat shop. Young workers, starting pay and limited skill opportunity. Once they gain enough skill and knowledge and desires, they leave. The half life of workers in a sweat shop would be low, but that does not change the half life of these workers overall. It's all context related. In the software development field there is a great amount of lateral and vertical movement of staff. The sweat shop comprises the lowest level of this field and would have the greatest movement. This appears to be a sweat shop's self justification for not treating it's staff as valued partners in it's business.
No surprises here. Just some insight on how a single company views it's staff.
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