Forbes: humanitarians squeeze programmers in Silicon Valley

Large companies specializing in the development of Internet services and software have become more active in hiring non-techies. According to Forbes, the trend has affected not only small IT startups, but also such industry leaders as Google, Apple, Facebook, Uber and Slask.

As the newspaper notes, engineers continue to receive higher wages, but gradually their role in the work of companies decreases, and the importance of humanities involved in sales and marketing increases.

After studying more than 60 thousands of profiles on the social network for LinkedIn professionals, the editors of Forbes discovered: only 30% of all graduates who are building a career in Silicon Valley have engineering and other technical diplomas. The remaining share of employees is accounted for by “non-techies”. 14% of them are engaged in sales, 6% - in teaching, 5% are engaged in consulting and the same number - in the expansion of the client network.

This statistics is supported by open vacancies of large technology companies. In the summer of 2015, Facebook announced a total of 146 programmers. At the same time, the number of “sellers” and specialists in business promotion required by the social network has exceeded two hundred people. The contrast for the Uber taxi service was even more striking: at present, a startup is looking for all 168 development engineers and more 427 non-tech employees.

As one of the most successful examples of betting on the humanities, the magazine cites the Slack service. The founder of the corporate messenger with an estimate of three billion dollars Start Butterfield has a bachelor's degree in philosophy, as well as a master's degree in philosophy and the history of science.

The Butterfield team employs several non-techies at once. Editorial Director Anna Picard graduated from university with a degree in theater arts. Account Manager Rachel Lee, who also has a degree in humanities, is now responsible for the implementation of the messenger and helping large corporations to switch to Slack.

Another big area in which humanitarians are becoming increasingly in demand is negotiations. According to experts interviewed by the publication, at present, the negotiation process in Silicon Valley is almost entirely relegated to "non-techies": out of ten preliminary meetings on a given issue, no more than two are devoted to technology.

The “dictatorship” of professionals with engineering education in technology is becoming a thing of the past, and those who can establish a dialogue with a user are becoming more and more in demand, Forbes concludes. As the newspaper writes, something similar has already been observed in the US in 1920. Then the booming auto industry spawned a multitude of related jobs for marketers, retailers and trainers who helped introduce new technologies to the market.