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February 19, 2010

No Country for Old Men

A recent article in InfoWorld about the shrinking population of older IT workers hit me especially close to home. As a former programmer -- pardon me, software engineer -- who left the field in my mid-forties, I was interested in learning why the IT industry tends to shed its older, more experienced workers. According to the article's author, Lisa Schmeiser, the reasons for this phenomenon are not what you might think.

For example, while age discrimination is alive and well, older workers, in general, have lower unemployment rates and higher salaries compared to their younger counterparts. In fact, the more money you make, the less likely you are to be unemployed. (This is true throughout the labor pool, not just the IT sector.) This would suggest that the industry should be well-populated with middle-aged techies. But apparently that's not the case. Schmeiser writes:

A late-1990s study by the National Science Foundation and Census Bureau found that only 19 percent of computer science graduates are still working in programming once they're in their early 40s. This suggests serious attrition among what should be the dominant labor pool in IT.

The idea that IT shops are filled with gray-bearded Unix geeks is a relic of the past. Today those same organizations are more likely to be populated with twenty-something Linux programmers.

Schmeiser cites some possible reasons the industry is shifting to a younger workforce, including a changing IT culture, the perceived lower price-performance of older workers, the devaluation of technical experience and skills, and the changing nature of the IT job. In fact, all of these are related, and have a lot to do with the shift from an engineering-focused culture to a business-focused culture as IT companies mature. In such an environment tech workers become commodities, with the older ones tending to become obsolete.

The attitude is summed up by this gem of a quote from former Intel CEO Craig Barrett, who was reputed to have said: "The half-life of an engineer, software or hardware, is only a few years." The implication here is that years of experience with one set of technology -- programming language, hardware architecture, what have you -- is not applicable to the next job, so there is little reason to value such experience.

The result is that the more skilled, more specialized, and more expensive workers tend to get laid off first during a precipitating event, like when a company downsizes or shifts to a new set of products and technologies. Absent a layoff, the workers themselves often leave of their own accord as they are forced to accommodate new responsibilities or change their work habits. Schmeiser concludes:

Thus, the harsh reality may be that IT jobs -- at least as they're defined now -- may be perpetually entry-level.

The entire text is worth a read, especially if you're a young programmer or engineer who might be wondering what your career has in store for you. Of course, a follow-up piece on how to manage such a career would surely be appreciated. But that's likely to require a much longer article.

Posted by Michael Feldman - February 19, 2010 @ 8:38 AM, Pacific Standard Time

Discussion

There are 2 discussion items posted.

Painful Truth
Submitted by jeffrey.mcallister on Feb 19, 2010 @ 11:27 AM EST

If experience led more directly to influence organizations would have happier software workers and better strategies. Better products would be released, bigger problems would be solved. However, organizational structure and processes often divide the "decision makers" from the "implementers" and don't allow communication to flow back up. We need a better definition of what software work is -- especially in the scientific/high performance domain -- and better organizational structures. It would certainly be nice to have more options than getting small or getting out -- especially when the solutions to so many problems are right here in the heads of those of us who have been around the block a few times. Many of us experienced folks are under-utilized, and eager for an opportunity to show what we're capable of.

Post #1

HPC? not so much
Submitted by ewahl on Mar 15, 2010 @ 12:38 PM EDT

With all the articles (including here) decrying the complete lack of new blood coming into HPC, I have to call shenanigans (at least for HPC). Yes, in the larger and broader IT marketplace this trend of vanishing experience is dead on. Everyone seems to have been trying to draw attention to this trend for almost a decade or so now. While our niche status in HPC inside the overall IT world has protected us from this overall trend so far, the slow march into an eventual merging with enterprise computing and it's operational styles will hurt HPC immensely when we finally adopt this trend. But it isn't here yet.

So I guess I'm left wondering if I'll retire like the rest of my HPC colleagues or be forced into some other market segment like the rest of general IT, first?

Post #2

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Michael Feldman

Michael Feldman is the editor of HPCwire.

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