from Hacker News

How many software developers work in non-tech companies?

by tslmy on 12/24/23, 9:40 PM with 50 comments

• by karaterobot on 12/24/23, 10:47 PM

  I spent about 15 years doing SaaS and tech startups, then switched to working for a scientific non-profit. The first difference I noticed on my first week here was that, while they do produce software (thus me being employed) they do not have anything like a delivery process in place. There aren't product managers, nor really project managers as I recognize them either. Consequently, things which would have taken a month at the YC startup I came here from take six months to a year instead—no exaggeration. This has both pluses and minuses, as it can be frustrating just not making progress due to completely preventable holdups, but on the other hand I now have one of those jobs people talk about where they can work for an hour a day and still make all the deadlines with time to spare. I'm certainly not complaining, I've done years of crunch and I prefer this to the marginal salary I gave up.

  The second difference I noticed is that people actually understand what my company does, because I can say "we research [disease X]" rather than "we're building a best-in-class, b2b SaaS product/platform ecosystem that augments existing teams, but to be honest, we're just trying to demonstrate product-market fit for investors so we can get our second round, and ultimately get acquired by one of the big players".

• by bdcravens on 12/24/23, 10:13 PM

  This is why doom and gloom among the biggest "tech" companies (layoffs etc) doesn't necessarily translate to our industry as a whole. (though the particular mix of tech may be different)

• by verbify on 12/24/23, 10:11 PM

  > I chose to not use the category of “Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing”, because it would include manufacturers of navigation systems (Garmin, etc.), which aren’t really what would come into my mind when I think of “tech companies”.

  I very much think of Garmin as a tech company.

• by im_down_w_otp on 12/24/23, 10:20 PM

  Wait... if Garmin isn't a tech company... what is? I'm so confused.

• by solardev on 12/24/23, 10:32 PM

  I feel seen! I've spent my entire career as a web dev (15+ years) almost exclusively working for non tech companies: solar companies, nonprofits, museums, sustainability funds, etc.

  I loved it! The pay was much lower (50 to 100k), but generally livable, and the people were awesome -- folks from all walks of life, not all tech bros, a lot of women, etc. Good work life balance (I've worked a total of maybe 6-7 hours of overtime in my whole career), no weekends or holidays, no crunch. No bonuses or equity either, but that didn't bother me.

  But more than anything, I got to work in interesting verticals, whether it's alongside energy engineers, battery experts, world-renowned conservation scientists, archeologists, etc. People who love what they work on, making small but meaningful contributions to the real world (as opposed to like enshittified ad tech or crypto pyramids).

  Would strongly recommend, if you can get over the lower pay (like you don't have a family or mortgage yet) and the lack of prestige (you're just another minion in the machine, not a privileged SWE). It's a lot of fun, though you also lose the opportunity to work with experts in your field (who are usually at proper tech companies), exchanging depth for breadth. It's not for everyone, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

• by atomicnumber3 on 12/24/23, 10:55 PM

  I think the big difference is not "tech vs non tech" but "software vs non-software".

  Software companies have beautiful margins. Their incremental cost is practically zero, their biggest expense is headcount for R&D, etc.

  Non-software companies have to deal with gross things like inventory, lead times, logistics, shipping, RMA, etc etc... You know, the dirty details of not having the luxury of literally just selling information/bits.

  Software companies great margins mean that employees can capture a larger share of that (because they create so much value). Lower-margin businesses can't, so the pay isn't as good.

• by TradingPlaces on 12/24/23, 10:42 PM

  Walmart has 1400 job openings with the word “software” in the title https://careers.walmart.com/results?q=software&page=1&sort=r...

• by TrackerFF on 12/24/23, 10:30 PM

  I think it is more fair to say that traditional companies are evolving into tech companies. Every "non-tech" company I've worked for in the past 10 years have had a big push to get more digital, which has meant hiring software developers, IT people, setting up dedicated divisions to various IT tasks.

• by jbjbjbjb on 12/24/23, 10:41 PM

  I’d rather not be treated as a cost centre and have non-tech business people second-guess everything.

• by magic_man on 12/24/23, 10:34 PM

  Those usually don't pay as well as tech company jobs.

• by mkoubaa on 12/24/23, 10:10 PM

  "tech" is becoming a meaningless category

• by seydor on 12/24/23, 10:27 PM

  Some companies are more equal than other companies