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More Than a Hoodie: How We Talk About Developers (medium.com) 169

Posted by msmash from the changing-perception dept.
An anonymous reader shares an article: For generations, movies, video games, and tv shows have portrayed the developer as either an awkward hoodie-wearing nerd, or an insane and menacing basement dweller (or both). From Ace Ventura to Silicon Valley, everyone has had their chance to portray the developer. Few actors do this with the same grace they'd reserve for a role portraying a doctor. [...] I think it's time for all of us to try and elevate our understanding of what a developer is. If you are a tech company who markets to developers, or is hoping to hire developers this is doubly true. So, how should we talk about developers? First, we should talk about how important their work is. Programming is one of the fastest growing industries in the world as it serves a role in every part of society. Developers maintain and build critical parts of our infrastructure. Second, we need to talk about the craft of what they do... we need to show more code. Every developer may use a different set of tools, but across the board their craft is evolving at increasing rates. [...] I think we can drop developer stereotypes all together at this point. It's a job people know -- it's time to add some vitamins to that kool-aid. After all, we're just like lawyers, librarians, electricians and cab drivers... we're just people, totally unique and different people. But if there is one thing that unites us, it's a unifying desire to build new things, improve old things, learn when we can and avoid being stereotyped. It's as simple as that.
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More Than a Hoodie: How We Talk About Developers

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  • I've never known a single developer who could get away with wearing a hoodie in an office, and I've worked at quite a number of offices over the years during my contractor days.

    What I find more amusing that the Basement dwelling Cheetovore programmer is the Hacker extrordinaire character in movies.

    The guy who can log into any web site- and after only observing it for a few seconds can hack into it by pecking at 5 characters on his keyboard. From there it opens up the backend. So many movie have a similar

    • Re:More Amusing than that... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jack9 ( 11421 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @03:40PM (#54172697)

      I know lots of places where a developer can and has worn a hoodie to work. This includes my current office. A good rule of thumb is, the stricter the dress code - the less competent the management is. The hiring process is probably worse.

      • I don't know about that. The least strict place I've worked (could wear any pants or jeans, just not shorts. Tshirts were acceptable if they were plain didn't have any graphics or words on them) was also the most incompetent. The place I work now is comparable to the last 5 or 6 places I've been, slacks and a shirt with a collar and is probably the most competent place I've been.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          >Tshirts were acceptable if they were plain didn't have any graphics or words on them

          That's probably stricter than requiring developers to wear white shirts & a solid color tie.

        • It's sad that the least strict place you know of doesn't allow T-Shirts that have slogans. Not having them pretty much eliminates the purpose of the T-Shirt.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dr. Evil ( 3501 )

        These days, a business casual dress code probably means cubicles. Hoodies and headphones probably means "flex space" open-concept.

        Both managers are likely equally incompetent, but I'll wear a shirt with a collar if it means I get a cubicle and some quiet.

      • A good rule of thumb is, the stricter the dress code - the less competent the management is. The hiring process is probably worse.

        Counterpoint: IBM's glory days.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by xevioso ( 598654 )

        Yep. I wear a hoodie all the time to work.

        I never understood the hate directed towards hoodies. They are an especially utilitarian piece of clothing, which allows one to protect oneself from the elements without needing the added accessory of a hat. In an office you can remove it, but it's much more comfortable than a suit jacket.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Altrag ( 195300 )

          Mostly because that hood that protects you from the elements is also pretty good at protecting you from being identified unless you're staring straight into a camera, giving hoodies a link to criminal activity that makes people uncomfortable.

          Obviously that's not the main use for hoodies, probably not even close. But thanks to movies and TV playing it up to 11 over the past couple of decades, the association has gotten fairly deeply ingrained in society.

      • Guy I knew always interviewed in extremely trashy clothes. He figured it would rule out any office that had too strict a dress code, since he didn't want to work there. Last I checked he was working at Google, so it must be working out for him.

      • I have not seen hoodies at work, ever, even on casual Fridays. The dress codes in California are very lax, tee-shirts are normal attire, even by some CEOs. But hoodies are not something you see often. Maybe at the sorts of jobs where a developer is someone who creates content, or a startup run by frat buddies as their first job, but not at a real company.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khr ( 708262 )

      I've never known a single developer who could get away with wearing a hoodie in an office

      I'm a developer wearing a hoodie in my office right now, while I work on some accounting reporting software. In fact, I think there's only been one job in my 24 year career where I couldn't dress this casual.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Same here. Although I don't usually dress up in a hoodie. I prefer more casual clothes. Cargo shorts and a t-shirt and some sneakers. In summer those will be swapped for slippers. This in a (non-US) Fortune-500-like company.

