Job Stratification

In other disciplines, professional engineers are supported by engineering technicians and technologists. The National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies offers five kinds of certification for them. We see similar stratification in medicine with doctors, physicians' assistants, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nurses aides. In law, you see attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries. Complex fields become stratified.

As Figure 10-1 illustrates, as software engineering becomes more mature, software occupations will stratify into jobs that require greater amounts of education and training and those that require lesser amounts. Some software developers will obtain a comprehensive education in professional software engineering; others will learn computer programming as a craft. Of the developers who receive a software engineering education, some will go on to obtain their Professional Software Engineering licenses, but most will not. Those who obtain their licenses will be the occupational equivalent of physicians, while those who receive a comprehensive education but do not obtain full professional standing will become the occupational equivalent of physician's assistants.

Figure 10-1. The software development field is stratifying into different levels of professional standing. The most highly trained software workers will generally command the most responsibility and the highest salaries.

Eventually, we'll also see separate credentials for software engineers and software technologists today's coders. Software technologists will be come the occupational equivalent of a physician's assistant or registered nurse in medicine or certified technologist in engineering. Some software technologists will seek out certification, and some will not. In general, the jobs that require more education and training will command more responsibility and greater prestige just as they do in other professions.

Software developers who pursue top professional credentials will probably be compensated better than other software developers. The average person who obtains a professional degree in the United States earns at least 50 percent more than the average person who obtains only a bachelor's degree.^[1] The average person who obtains a master's degree earns 25 percent more than the average person who obtains only a bachelor's degree. And the gap is likely to widen. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that from 2000 to 2010 demand will increase 11 percent for occupations requiring moderate on-the-job training up to 23 percent for occupations requiring a master's degree.^[2]