Thanks Nerval's Lobster, for sharing the Forbes article with the Slashdot audience. There's a crucial distinction in the article that somehow is getting lost in the shouting. It's as follows:
1. Software engineering jobs are at the top of the pyramid in most young tech companies. No engineers = no product. Good (and great) engineers are incredibly productive and get paid accordingly. But...
2. As companies grow, they don't need 10x the number of engineers for 10x the amount of revenue. Small teams of engineers are now incredibly productive. The new priorities involve hiring enough people to get the marketing right, get sales taken care of, do training and "customer success," etc. These jobs can be well-filled by non-technical people. At companies such as Facebook, Uber, etc., the hiring slots for such non-technical jobs are way bigger than the number of slots for engineers. Strange but true.
3. Everyone can coexist. It's just that the new equilibrium is different than it was 10 years ago. Companies grow faster. They pursue more ambitious agendas without needing 10,000 engineers to get there. There's more need for non-technical evangelists who can sell the rest of the world on what the engineers have built.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks Nerval's Lobster, for sharing the Forbes article with the Slashdot audience. There's a crucial distinction in the article that somehow is getting lost in the shouting. It's as follows: 1. Software engineering jobs are at the top of the pyramid in most young tech companies. No engineers = no product. Good (and great) engineers are incredibly productive and get paid accordingly. But ...
2. As companies grow, they don't need 10x the number of engineers for 10x the amount of revenue. Small teams of engineers are now incredibly productive. The new priorities involve hiring enough people to get the marketing right, get sales taken care of, do training and "customer success," etc. These jobs can be well-filled by non-technical people. At companies such as Facebook, Uber, etc., the hiring slots for such non-technical jobs are way bigger than the number of slots for engineers. Strange but true.
3. Everyone can coexist. It's just that the new equilibrium is different than it was 10 years ago. Companies grow faster. They pursue more ambitious agendas without needing 10,000 engineers to get there. There's more need for non-technical evangelists who can sell the rest of the world on what the engineers have built.