The programmer’s workplace: Part II careers, pay, and professionalism

Abstract

Programming, more than any other engineering occupation, has a reputation as an open field in which advancement, if not certain, is likely and the rewards substantial. Part of the reputation is based on fact. The men and women who created the computer and software industries have been part of one of the great occupational booms of the twentieth century. The pioneers of the 1940’s and 1950’s benefited from being first in a field which appeared to have no limits on its growth and therefore no limits on the opportunities for those with skill, talent, and ambition. Still prominent in a variety of occupations, their individual and collective careers have been held up as models for succeeding generations of software workers.