Re:The Secret Shame of an Unacquired Tech Worker
by badman_ting on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @12:44PM
(#7560463)
Agreed, and that is shrewd thinking, though I'm not sure if it is related to gender. It may be part of it, but I think also design is a more attractive job than coding which is gross and technical, so there are more people who want to do it -> more labor supply -> lower pay.
Same thing with games, tons of people grow up playing them and want to make them -> more supply of workers -> get paid & treated like crap.
Re:The Secret Shame of an Unacquired Tech Worker
by theorique on Thursday April 10, 2014 @08:02AM
(#7565377)
It is definitely a supply demand thing. Lots of people go to art/design school, and jobs are scarcer.
Also, look at your average consumer/business startup - by the time you get to 10-20 coders, you might have one full-time designer. Maybe. Or a freelancer whom you bring in for a project when you need them.
Re:The Secret Shame of an Unacquired Tech Worker
by disbelief on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @10:10PM
(#7563779)
I have to disagree. Designers who can actually write serious code are rare unicorns and can typically demand a higher salary because of it. I wouldn't downplay my design skills (if I had any). I'm not sure what your pay grade is at the moment, but an engineer that can design is worth more than someone who is solely a designer or engineer in my books. Maybe it depends on the size/type of company? A small-ish company or startup would be more likely to value someone with multiple toolsets, whereas larger companies look more for specialists.
If a field is dominated by women, the pay tends to be less. Anecdotal, no proof. But this rule of thumb has worked for me. I am often asked to do UI and design stuff. I could be good at it, but I refuse to do it because it shunts me into a lower paid position. I stick to programming and don't allow my male counterparts to make the assumption that I will do their prettifying.
Design work is necessary, and I enjoy my attempts at it on personal projects. If it were my dream job, maybe I would feel differently? I don't know. I just know that as someone who is viewed as "creative", my personal experience is that the stereotype is stunting.