New York Times > Technology > As Tech Booms, Workers Turn to Coding for Career Change (JULY 28, 2015)

“Six figures, right off the bat,” Mr. Minton said. “To me, it was astonishing.”

Have fun people!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Kathryn Henning>,

Is the New York Times still published?

From the article: "Stories like his are increasingly familiar these days as people across a spectrum of jobs — poker players, bookkeepers, baristas — are shedding their past for a future in the booming tech industry. The money sloshing around in technology is cascading beyond investors and entrepreneurs into the broader digital work force, especially to those who can write modern code, the language of the digital world."

RRKen - it may not get to Forth Worth, but I read it every Sunday in Toronto.

30 years of writing code and I'm nowhere near a six figure salary - not even in Canadian (76 cents vs. USD) dollars .... Being loyal to a company has its disadvantages, specially when the old, thoughtful boss retires and the new one figures he doesn't have to pay the old
cod(g)er because the latter won't get another job at his advanced age. These young folks have it all figured out: they think about themselves first and the company second. Wish I had been that smart ...

I think no matter what age you are you can always advance. If you've got skills in the languages and platforms that count, then you can always get better work and better pay whether it be with a company or in your own entrepreneurial efforts.

The trick is to never give up on the code. When companies seek to enhance the GUI version of an experience that is w/o limits in code, it can be good if it speeds things up but doesn't take away from direct access to and usability of the source code/source of productivity. But when a company tries to replace the best way to be productive and stay relevant, then that is when it is time to excel in the areas you desire to (do that which you love) and jump ship. This I've debated of late with IBI & their products.

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This is the way I feel: learning to manipulate one GUI tool doesn't get you anywhere with other GUI tools, mastering one programming language will help in learning other programming languages. How does learning to use App Studio Canvas (a marketing term?) help in any other aspect of your IT career? It's made for Users, not Developers.

Amen Francis!

It doesn't help to learn it unless you are an end user devoid of programming skill with no ambition to become better in such, or you have no plans to change jobs or careers and stay relevant in the programming industry.

Hence my motto... "Know the Code"

No matter how much GUI you know, someone had to build the app. and if it was built with C or some other language, that was built as well, probably in a lower level language.

Coders will always be needed.

The day we are not, will be the day I hang up my keyboard.

Note, I didn't mention a mouse, because that is ultimately a device that makes one of your hands cold.

This was an hour-long discussion on Public Radio here in Washington last week, and it was quite the amusing collection of opinions. The one guy was running one of these ten-week programs and he gave it the usual late-night infomercial pitch -- you'll be making $100,000 plus the day you graduate! No prior experience necessary! The booming tech field is dying for people like you! Change your life overnight!

The fact that everybody is using that same dollar figure leads me to believe that there's a concerted PR effort to sell this concept, and that the news is being lazy, taking their teasers directly from the marketing materials.

Look at the lead-in to the article above with a little care -- this is a guy with a Mathematics degree. It could be from Rensselaer or Cornell, or some other prestigious institution. Just because he was making $20,000 waiting tables doesn't mean he SHOULD have been. I could get a job waiting tables tomorrow (at a big pay cut) if I wanted to, doesn't mean I'm not worth what I'm worth in the tech industry. It's a Customer Testimonial, the single worst measure of value, but one valued most by potential customers.

The one woman on the radio show was a DC tech headhunter, and what she said is a very different story. Most of the people taking these 10 week courses have significant skills and experience, often in the tech field, and end up moving from $85k a year to $105k a year in the Washington DC area. That raise is not to be sneezed at, but these people aren't high school graduate McDonald's workers that are suddenly multiplying their salary by a factor of ten. They're refreshing their skills for jobs they already qualify for.

Another guy on the show spoke to start ups hiring these people in particular. The summary -- good luck if the startup succeeds. If things go well there will be a need to industrialize processes and procedures, and that isn't going to come from someone with a ten-week course. That's when heavy hitters come in. His advice was to make sure you get stock options and get to keep them if you leave or are let go.

The one thing that did not come out on the story is that it's not uncommon for qualified, well-referenced tech people, without this ten week course, to get a $15k-$20k raise just by looking for a new employer and selling themselves well. We all get comfortable where we are and don't change jobs, often to our detriment.

What I'll add is this -- the same thing happened in the late nineties, when everybody we were looking to hire for tech work at my old company had degrees in political science, or marketing, or botany, whatever. People in their late 20s or 30s. "Anyone can make a web page" was their attitude, and they were all coming to the tech sector because there were jobs. All of them didn't last. Most struggled and didn't enjoy the work, all didn't enjoy the time pressure and stress associated with our jobs, and most produced no good work that made them worth holding on to. They all ended up leaving. They hated the work. You don't get a botany degree because you enjoy sitting in an office.

My boss had indicated that it was a waste of time to hire them, and he turned out to be right. I'll wager the same thing happens here.

J.

And while mice are best avoided in any world, I find that a touchpad mouse in the center of my keyboard solves the cold hand problem!