Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
mobility—many believed that a continued crisis threatened the long-term
stability and reputation of their industry and profession. “There is a
tendency,” observed a report by the SIGCPR, “for programming to be
a 'dead-end' profession for many individuals, who, no matter how good
they are as programmers, will never make the transition into a supervi-
sory slot. And, in too many instances this is the only road to advance-
ment.”
13
Many programmers worried about becoming obsolete and felt
pressure to constantly upgrade their technical skills.
14
Although starting
salaries were high and individual programmers were able to move with
relative ease horizontally throughout the industry, there were precious
few opportunities for vertical advancement.
15
Whereas technical special-
ists in traditional engineering disciplines were often able (and in fact
expected) to climb the corporate ladder into management positions, the
computer boys were usually denied this opportunity.
16
Many of the job advertisements for programmers refl ected these con-
cerns about a lack of professional status and longevity. Employers prom-
ised new hires a potential career path that involved more than just mere
technical labor: “Is your programming career in a closed loop? Create a
loop exit for yourself at [the Bendix Corporation].”
17
“Working your
way toward obsolescence? At MITRE professional growth is limited only
by your ability.”
18
“At Xerox, we look at programmers . . . and see
managers.”
19
But as contemporary studies of such “dual ladder” pro-
grams for technical workers in the computer fi elds revealed, program-
mers rarely had many opportunities for professional development.
20
It
was just not clear to many corporate employers how the skills—and
personality types—possessed by programmers would map onto the skills
required for management.
Given their growing uncertainty about the future of their occupation,
it is not diffi cult to understand why programmers in the early 1960s were
so concerned with establishing themselves as recognized professionals.
Belonging to a profession provided an individual with a “monopoly of
competence,” or the control over a valuable skill that was readily trans-
ferable from organization to organization.
21
In more practical terms,
professionalism offered a means of excluding undesirables and competi-
tors from the labor market, thereby assuring at least basic standards of
quality and reliability as well providing a certain degree of protection
from the fl uctuations of the labor market. Programmers in particular saw
professionalism as means of distinguishing themselves from coders
or other “mere technicians.” Professionalism offered increased social