    • Instead of speculating about what software developers might look like, let's look at some actual photographs of actual software developers.

      The Rust programming language contributors list [github.com] is a good place to start.

      Although not every developer has uploaded a photograph, many of them have.

      Let's look at some examples.

      This is what an actual software developer looks like. [githubusercontent.com]

      This is what an actual software developer looks like. [githubusercontent.com]

      This is what an actual software developer looks like. [githubusercontent.com]

      This is what an actual software develop [githubusercontent.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ZiakII ( 829432 )
      I'm also a Developer at my company of 2000+ people who is wearing a hoodie (Superbowl 51 Patriots) right now....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by OhPlz ( 168413 )

        My employer has given us multiple hoodies over the years complete with company and/or product logos.

    • Re: More Amusing than that... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by loufoque ( 1400831 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @04:00PM (#54172883)

      I work in a hedge fund, most developers, managers, traders and directors occasionally wear hoodies.
      Regardless of what job you do, if you spend 10 hours of your day at a desk, what matters is being comfortable.

    • I've never known a single developer who could get away with wearing a hoodie in an office

      I have never worked in any office where anyone cares what the developers wear.

    • Re:More Amusing than that... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Archfeld ( 6757 ) <treboreel@live.com> on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @04:19PM (#54173057) Journal

      I am more a hardware and network support tech than a programmer or developer, but I wear a hoodie ALL the time at work because my lab is Fsck'n freezing. The temp is set for the equipment not me which is fine, and as a bonus it keeps most everyone else out. I keep a couple extra micro fiber pull overs for the CE's and other hardware folks that come and visit occasionally. I feel sorry for the female techs that have to endure the arctic support lab as folks commonly refer to it. Despite the stereotype I deal with quite a few female techs from RH and M$ to IBM and EMC.

      • Why a hoodie though? Is this an east coast thing? It looks uncomfortable. I got one as a present once and hated it. Too tight, with an annoying flappy thing hanging down the back. Give me a plain jacket or sweat shirt, but the hood part is just dumb. If you're somewhere cold, why not really wear something warm; is that hoodie really going to help if it's raining or snowing compared to a jacket?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Archfeld ( 6757 )

          Actually I just used hoodie from the person I responded to. I wear a plush warm microfiber pull over. No zipper to lay on, and as a bonus I slide across the raised tiles like a curling stone on ice. The lab is a normal 68F(20C) regardless of outside temp so in the summer in California you run the real risk of getting sick from the drastic temperature change. I could wear a hoodie if I wanted to, but security would make me pull the hood down at the lobby, upon access to the equipment floor where the lab is l

    • I used to wear a hoodie all the time even though I was in khakis and a dress shirt... The office was always cold.

       

    • I've never known a single developer who could get away with wearing a hoodie in an office, and I've worked at quite a number of offices over the years during my contractor days.

      I'm in the office right now, wearing a hoodie, with the hood up because the AC is blowing on my ears. I'm a software engineer, and lead on my project at a company with 10,000 employees. I primarily design Linux device drivers and help validate new silicon designs before it goes into manufacture (tape-out).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AuMatar ( 183847 )

      17 year career. Never had a dress code. Never heard of a company other than IBM where there was one. Unless you're in a very specific financial, I'm just calling bullshit.

      Now I don't know many people who wear hoodies- too warm in a heated office. Jeans or shorts and a tshirt are the norm.

  • Keep Dev Socially Unappealing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lgw ( 121541 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @03:31PM (#54172585) Journal

    I prefer we keep the stereotype of software development as a socially unappealing career, not a job welcome in high society like doctors and lawyers (more like the better-paid-after-insurance vets and dentists). Two reasons.

    The less appealing the field is presented as, the lower the supply of labor, and thus the more I'll be paid.

    Also, the less appealing the field is presented as, the more it will be populated by people actually interested in problem solving, instead of people pressured by parents to pick this career as the best option, as is the norm in India (and the norm for doctors and lawyers here).

    I'm quite content to be seen as socially awkward, but be well paid and work with the right crowd.

