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There's definitely been a huge influx of people jumping on the CS train for the money recently. But the thing is, from what I've heard, there's still a huge gap

by _bxg1 7y ago

There's definitely been a huge influx of people jumping on the CS train for the money recently. But the thing is, from what I've heard, there's still a huge gap between how may programmers are needed and how many there are. Now, this state of affairs won't last forever. Eventually the market will level out. But I would guess we have at least another 5-10 years until that happens, and when it does happen, it won't mean the field crashes. It'll just settle into a more realistic state. Jobs that are "easy if you can understand code at all" will be the hardest hit. You might not get paid 6 figures to throw together simple web pages any more. Jobs that are intrinsically hard will be fine. So my plan is to stay ahead of the tide. To push myself, get good at my craft, and get into a sub-field that's hard instead of resting on the current boom. Then, when things shift, hopefully my value will speak for itself. In summary: yes, things right now are too good to be true. But that doesn't mean the whole field is a bubble. CS is very necessary in our world (and increasingly so) and there are lots of very hard problems out there to solve, it's just that there are even more easy problems. Edit: Here's a source I found on Google (I don't know the source firsthand, but it seems credible enough at first glance) https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/software-engineer-shortage-us-2019 https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/software-engine...

swiley 7y ago
If that were really the case people would care about wether you can program or not rather than if you have a degree which is the primary thing that most companies filter candidates on.
torgian 7y ago
I think this is mostly true. People are still going to want custom pages, etc, but that's why _now_ is the time to "git gud" at building stuff. If you become a wiz, you'll be on the list of consultants for Company X to hire. And as for everything else... lots of industries need good problem solvers that are in the CS field. I'm going to be getting a Masters in Geoinformatics because it interests me, and it just happens to be a more niche field than others. I think this will help me in the long term as well.

by _bxg1 7y ago

swiley 7y ago

If that were really the case people would care about wether you can program or not rather than if you have a degree which is the primary thing that most companies filter candidates on.

torgian 7y ago

I think this is mostly true. People are still going to want custom pages, etc, but that's why _now_ is the time to "git gud" at building stuff. If you become a wiz, you'll be on the list of consultants for Company X to hire. And as for everything else... lots of industries need good problem solvers that are in the CS field. I'm going to be getting a Masters in Geoinformatics because it interests me, and it just happens to be a more niche field than others. I think this will help me in the long term as well.