3 ms·
How to burnout a software engineer This is just a specific variation on a theme that applies to all of STEM. The half life of a STEM career in the USA is abou
by jqpabc123 3y ago
How to burnout a software engineer
This is just a specific variation on a theme that applies to all of STEM.
The half life of a STEM career in the USA is about 10 years. 10 years after graduation, half those with a STEM degree are no longer doing STEM. Another 10 years and those who remain have decreased by half again.
But once you start digging into all this you will slowly come to realize that the core of the problem is bigger still --- it is actually a cultural phenomenon that applies to American business in general.
American business culture views those who create products as expenses to be restricted and controlled. In contrast, those who *sell* products are viewed as productive assets to be lavishly praised, nurtured and rewarded.
The illogic here is deeply rooted and is fully illustrated by a phrase I heard over and over again down through my career.
"No one gets paid until something gets sold"
This is objectively true --- but no more logically valid than my counter point:
"Nothing gets sold until something gets built"
Bottom Line --- American corporate culture has an inherent bias toward those who sell and against those who create. This applies and is reflected across industries, regardless of the actual product being built and sold. And it has been this way for generations. The only workable way I found to change this was to dropout and start my own business.
- ahipple 3y ago"Nothing gets sold until something gets built" I suspect I'm not alone in saying this, but having started my "tech" career in marketing/eCommerce agencies, I have _definitely_ worked in organizations where the sales team would sell absolutely anything they could get somebody to agree to buy -- fully ignorant of whether it had been (or even COULD be) built.
- mrbadguy 3y agoYep, been there. It’s an absolute nightmare.
- kalupa 3y agooh dear, I thought that was common only in my own marketing-in-tech career! My solution was to move away from the agency and to the agency's vendors, instead. Worked so far, a decade on!
- Ostrogoth 3y agoI work on sales/customer facing side of a non-tech industry, but my experience has been different than root comment. My industry is engineer/finance driven, with sales as more of an afterthought or necessary evil. I try to stay tied in with the development/production side as much as possible for sales, but the mismanagement and culture rot on the development/production side has me looking for a new job as it spreads through the company. It’s tough seeing top performers leave/forced out and petty politics and mismanagement take over. It makes my job much harder. The rot has eventually trickled down to other departments, so I think it’s time to make an exit.
- jqpabc123 3y agosell absolutely anything they could get somebody to agree to buy Yes. In my humble opinion, selling a non-existent product is really just a scam --- being perpetrated against the customer as well as the producer/seller in some cases. The sale isn't complete until the product is delivered. But the salespeople don't care --- and apparently, neither do the execs who reward them with bonuses for their fake sales numbers. If the non-existent product doesn't materialize on schedule, it's obviously not the sales person's fault. Just further illustrates the inherent bias that I mentioned.