  • Has anyone seen the movie, "Snowden"? (Score:3)

    by evolutionary ( 933064 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @03:32PM (#54172593)
    I think it did a pretty good job of portraying a programmer as a hero. At worst, he's a little shy, but that makes him all the more human. Whether you agree with his means (and to be honest was there any other way given those who tried to do it through legal channels were quickly silenced) or not, you gotta admit it took brains and guts. For a real person he's also rather charismatic. Seems perfect movie hero material to me.

  • "Dark matter" programmers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @03:35PM (#54172631)

    I ran across a blog many years ago that made a good point about programmers: while many of us are keeping up with the joneses on the who's who and what not, the vast majority of software developers are just ordinary people. They drive their ordinary Camry or Accord to work in an office with ordinary cubicles, go home to the suburbs and play with their kids and spouses, do soccer on saturdays, etc. They don't do meetups, conferences, seminars, or follow the latest blogs or programming fashions. They just do their work, go home, and live their lives. The blog called them the "dark matter" programmers because they are the vast majority of working software developers out there, but you'd never know it because they're too busy living life and not living code.

  • Inaccurate portrayal in the movies (Score:5, Funny)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @03:35PM (#54172633)
    I am alarmed and distressed by a very inaccurate portrayal of developers in movies. First, fictional characters portrayed by actors have no neckbeards or notable lapses in personal hygene. Strike one against method acting. Second, actors portray these characters as able to maintain coherent conversation with female cast members. This is simply inaccurate. Third, there are no cats, piles of empty pizza boxes and mountain dew cans. All of these compound unfavorable stereotypes and mischaracterizations set expectations too high.

  • Dress for success (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I don't mean to be rude but working in IT I have found that dress in the office is very important. I never wear jeans or casual cloths even when all my peers do, why? Because the bosses don't. The people who I need to take me seriously dress and behave professionally so I do the same. It makes a HUGE difference, especially when working with business people outside IT or development.

    • Re:Dress for success (Score:4, Insightful)

      by KlomDark ( 6370 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @03:41PM (#54172707) Homepage Journal

      You must not be very good at your job if you are concerned about such dreck.

      • Re: Dress for success (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Way to miss that AC's point. It's not about fashion, or what he thinks about it. It's about how management perceives him. And that's what separates professionals from amateurs. Professionals not only have the hard skills necessary to do the work at hand, they also have the soft skills necessary to fit in well with society at large.

        • I worked at Lockheed for awhile, in research labs. I had to wear slacks and white shirt. I would occasionally head over for a meeting at the main plant. One day a guy said "you must be from the labs". I asked how he knew and he said "because you don't have a tie". So ya, wearing slacks and white shirt and I still stood out as too casual...

        • I've met lots of professionals without good soft skills. I'm paid for software development. Aside from being able to get along, I figure soft skills are the job of other people in the company (like management and sales). A company that requires that its developers have good people skills and dress to impress will be hiring from a smaller pool, and probably missing out on the really good developers.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by KlomDark ( 6370 )

          Shit dude, I am a skilled developer with soft skills, I get along with people all over the company (largish financial company), from upper management to phone support. I wear what I want and it's never held me back.

      • I used to go to work daily in the finest of homeless chic. I took pride in not giving a shit how I looked.

        I developed a pretty hardcore drug problem, and my appearance began to get even WORSE. My work suffered during that time too, as well as my personal life.

        When I cleaned up, I decided to try something a big different. I started wearing shirts and ties instead of ripped jeans and hoodies. Honestly, people began to take me a bit more seriously but that had little to do with it. It helped me separate m

    • Re:Dress for success (Score:4, Informative)

      by lgw ( 121541 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @03:58PM (#54172869) Journal

      I don't mean to be rude but working in IT I have found that dress in the office is very important.

      People who self-describe as "working in IT" these days are not software developers. Also, I suspect you're on the East Coast.

      Here in big software companies on the West Coast, the uniform of almost all senior devs and managers is button-down shirt and jeans. T-shirt and shorts is OK if you're young (but at some point you're expected to move to grown-up cloths). Heck, even at the VP level, button-down shirt and jeans is the norm, unless meeting with a customer.

      Wearing slacks marks you as fresh off the boat from India or China. Wearing a tie means everyone you meet will ask you "Can I help you? Are you looking for someone?"

      • People who self-describe as "working in IT" these days are not software developers.

