>There's some discussion of this above, but I think it's interesting that the alternative to software development is seemingly always construction, or delivering food, or being a waiter.
You don't need a degree--or even any formal education at all--to become a software developer.
That's why it's often compared to blue-collar jobs.
For people like us, if we weren't developers, then blue-collar is our only other option.
Yeah, and I think that's the interesting divide to me: I did receive a formal education, and even a Master's, in CS.
Despite that, there's very little difference between myself and another developer who has no formal education at all.
I guess I always thought of myself as a white-collar worker because of that, and this whole discussion is making me re-evaluate that. Not that the distinction is super important obviously, or that I think of myself as "better than", but I always thought of my peers as attorneys and people in finance, not construction workers.
You don't need a degree--or even any formal education at all--to become a software developer.
That's why it's often compared to blue-collar jobs.
For people like us, if we weren't developers, then blue-collar is our only other option.