Before;
A computer programmer may have a character different from a normal person. Oh! I am sorry, he is a normal person but, I mean a person at other work.
Note: This article doesn't reflect my personal opinion but some statistics collected on software programmers especially engineers.
Common programmers’ character:
The following personality is common among programmers:
- Can concentrate 12-16 hours at a time.
- When interrupted responds violently.
- Use only his head and hands.
- Less adaptive and have small social activities. Even concerned with computer. e.g.: chat, mail groups, forums, etc.
- Quiet serious and shy.
- Practical and logical.
- Low motivation towards management responsibilities.
- Loyalty to the profession rather than the employer.
- Optimism regarding time estimates.
MBTI Results for Software Developers
A common mean of categorizing personality was developed by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Meyers and is called the Meyers-Briggs.
Table -1- Personality Type of MBTI test
Extraversion
| Introversion
|
Sensing
| Intuition
|
Thinking
| Feeling
|
Judging
| Preceving
|
Two large studies have found that the most common personality type for software developers is ISTJ (introversion, sensing, thinking, and judging)
- Introverts are more interested in the inner world of ideas. Not oriented towards people.(54%)
- The sensing person focuses on known facts, concrete data, and experience. Not concepts and theories.(57%)
- The thinker makes decisions based on objective analysis and logic and never relies on his emotions.(81%)
- The judging person prefers order and control, not possibilities and flexibility.(54%)
A try to analyze these results
May be reasons to this character is education. Programmers are highly educated and almost got pressured.
Software programming career
About 60% of software developers have a Bachelor's degree or more.
Programming job is highly rated in terms of salary, working conditions (air conditioned well lighted offices) job security (almost no risk).
A study at IBM found that the average programmer spends only about 30 percent of the time working alone. The rest is spent working with teammates, with customers, and on interactive activities.
Challenging projects extend programmer’s capabilities, test his limits and apply practices. A challenging project may take from 2 weeks to years. Challenging projects generally done lonely.
A programmer can sacrifice his life to programming challenge especially during 20s. This fact bec0mes harder to justify when he marries and gets children move into their 30s, 40s, and 50s.
As he grows older. He relies more on working smart than on working hard. Software developers will become increasingly interested in the practices that allow them to complete their projects as promised and still be home in time for dinner(only dinner). They become interested more in software engineering professionalism.
Table -2- Percent of Software Developers Education in U.S
| High school graduate or equivalent or less | 10 |
| Some college, no degree | 21 |
| Associate's degree | 10 |
| Bachelor's degree | 45 |
| Graduate degree | 14 |
| 1950 | 100 |
| 1960 | 10,000 |
| 1970 | 100,000 |
| 1980 | 2,000,000 |
| 1990 | 7,000,000 |
| 2000 | 10,000,000 |
| 2010 | 14,000,000 |
| 2020 | 21,000,000 |
Table -2- shows education of software developers’ ratios in
While Table -3- shows population of software developers from 1960 to 2020
After;
Do you think this article applies to you??
Links:
http://cs.anu.edu.au/~Ian.Barnes/research/slides.html
A research done by Ian Barnes from The Australian National University on personality type and software development
http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/uicee/worldtransactions/WorldTransAbstractsVo1No2/17_Capretz14.pdf
A comparison between the personalities of software engineers students and engineers in general. Above statistics were done on software engineers not students.