        Oh please. You're just not interested in that sort of development. Or, as you pointed out, It may not be in your area of the country. That doesn't preclude them from being developers.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by lgw ( 121541 )

          "IT" is a vanishing career, and most people assume "help desk" when you say it. Sucks, but it's true. Software development engineer is a rapidly growing highly paid field. Both have plenty of international competition, but you're way more likely to be outsourced as "IT" then as a "software development engineer".

          It's along the lines that a garbage man might describe himself as a "sanitation engineer", but someone with an engineering degree working on something sanitation-related won't describe himself as

        • Hmm, IT seems to mean "help desk" at most places I've been at. Maybe at a website oriented company there are IT people keeping up the production servers AND developing on them. But usually the backoffice servers I see may be administered by IT but developed on by people who aren't in the department labeled "IT". "Operations" isn't "IT" even if many of the skills overlap. The people creating software as products to sell or to put into hardware that is sold are not "IT" even if some IT people also do a lo

      • I'm 53 and wearing tee-shirts most of the time, polo/knit shirts at other times. Button up shirts tend to be loose fitting. I only tuck in a shirt when it's a wedding or funeral. But since they made me manager I did get some new shirts without holes in them. I should upgrade but people wouldn't recognize me if I did.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I don't need to put up a facade in order to be taken seriously. My work (and that of my co-workers) speaks for itself. It makes the company a lot of money and management seem to like that a great deal. Let them worry about the width of their peers necktie. Let us worry about making the thing that makes money.

      If you don't add enough value to the company to be useful as-is, perhaps shrouding your incompetent in a suit might work. After all, management is full of people that like shiny baubles and might be imp

    • For my last interview, I dressed nice, but not too nice. The reason, I wanted to work for a company that judged an engineer based on their abilities and not on some stupid dress code. If they had said "Wow, nice work, but your dress code does not fit our culture", I would have happily walked away from the opportunity. But, instead they welcomed me because of my skill level. So I am happily employed at a company where I can wear hoodies and jeans :-)

      I have previously worked at places where there was consta

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by narcc ( 412956 )

        Why is it so difficult for so many of you to dress like an adult?

        Do you suddenly become incapable of doing your job if you look like a working professional? No? Then why complain?

        If you've ever wondered why you don't get the respect you think you deserve at the office, look no further than your wardrobe. No only will people treat you better, you'll feel better about yourself.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Altrag ( 195300 )

          Why do you care? Do I suddenly become incapable of doing my job if I don't happen to dress to your fashion sense?

          If I want your respect, I'll consider wearing clothes you like. Otherwise, go do your job and let me do mine in all my scrubby comfortableness. Its not everybody's dream to be a middle manager.

        • If it matters so much to you, I am in no way lacking respect at my workplace (I report directly to the president of the company, and all that fun stuff). I have my own office, and never get questioned about budgets of projects. I get to wear what I want and I have a flexible schedule. I worked quite hard to get where I am at. I am not a slacker by any means. I have engineered many of the systems my company uses and brought them a lot of business by my work. My workplace can depend on me, and I have the fre

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by narcc ( 412956 )

            Looks like I touched a nerve. Like it or not, how you dress does influence how people see and interact with you. It also has an impact on your own sense of self-worth. (That's not controversial. Decades of research support that.)

            Consider the following: On the day of a big legal case, your lawyer walks in to court wearing socks with sandals, basketball shorts, and a hooded sweatshirt. How would you react? Why do you think you would react that way?

            How about this: You're in the hospital with your kid, wh

      • The snag comes if you look like you didn't even bother. Sure, if you have an hour notice for a sudden interview then you show up with what you're wearing. But when you see someone come in like they just grabbed whatever clothes were on the floor, it sends a strong signal of "I just don't care about you or your company, I'm only here so my parent/spouse doesn't complain about me being a slacker." With the very casual California dress code I'm still amazed that occasionally you see someone who takes it too

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rande ( 255599 )

        I remember once reading the advice at interview to dress at the maximum you'd be willing to work in every day. So if you're not willing to work in suit+tie every day then don't.
        And it works for every industry. If you're interviewing to be a lumberjack, then you won't wear a suit+tie, but you would at least wear the jeans that don't have the grease stains on them.

        And the only job I've worked at that insisted on suit+tie every day I didn't last at. I simply can't concentrate with a noose around my neck.

    • The people who I need to take me seriously dress and behave professionally so I do the same.

      And if you're looking to move into their job, that's not a bad attitude to have. Personally, I'd prefer the "tech track" to the "management track." But that's just me--to each their own.

