The education can be grueling, you have to spend lots of time in the computer lab while your friends in other majors are drinking/partying. A lot of people claim we develop bad mental health and social skills. That definitely limits supply somewhat.
The idea that you have to be social recluse to be good at programming is beyond laughable. There’s definitely the opportunity for it and there’s definitely plenty of people in that category.
But there’s plenty of us who are experts in the field, yet still know how to sit down for a cold beer on a hot day.
I didn’t go to a party school, so maybe my experience is biased. Also, the period I went was before CS was a mainstream major, so maybe things are different now.
I don't think so. I got my CS degree twenty five years ago. "Grueling" is pretty much the last word I'd use to describe my journey. I never went to class, spent the whole time smoking weed and gaming. I'm essentially a self-taught programmer, and if I can do it, almost anyone else could do it better and faster.
From my understanding in faang, this probably only applies to levels below senior. From senior onwards, coding is no longer a priority. U will need to work with multiple ppl and teams. Delegate the work. Communicate and champion ur projects. Interpersonal skills becomes as important as your technical skills
completely true but at that point you've been in the industry for a few years and already know how to code. hopefully you'll have spent some of that free time catching up on the social skill if you minmaxed on knowledge acquisition in university.
personally I completely understand the idea of a lone wolf coder. I'm self taught and started aggressively learning web development while working a dead end job. At some point I realized if I hung out with my coworkers and smoked weed/drank after hours with them like everyone else was doing, this is what Id be doing for the rest of my life. You're the average of the people you hang out with. if the average is hell bent on mediocrity and thats not what you want, isolation is just what you have to do till you are good enough to find a new crew.
As also stated by you that it doesn't take long to reach there. Average software engineers could reach there within 5-7 years. Assuming that a person only started taking cs in university and started working after graduation, that still puts him at this level below 30s. That's not counting the ppl who started programming young, or the ppl who learn faster than average, or the ppl didn't graduate and went straight to work, etc.
My point is that OP's points really only applies to the ppl who are new to the job. Inter-person skills comes into the play in just a few years.
