I think engineers have a different idea of what constitutes "real money". I'm imagining my graduating classmates who are out interviewing for "good jobs" with salaries in the mid-five figures.
It makes me remember how slightly awkward I felt every fall semester— I kept my mouth shut when talking about summer jobs, just because everyone else would talk about their minimum-wage gig at the ice cream shop or the kayak place. It just seemed so utterly unapproachable to even mention what I was pulling down as an "intern", let alone that I was probably getting about a quarter of my market value, let alone that I was doing something I had no formal training in and could pretty much drop out of college at any point for a net financial gain.
I think the statement that should go on every CS curriculum is "Normal people cannot understand what you do no matter how hard they try. Value yourself a little higher."
I was hoping that wouldn't come off as elitist in this crowd— it's really just an observation on the difference between technical and non-technical people.
Which I guess highlights why I kept my mouth shut in school. When your job involves doing something that strikes you as straightforward and intuitive, but is bizarrely valued at several times, or tens of times, the labor of your peers, it's pretty hard to talk about without sounding just a little elitist.
Edit: I think I get why you took it the wrong way, though, and I'll clarify. I don't mean to say that non-coders will never be able to figure programming out. Of course any reasonably intelligent person could have it explained, pick it apart, figure out how it works. What they will never understand is how we get it so intuitively— not unless they put in the decades we did to get there.
What they will never understand is how we get it so intuitively— not unless they put in the decades we did to get there.
Huh? That's pretty much like any other skilled trade. I don't understand tractors like my grandfather does and he's made a lot more money selling them than most programmers will. I'm not more valuable as a human because I know code and he knows combines.
(Now, one could argue that they were simply being on top of the technology of different eras; diesel tractors revolutionized agriculture in the last century and he apparently got into selling them at a good time, but again, there are a bajillion fields where staying on top of tech is both lucrative and non-trivial.)
...is that not what I'm saying? Your grandfather took a situation where he had an advantage and leveraged it to make money. That's what programmers should be doing, too, if they want to make money.
It sounded like you were making a special case for being a software developer (since you tied it specifically to a CS curriculum). If your statement is simply, "Having useful skills that other people don't pays." then, well, uhh, duh.
Currently it seems the special case is for software developers, though.
Everyone in my environment is finding it terribly hard or impossible to find jobs, or are going out of work, and I get job offers from all over the world. It feels unfair somehow, and I really don't want to sound elitist.
There will always be money in figuring out how to make the latest technology work.
Most people, though, can't be bothered. The payoff takes years of self-guided study. After all - it's new stuff - the established education system probably won't "get it" so you have to guide yourself.
It makes me remember how slightly awkward I felt every fall semester— I kept my mouth shut when talking about summer jobs, just because everyone else would talk about their minimum-wage gig at the ice cream shop or the kayak place. It just seemed so utterly unapproachable to even mention what I was pulling down as an "intern", let alone that I was probably getting about a quarter of my market value, let alone that I was doing something I had no formal training in and could pretty much drop out of college at any point for a net financial gain.
I think the statement that should go on every CS curriculum is "Normal people cannot understand what you do no matter how hard they try. Value yourself a little higher."