      That said, a company I used to work for had the best dress code: "You must be covered from the shoulders to just above the knee in clothing of good repair."

      No miniskirts. No spaghetti straps or tank/tube tops. No ripped jeans. Shorts were fine, but they had to go down to just above the knee--no daisy dukes or the like.

      • That said, a company I used to work for had the best dress code: "You must be covered from the shoulders to just above the knee in clothing of good repair."

        I preferred the one that said: "Dress code: Dressed".

  • The movie "Grandma's Boy" set the stereotype of video game developers back by 10 years. No, i don't live with my grandma. No, I don't get to spend all day just 'playing video games' and No, one person cannot make a AAA video game all by themselves.

    Then again stoners have had the same stereotype played in hollywood for over two decades. Have you ever seen Tommy Chong in "Cheech and Chong" I don't know any stoners that are actually like that, Thats because the actor Tommy Chong wasn't portraying stoners in

  • Dress is Statement (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @04:01PM (#54172891)

    So...this is coming from the perspective of someone who can count almost 30 years writing code, and managing folks who do, professionally, in a number of environments, and I realize that people entering the workforce today face different problems, but...

    Coders, and IT people in general, historically have dressed down as a statement of power. This isn't a made up stereotype, and it isn't a lack of style. It is a deliberate way of asserting that they have special value to the business and that the normal rules do not apply. "You can't do what I do, and you can't simply replace me with a snappy dresser."

    I've been hiring developers for more than a few years now and things haveâ changed. 10 years ago a good/confident young developer would show up in jeans. Now the younger folks come to developer interviews dressed like salespeople. I struggle not to perceive the way they dress as a lack of confidence in their abilities, to accept that they grew up during a recession and in a world where IT people are screened by know-nothing HR departments before they can even see a technical manager. I wouldn't dress the way they dress if interviewing for the jobs they want, but I started in a different era.

    All of which is to say that some of the stereotypes are not without basis, and are not disparaging to the people who originated those stereotypes. They reflect a deliberate tactic to assert unique power in the business environment.

    • Coders, and IT people in general, historically have dressed down as a statement of power.

      Not every IT position is able to sit at a desk all day, don't get wrong remote management is great and I've always used it when possible but it's not going to replace a hard drive. I've gone to work in boots, blue jeans, t-shirt, back support, and a tool belt before and I looked more like the maintenance man. I've also traced/ran hundreds of cat3, cat5, cat6 drops, done countless punch downs, built server cabinets, network racks... I've also done dozens of different jobs in the IT field from Desktop Adminis

      • First job I had they wanted the slacks and button up white shirt. Which was kind of a pain when you were carrying boxes, changing printer ink, installing tape drives, crawling through the ceiling dragging cable, and so forth. Those slacks would wear out fast compared to denim.

        • I've had that job where you work in a large office building (about 500 cubicles and offices) and end up being the entire IT department (Networking, Telecom, Sys Admin, etc...) unless there was an important client in the building I was in jeans. One time there was an electrical problem and I had to explain to them that I wasn't an electrician, I only looked like one.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by smelch ( 1988698 )
      Yeah, but that's the problem. That's just being a dick and a poor sport. They aren't more talented or special than anybody else, their specialty is just in higher demand right now. Seriously, when I look around at the average intelligence of the development team versus the legal team or other types of analysts, (all of which dress nicer than development) it feels about the same to me. One day, that won't be true anymore and everybody will remember that you're kind of unreliable, take as many liberties as yo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Altrag ( 195300 )

        There's a difference though -- complexity. The law doesn't change much from day to day so the stuff you use at your current job is basically identical to the stuff you used at your last job and will use at your next job, and has remained basically the same since you passed the bar.

        Not to downplay lawyers -- the law is horrendously complex and ugly and they have to spend many years learning the ins and outs. But its mostly consistent across jobs and across time.

        Software is neither. Within an organization,

    • I don't see this. I've been here over 30 years. For me and others I never saw it about power. Anyone who did was quickly shunned, no one like working next to the guy with the ego. *Nobody* was irreplaceable, there were people who could replace them. Instead it's about comfort. Ties suck, period. You used to have to deal with them in the past (or on the east coast), but once they aren't required then why wear them? Work was an extension of college, if you didn't wear ties in college then it made sense n

  • From Ace Ventura to Silicon Valley, everyone has had their chance to portray the developer.

