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I have this theory that coding boot camps are an attempt at further increasing the wage gap. Globalization has brought down developer prices, but the quality dr
by acconrad 11y ago
I have this theory that coding boot camps are an attempt at further increasing the wage gap. Globalization has brought down developer prices, but the quality dropped too far below what was needed.
How can we reduce costs without having to pay market rates? We'll hire someone with less experience than a college graduate in the field of web development!
Since most websites are nothing that difficult to implement, we can offer courses on teaching people basically how to build these apps, and then hire them at these companies! The employee is happy to be making more than they were (which was either nothing because their previous job has become irrelevant or less because the floor for software development is so high), and the employer is happy to be employing cheap labor.
My guess is the net effect can only be negative. If the business scales, it will need more talented engineers to help with that scale, and either keep these boot camp engineers to do the simple tasks or fire them for failing to continue to provide value. Or the business can't scale because the developers aren't talented enough to scale these apps, and they can't hire talented engineers because they refuse to pay market rates for quality workers. The third scenario I see is that it becomes a Mythical Man-month problem, where companies just decide that high quality engineers at these types of businesses simply aren't worth it, and would rather have a cadre of low cost boot campers, making the demand for quality software engineers drop, save for a few specialized roles.
- lordCarbonFiber 11y agoI think the demand for quality software devs is honestly an illusion born out of the mysticism that surrounds tech for much of the older generation. When all systems involving tech map to ~magic~ you end up with highly educated people being highly paid to do work that honestly could be done by nearly any layperson with enough practice. There will likely be some turmoil as ratios of full engineer to effective technician get sorted out but I feel like the end result is not necessarily negative. Odds are that those people with technically fulfilling jobs have little to worry about. The rest of us probably should polish those resumes because the days of six figures to do simple dev work are coming to an end.