An analysis of a data set collected by SignalFire, a platform provider for recruiting employees, finds that IT professionals specializing in areas such as DevOps move into leadership roles within their organizations within two to three years.
Additionally, the analysis finds that engineers with degrees from top-tier schools are promoted 22% faster. However, most engineers with college degrees are on a par with one another by the eighth year of their career regardless of whether they have a degree or not, according to the report.
On average, it takes 3.07 years for graduates from a top-tier school to reach a senior position, compared to 5.37 years for graduates from other schools. Interestingly, the report also notes that senior engineers with no college degree are reaching senior positions in slightly more time, which suggests that by skipping four years of college altogether they may attain those positions at a younger age. Overall, the analysis finds that 47% of the DevOps engineers tracked have no formal degrees.
Finally, the report suggests that engineers might be promoted more often if they switch jobs. Engineers who work for startups get promoted 22% faster than those at larger companies.
Jarod Reyes, head of the developer community for SignalFire, said the report also makes it clear that engineers, once they join an organization, tend to stay put, rather than move from one company to another. As a result, salary increases tend to come at a slower rate compared to a double-digit percentage gain that might be attained by taking a new job at another organization. In their last job transition, only 2.7% of engineers moved to a smaller startup.
SignalFire created a platform that leverages multiple forms of artificial intelligence (AI) to track more than 60 million employees who have been hired by more than 80 million companies.
As is often the case, the economic value of a college education tends to decline as individuals gain more hands-on experience in a field, said Reyes. More employers of IT professionals are interested in the skills and expertise that have been acquired, than they are in educational pedigree. Certifications that have been acquired are likely to be ranked higher as a means for identifying a job candidate than a college degree.
Of course, not every engineer aspires to be promoted to a senior position. Many are quite content to fill a specific role so long as they earn enough to be comfortable. In general, career advancement in IT is often tied to an ability to understand how to achieve the goals of the business as it is technical prowess.
Regardless of career aspirations, the overall demand for IT expertise continues to exceed the available supply, especially among DevOps engineers. Exactly how those job roles will evolve in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) remains to be seen, however, the report does note the pool of engineers with AI and machine learning expertise has grown 2,770% from almost nothing 10 years ago. The one certain thing is before too long just about every engineer, to one degree or another, will need some level of AI expertise if they expect to hold on to their current position.