    I haven't seen it, admittedly, but I thought Ace Ventura had a different job. Something about pets?

  • Doesn't make sense. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by captaindomon ( 870655 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @04:02PM (#54172911)
    This doesn't actually make much sense. It's the same as any other field already. Let's take the example above and change it to construction workers: So, how should we talk about construction workers? First, we should talk about how important their work is. Construction is one of the fastest growing industries in the world as it serves a role in every part of society. Construction workers maintain and build critical parts of our infrastructure. Second, we need to talk about the craft of what they do... we need to show more finished buildings. Every construction worker may use a different set of tools, but across the board their craft is evolving at increasing rates. [...] I think we can drop construction worker stereotypes all together at this point. It's a job people know -- it's time to add some vitamins to that kool-aid. After all, we're just like lawyers, librarians, electricians and cab drivers... we're just people, totally unique and different people. But if there is one thing that unites us, it's a unifying desire to build new things, improve old things, learn when we can and avoid being stereotyped. It's as simple as that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by smelch ( 1988698 )
      What you're missing here, is that this person believes developers are special. The tell is throwing in "cab drivers" right before talking about how passionate developers are about building new things. The subconscious bias at play here is "developers are a better type of people because of our virtuous pursuit of making things". Now they want to figure out how that can be showcased without the negative effects of the other side, which is strutting around the office, playing by different rules than everybody

  • ... is just an AI running on a server in the basement.

  • I had this job interview for an IT position at a bio tech firm in Redwood City (circa 2011). The recruiter at Robert Half sent me over in a suit and tie. No receptionist in the lobby. So I called the contact number on the desk phone, left a voicemail and took a seat. For the next 90 minutes I sat in the lobby, watching traffic go in and out. The recruiter kept calling to ask where the hell I was. A guy in a track suit who came through three times earlier asked who I was and introduced himself as the hiring

  • Back in the 1990s and 2000s, sure, a dot-com programmer wore cool T-shirts, flip-flops, and enjoyed unlimited sodas. It was at the two dot-coms I worked at, back in the day.

    Then, once H1B took over, it is now usually a bunch of very polite, mostly quiet, dress shirt + slacks and a belt, types. At least, it seems to be this way now, at the Confidential National Service Provider that I have worked at, for the past 10yrs or so.

  • After all, we're just like lawyers, librarians, electricians and cab drivers.

    Developers are nothing like lawyers (at least, not in my country). Lawyers and other professionals belong to chartered, professional, bodies that uphold standards of behaviour and work-product.

    If you want to see IT professionals portrayed as professionals they would need to act in a professional manner. One that instills confidence in their ability, one that stops "amateurs" from being indistinguishable from career IT people - either in approach, quality of work or social standing.

    • You do realize that suits make it easier for amateurs to pass as professionals. I can look like a lawyer fairly easily, and I can fake an air of authority.

  • says the article. How about googling "programmer" or "software developer". Oh, mainly well dressed people in a professional environment doing software development. Guess the image isn't too bad after all.

  • But if there is one thing that unites us, it's a unifying desire to build new things, improve old things, learn when we can and avoid being stereotyped

    So you're describing the new developer stereotype?

  • Seriously, developing is not very exciting to the casual audience. You are not going to make a movie about a totally unremarkable guy fixing misaligned text. And even if we take the most excited stuff, like a rocket engine control software, the development process is quite boring, probably even more so than the one involving misaligned text. It is tedious process with a lot of testing. And in case of emergency it becomes a tedious process with less testing and less sleep.

    Characters are here to serve the plo

    • I've sometimes thought about how I'd look in a movie. Sitting there, staring at the screen, maybe moving my mouse wheel. Occasional bursts of typing. Sometimes flipping through different text displays. Staring at the screen some more. No visible results.

  • We are not equivalent to doctors. Doctors spend a good deal of time in medical school, and have a licensing board overseeing them. For these reasons, at least, doctors are paid much more on average than developers. (The pay-off has to be good in part to compensate for the time in medical school.)

    If you are a good enough coder, you don't even need a degree to be paid fairly well.

    It's also difficult to outsource or visa-tize doctors because of the licensing process and their trade union. They have a degree o

  • In my experience IT folks in Europe never even came close to this strange American stereotype.

  • Typical (Score:2)

    by sad_ ( 7868 )

    it is not limited to programmers, but basically any profession representation is build on stereotypes.

  • We all use green-screen CRT's

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