文章分享：軟體工程師的前景是永遠的嗎?

最近在找一些軟體工程師的生涯規劃，找到一下這篇跟大家分享，我想應該會引起很多人的共鳴。

專欄作者：Norman Matloff (加州大學戴維斯分校電腦科學教授)

下列哪個選項最適合形容軟體工程？

A、高智力挑戰 Intellectually stimulating and gratifying’
B、大學畢業生工作薪資優渥 Excellent pay for new bachelor’s degree grads
C、可能是工作停滯點 A career dead-end

正確答案是D，以上皆是。

雖然寫程式容易讓人聯想到無趣，卻是一個相當具挑戰性、需要創意甚至是美學的工作。如果你是個喜歡解謎(雖然大部分時間都是在組合程式碼)，那軟體工程師就是個適合的工作。

以薪酬來看這份工作，軟體工程師的薪水相當優渥，在大多數的薪資調查中，都是排名在其他人文學科畢業生前面。
想要找工作的人，面試前，就應該要做好十足的準備。公司願意付很高的薪水，相對地，面試的關卡也很有挑戰性，例如：有的公司會當場要員工分析程式碼，因為有太多的應徵者連最基本的編碼能力都沒有，讓公司工作當場開天窗，不過，一旦通過考試，新人也都可以有很好的薪水和工作。

這份工作有什麼缺點呢？舉facebook為例，一開始進公司後，你可能對於工作環境相當開心 ─ 公司就像充滿樂趣的宿舍，永遠都沒有大人管。從另外一面來看，這也暗示了在公司工作的員工：都是相對地非常年輕。大多數的程式設計師發現他們的工作年齡從35歲就開始慢慢萎縮。

公司也會因為這些年齡超過35歲的工程師逐漸缺乏最新的能力，像是新的程式編碼技巧；或是年齡逐漸不適合這些公司認為是入門的工作而逐漸被公司排除在核心員工之列。簡單來說，工程師要不就是過於符合資格或是資格不夠。

根據相關資料統計，工程師的職涯通常從40歲之後就會下降。前英特爾CEO Craig Barrett說過：「一個工程師的工作黃金時間，就只有那麼短短幾年。」曾經是科技公司主管，目前杜克大學(Duke University)研究員Vivek Wadhwa寫過：「微軟主管David Vaskevitch提到『多數微軟的員工都是屬於年輕族群，因為資深員工多半最後擔任更資深的工作，而不會留在這個位置。』」政府調查National Research Council study 也發現，相較於畢業新鮮人，40歲以上的工程師裡面，有四分之一的人要多花更長的時間在失業後再找到工作。

為什麼公司只要新人？是因為他們的技術比較先進嗎？原因在於就算45歲的工程師有年輕工程師的技能，用相同得價錢$120,000薪資，公司比較願意找新的員工。

以上的「潛規則」提醒了軟體工程師在職涯上年齡的致命傷。這樣的狀況，在政府推出H-1工作簽證後更加嚴峻，因為公司願意用H-1B尋找更年輕的工程師來工作，而不願意用相對年長的美國工程師。

當工作到一定年齡後，有的人會想轉換到管理職，不過，這樣的工作機會是相當有限的，還要員工有不同的專長，尤其是職位需求的語言溝通能力。
這時，公司在這類工作中，就比較願意聘用法律學院學生或是商學院學生擔任相關管理工作，工程師機會相對較少。

這個職涯的轉換，值得想要成為軟體工程師的學生好好思考。

評論來源：Bloomberg

Software Engineers will work one day for English Majors

By Norman Matloff(Norman Matloff is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Which of the following describes careers in software engineering?

A. Intellectually stimulating and gratifying’.
B. Excellent pay for new bachelor’s degree grads.
C. A career dead-end.

The correct answer (with a “your mileage may vary” disclaimer) is: D. All of the above.
Although the very term “coding” evokes an image of tedium, it is an intellectually challenging activity, creative and even artistic. If you like puzzles and are good analytically, software development may be your cup of tea. You not only get to solve puzzles for a living, but in essence you compose them.
Wages for new computer-science graduates working as software engineers are at, or near, the top of most surveys, certainly compared with new humanities grads. We hear about the gap a lot this time of year, as students compare job offers.

You had better be good to get that first job in computer engineering, because you will probably be asked to code on command during job interviews; employers have been burned too often by those with high grades yet low ability. But those who are chosen are generally paid well and love the work.

The downside? Well, say you interview as a graduating college senior at Facebook Inc. (FB)You may find, to your initial delight, that the place looks just like a fun-loving dorm -- and the adults seem to be missing. But that is a sign of how the profession has devolved in recent years to one lacking in longevity. Many programmers find that their employability starts to decline at about age 35.

Gone by 40

Employers dismiss them as either lacking in up-to-date technical skills -- such as the latest programming-language fad -- or “not suitable for entry level.” In other words, either underqualified or overqualified. That doesn’t leave much, does it? Statistics show that most software developers are out of the field by age 40.
Employers have admitted this in unguarded moments. Craig Barrett, a former chief executive officer of Intel Corp., famously remarked that “the half-life of an engineer, software or hardware, is only a few years,” while Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has blurted out that young programmers are superior.

Vivek Wadhwa, a former technology executive and now a business writer and Duke University researcher, wrote that in 2008 David Vaskevitch, then the chief technology officer at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), “acknowledged that the vast majority of new Microsoft employees are young, but said that this is so because older workers tend to go into more
senior jobs and there are fewer of those positions to begin with.”

More than a decade ago, Congress commissioned a National Research Council study of the age issue in the profession. The council found that it took 23.4 percent longer for the over-40 workers to find work after losing their jobs, and that they had to take an average pay cut of 13.7 percent on the new job.

Why do the employers prefer to hire the new or recent grads? Is it really because only they have the latest skill sets? That argument doesn’t jibe with the fact that young ones learned those modern skills from old guys like me. Instead, the problem is that the 35-year-old programmer has simply priced herself out of the market. As Wadhwa notes, even if the 45-year-old programmer making $120,000 has the right skills, “companies would rather hire the younger workers.”

Whether the employers’ policy is proper or not, this is the problem facing workers in the software profession. And it’s worsened by the H-1B work-visa program. Government data show that H-1B software engineers tend to be much younger than their American counterparts. Basically, when the employers run out of young Americans to hire, they turn to the young H-1Bs, bypassing the older Americans.
Fewer Managerial Jobs

With talent, street smarts and keen networking skills, you might still get good work in your 50s. Moving up to management is also a possibility, but as Microsoft’s Vaskevitch pointed out, these jobs are limited in number. Qualifications include being “verbally aggressive,” as one manager put it to me, and often a willingness to make late- night calls to those programmers in India you have offshored the work to.

Finally, those high programmer salaries are actually low, because the same talents (analytical and problem-solving ability, attention to detail) command much more money in other fields, such as law and finance. A large technology company might typically pay new law-school graduates and MBAs salaries and compensation approaching double what they give new master’s degree grads in computer science.

If you choose a software-engineering career, just keep in mind that you could end up working for one of those lowly humanities majors someday.