It doesn’t hurt their cause that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that there will be one million unfilled jobs for programmers in the U.S. by 2020. And that may be an underestimate, says Mr. Partovi.
The problem: software development is being either "off-shored", or people are being imported into the US to fill positions. I work for different customers across the US, and it's not unusual to find an entire department staffed by people on H1B visas. My own company has sent software development to the other side of the world.
The quality of the work stinks. The people I work with lack basic analytical and problem-solving skills. But, those deficiencies don't appear on a balance sheet, and the result is a slow descent into irrelevancy, as customers find better vendors to meet their requirements.
I've been in the software development business for over 3 decades. And my advice to anyone that wants to enter it: go for it, but only if you are willing to stay at the top of your game for your entire career.
There are still great opportunities in the US. But, not everyone can work for Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Only the very best get offers from these companies, and even after you get the job, it's very competitive. If you don't invest your own time in developing new skills and keeping up with the rapid changes in technology, you'll slide to the bottom of the bell curve and be "eased out".
That’s assuming that companies themselves want to stay at the top of the technological heap. Motorola for instance, was still using C long after it was irrelevant.
Eventually coding will become just a part of a bigger job. Just like Financial Analysts become proficient at writing Excel Macros.
“If you don’t invest your own time in developing new skills and keeping up with the rapid changes in technology, you’ll slide to the bottom of the bell curve and be “eased out””
That is true. Former COBOL programmer here.