

Ask HN: How many non-techies are employed in software for every engineer? - michaelvkpdx

Just wondering if anyone has stats or stories about the number of non-engineers who have jobs as a result of the work of engineers.<p>A casual look at job postings these days shows a huge number of openings for sales, finance, customer support, marketing, HR, and managers, but I&#x27;m not sure there&#x27;s a corresponding increase in engineers. It seems the number of non-techies working in the tech field is increasing while the number of techies isn&#x27;t growing at the same rate, at least in software-driven companies.
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michaelvkpdx
And a corollary question: how many US engineers in US companies are employed
for every non-techie? My experience has been that the more non-techies come on
board, the more inclined the company is to offshore development.

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michaelvkpdx
See also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9999935](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9999935)
("On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs")

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omnivore
Well..you can't hire more developers if you're not getting customers, keeping
them happy or paying your suppliers. So those other roles matter just as much
as hiring a huge conclave of developers.

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michaelvkpdx
Thanks, but that's not really the question. I'm trying to find out how many
non-techies are supported by each engineer, and my hypothesis is that the
number is increasing.

My hypothesis for US companies is that the number of non-techies supported by
each US citizen engineer is going up at an even greater rate.

Your comment is based on the assumption that engineers cannot do any of the
non-technical tasks a company has, and as an English major who is also an
engineer, I think that's a false conception being perpetuated by people
outside of engineering.

