Subj : Re: Software Job Market Myths
To   : comp.programming,comp.software-eng
From : CTips
Date : Wed Jul 27 2005 09:20 am

Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote:
>>From: CTips <ctips@bestweb.net>
>>any good programmer will *start* at $80k+. In our company,
> 
> 
> Yeah, but is your company hiring at all, or is your offer a moot
> theoretical exercise in posturing? If your company is hiring, then you
> should hire. I could sure use $80k+, and I'm worth it if what you say
> is correct.

Send me a resume. (Actually - open offer - anyone who has experience in 
writing system software (optimizing compilers, operating-systems, 
data-base kernels, ...), believes they are highly productive and is 
willing to relocate to near NYC, feel free to send me a resume)

> 
>>The difference between programming and other fields is that the
>>productivity between a good programmer and an average one is order(s)
>>of magnitude, ...
>>Example: A $100k programmer will outproduce 10 $40k programmers.
>>Therefore its cheaper to hire the best programmers one can find.
> 
> 
> If you're so smart about evaluating the productivity of other
> programmers, why don't you test my productivity and post the result
> here? First you tell me some programming tasks that you feel could be
> accomplished in appx. one day or two of programming effort, and I give
> my comment as to how long it'd take me.

Hmmm...try to estimate how long you would take to do the simple 
spreadsheet program described on page 32 in the paper at:
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/aronsson95comparison.html

Measure the time from the when you start reading the spec to the time 
the debugged program is finished.

> where the time I claim I would need is less than the time you say a
> $100k programmer would need, you put me to that task and agree that if
> I get the task programmed within that time limit you'll arrange for
> your company to hire me at $100k.

I'll arrange for you to be *interviewed*. Whether you get an offer is 
going to depend on whether people believe you can actually sustain any 
claimed numbers.

  You put your money where your mouth
> is, and I'll put my programming productivity where my mouth is, OK

Certainly.

.