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When I started programming in the '90s I thought "this is it. We are so far advanced, there's nothing left in the computing field except making slicker UIs. Har
by cfeduke 11y ago
When I started programming in the '90s I thought "this is it. We are so far advanced, there's nothing left in the computing field except making slicker UIs. Hardware will get faster but computer languages are at their pinnacle." Of course I was entirely wrong, but I did believe as a result salaries for software engineers would begin to decline as more people entered the field.
Now in 2015 I believe we are only at the very beginning - a humble start. There will be things during our lifetime that change the computing landscape. Biological circuitry, quantum computers, virtual reality to name a few. Advanced technology will increase the demand for capable software engineers to solve problems we can't even dream of today.
However I don't think $300K salaries are going to be the norm for engineers solving for 140 characters or how to deliver television shows on demand.
- woah 11y agoWhy not? These are the services for which there is demand.
- cfeduke 11y agoI believe demand for engineers to solve these problems will wane as the solutions become codified into various open source projects. Think of how difficult a problem that involved terabytes of data was to solve before the advent of Hadoop and now consider how easy it is with solutions like Spark. Overall this is a good trend. I'm not saying that $300K engineer salaries are going away; I'm saying high salaries will pursue the engineers who are solving unique and demanding problems.