Ladder Home Ladder Overview Reading List Pyramid
Construx's Professional Development Ladder provides Construx's internal view of a software professional's development. This Professional Software Engineering Pyramid describes an external, software-industry view of a software professional's development. Construx hires people from the top 10% of available talent, and we expect every software professional we hire to eventually reach Level 12 on our professional ladder, which puts them in approximately the top 3/10 of 1% of the software engineering profession.
|
|
|
|
| 3,000,000 |
100% |
Not hired by Construx |
The average software developer reads less than one professional book per year (not including manuals) and subscribes to no professional magazines. These developers are not reading or advancing themselves professionally. About 75% of these people do not have a degree in computer science or a related field. |
| 250,000 |
~10% |
9 |
These software workers occasionally read mass-market technical magazines and isolated articles from refereed journals. They might or might not have a degree in computer science or a related field. |
| 100,000 |
~3% |
10 |
These people belong to a professional membership organization like the ACM or IEEE Computer Society. They have read some of the classic books in software engineering like Mythical Man-Month and Code Complete. They have taken classes in software development practices. |
| 25,000 |
~1% |
11 |
These people regularly read software engineering books and refereed publications; they have an explicit professional development plan. They have studied deeply in at least one area, typically software construction or software design. |
| 10,000 |
3/10
of 1% |
12 |
These people have read both broadly and deeply in software engineering literature. They have a master's degree in software engineering or equivalent self-education. They have taught one or more classes in software engineering or related topics. |
| 1,000 |
3/100
of 1% |
13 |
These people referee articles for software engineering journals and teach classes. They have published some articles or one or more books. |
| 250 |
1/100
of 1% |
14 |
These people have published a well-recognized and respected book or many well-regarded and influential papers. |
| 25 |
~1/1,000
of 1% |
15 |
These people are widely recognized as the leaders of the software engineering field. They have published multiple influential books or dozens of influential papers. |
The numeric data in this table is approximate and is intended only for illustrative purposes.