How long can programmers enjoy generous treatment?

Last week, Glassdoor announced a new software engineer salary report, "Pay for code ". The average salary for employees of Google and Facebook is ~ $125 k, excluding benefits. If you add stock options/subsidies, You should have $401 k. Yahoo! The developer's salary is also up to six digits. Everyone wants to know the cause. If you go to Silicon Valley or any place in New York to investigate the cause, they will say it is difficult for good engineers to find the cause.

Figure: salaries paid by well-known foreign companies to engineers

Why are there scarcity of excellent engineers? Generally, engineers can work anywhere on a computer connected to a network. Development tools have never been so cheap. The $100 Android phone, free Web Services, and open-source platforms of various industry standards make it easier for developers to work.

Today, more and more enterprises and employees are distributed around the world. We all know that software experts are making money because software is taking advantage of the world. More importantly, the employment opportunities created by technology are far greater than those created by developers. From an economic perspective, a large number of developers will flood into the industry in the future, and the industry's salary needs will be lowered again.

But the reality is not the same as expected. Even back in the first. com explosion, people are already predicting that European and American developers will reduce their salaries due to a large number of cheap coders in India and Brazil. But so far there is no such trace. But it does not rule out such a possibility, right? When will this happen?

It should be clarified that I only talk about excellent developers. Everyone wants to hire a front-line developer. This is true for companies like Google and Facebook. However, these excellent developers are the best talents from all over the world. Although programming can be very simple, it is not easy to use it as well as to be proficient in English.

It must be mentioned that if you want to be able to receive good programming teaching, you must have a good living environment and be able to receive good education. (Of course, the situation is changing. You can easily get online programming teaching, or watch open classes at world-class universities for free .) However, you cannot achieve excellent results. After all, talent is very rare! A survey shows that 30%-60% of college students will take subjects in the first programming class every year. After all, not everyone has such talent.

Most importantly, it doesn't mean that after successfully completing these courses, you deserve such a salary. You still need thousands of hours of programming training, constantly learn new tools and languages for new goals. Otherwise, you will be replaced by others. The programming industry is full of fierce competition.

How can we ensure the growth in this industry?

Studies show that the average U.S. salary is $70,000/year (except in some places, such as Chiang Mai or Bangalore ). I think many engineers will choose to work in some highly paid places. In my opinion, if your original intention is to enter the coding industry because of high wages in this industry, it is difficult for you to become a leader in this industry.

So why are there so many people programming not for interest? This is because in most parts of the world, when you are poor enough to eat, money is far more important than passion. Maybe if you live a rich life without worrying about money, pursuing Passion seems reasonable or admirable.

Therefore, if my theory is correct, the shortage of excellent engineers will gradually ease as the world gets richer and richer, but it may be difficult to implement it within ten years.