Has software engineering become a bad career for an Aspie?

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Hi! I'm working as a software engineer, and I'm starting to wonder whether it's time to change careers -- not because I've changed, but because the industry has changed.

When I started programming, individual programmers could write entire programs and simple games by themselves without any collaboration or standards to adhere to. You were in control of everything.

I've noticed, however, that things have changed drastically over the past few years.

1. Systems have gotten much more complex and require a lot of collaboration and communication between the various coders to get things done now. There is no longer any such thing as a programmre working by himself.

2. This increased complexity makes it impossible for one person to know the entire system, which leads to confusion and lack of structure since we don't see the big picture.

3. Although lack of structure doesn't matter when you have to deal with simple surgical strikes like a bug fix, almost all of the bug fixing (at least in my company -- I wouldn't be surprised if other companies do the same thing) has been outsourced to India for the past six months. Basically, they are changing my job description to give me just the really "hard" stuff by deliberately removing the stuff I'm best at.

4. Global competition has made everything much more fast-paced and pressure-packed than it was before thanks to the Internet and stuff like that -- technology which didn't exist in the 80's and 90's. Pressure itself is generally not a problem -- but when you have to interact with stressed out people that starts to take a toll.

5. Morale is low because of layoffs across the industry (my company has laid off something like 60% of its workforce over the past few years), and the people who have survived have become cutthroat -- and INCREASINGLY political. There haven't been layoffs for a while, but it's on everybody's minds. Because of the layoffs, people's responsibilities increase and more communication is necessary. Most of the layoffs were basically due to a downturn which affected all of tech, but many of the positions were lost to India -- a SW quirk.

6. Office have been replaced with cubes all over the place without doors. No privacy, and I know this not just my company. Entire buildings are being redesigned to "improve and foster communication" between the few employees that remain because of the layoffs.

Am I imagining something here? It *could* just be this company, but I doubt it. It sounds like what started out as a good hobby may not wind up a viable career because of the new work environment.

Thanks in advance,

ACG

In large part you are right. There are however some niches that aspies still excel in.

Where I work each project has a lead engineer. As such my job is to become the system. I become the walking memory and logic tester for the system. For example if there is a change proposed - I think through all the ramifications, solicit feedback-via email, etc.

If the system misbehaves I figure out what may have happened for the debuggers. For validation I switch teams and give ideas about potential weaknesses.

In my company - through no known plan, all LE are aspies. We are walking talking project records and the system is our toy.

Off the record our personnel folks have started to look for two personality types - one compulsive schedule minder type and one aspie type for each project. Generally the workk load is divided so that each has one new system and one established system

The computer field is simply going the way that other fields have done.

In the field of accounting, a person could be a bookkeeper where the job was to simply put the numbers into the ledgers and review the receipts and documents to make sure the expenditures and income are valid.

Now, computers do the main bookkeeping job and produces the reports. The job of the accountant is now describing what the reports mean to those that need the information to do their jobs. As such, there is more human interaction.

In the field of Software Engineering, the programs have become more complex and as such, things are working together more. As such, there is more human interaction that there was in the 70s and 80s. There are however areas where aspies are still needed. Even with the need of the big picture, there is still a need for people who can look at code or any other document, see a something small that the big picture people overlooked, and bring it up. Something as simple as using an = instead of == can be missed.

I'm aware of that, but that sounds like precisely the type of stuff that would be outsourced since it doesn't involve intellectual property -- or likely automated by programs like lint, Purify, and so forth because a computer can do it.

That's basically the problem: if you think too much like a computer, a computer can now do it for you so you have no job.

(Incidentally, I've asked my manager to do more bug stuff, and he just said "That's India's now. Stay where you are, do what you're doing -- if you don't like it you can quit." I'm basically being pigeonholed at this point, and whenever I suggest that I could help other groups he says "fine -- but as long as you work for me my stuff always comes first". Politics rearing its ugly head )

ACG

I think it's more of a case of Software Engineering becoming a bad job for everyone.


As far as communication goes. The exchange of information for a major project should be clear, and easy to analyze. This is not just an issue of AS, but of having any sort of quality.


For a fairly complex project, their should be at least one person who's job is solely to deal with the communication side of things.


It is not neccesarily a problem if one person does not understand the whole system. Frequently, just having an abstract view of things is sufficent.

Like everything else engineering is changing. Here is what is happening in my neck of the world.

I do R&D for embeded systems so here is a better idea of the niche. There are three aspies and one NT in the group. The company no longer has anyone who just codes.

We start with customer needs, analyzes them and looks for new products. We then code, test, develope these ideas to a vialble level at which point they are shipped to someone else for coding/advanced (as in does not look like something I built on a lab bench) hardware development.

Now I think my point --- all of us are retrained continually in different things. The least trained has a dual degree in comp sci and electrical degree. The rest have masters with a hard science /engineering (chemical engineering, Biomedicalx2) to complement the comp sci.

In addition each does about 120 hrs of training off site a year.

This is a lot different than the way coding used to be

I have been a computer engineering student part time for 11 years, no degree yet. Whats the best path for me? Any Ideas?

When I was doing Comp.Sci at college in the early 1990's there was much talk of Object Oriented programming and although that is only a technical framework, the idea of separating out various parts of an elaborate and complex programs seemed to underpin the ideology behind this shift in approach.

Management Spiv types have always been fearful of the technological types, hence the emphasis on turning a programming project into something that yields an 'end product', or a commodity. This has the unfortunate effect of turning the people who are working on the project into commodities too, hence the outsourcing to India and other antics to destabilise formerly well-paid, secure highly qualified professionals. It is part of the 'rationalisation' of globalisation and it should in the medium to long term, help depress wages and working conditions - even for people with two or more college degrees.

The H1-B 'indentured servant' scheme, whereby foreign-trained programmers and others with technical skills can come over and undercut the wages of home grown talent is a god-send to managers who are not themselves technologically literate but who nonetheless gain huge bonusus and 'kudos' from wringing every last ounce of productivity out of their workforce.

What all this means is that people who have an eye on a lucrative career - ie people who weigh up the study options for university and decide that instead of having to compete with imported foreign labour at knock-down rates they would prefer to acquire skills that cannot be 'outsourced' then become mangers and business types with MBA qualifications instead of BSc. qualifications.

This means that home grown talent is allowed to fester because the real decision makers - those with the money - are always in a position to suck up resources from somewhere else.

Eventually, the only jobs available in the West will either be the Movers & Shakers in the corporate world who enjoy exercising life or death decisions over other people's lives, or else it will be minimum-wage style servitude jobs in which it is necessary to wait tables, flip burgers or become servants of the super-rich.

Adds a whole new meaning to 'working class', doesn't it?