- Techcrunch (forgive me): Do Software Engineers Get Enough Respect
The author, one Michael O. Church, describes the different experiences of the same candidate applying for a position of “Senior Software Engineer” vs. “VP of Data Science,” a managerial position. As an engineering candidate, he faced five gruelling technical interviews and was arbitrarily vetoed by the last interviewer. As a managerial candidate, he essentially chatted his way through behavioral questions–and was offered a lucrative position with a generous relocation package.
While he has a point, the most broken-ness here is not that software engineers have low social status, it's that hiring for all other roles is far more broken. Way too often the criteria for non-engineering hires is not competence, but lack of competence - you're not an engineer, so you must know how to make good decisions! - and high competence at bullshit.