Majority of Engineers Believe They Will Become Millionaires, Study Says

Engineers are pretty stoked, says a recent survey commissioned by an engineer-services company. In a survey of 1,000 software developers this March, the Seattle-based code-automation company Chef found some interesting results:

• 69 percent of engineers say their role is “recession-proof.”
• 91 percent say they feel they are the “most valued” employees at their company.
• 56 percent believe they will become millionaires at some point.

While engineers used to be quietly coding in the background as sales execs and business-development types ran companies, that relationship has flipped in recent years. Many venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, favor companies founded and run by engineers.

Chef CEO Barry Crist said he was happily surprised with the results.

“I was working as a pool cleaner in the ’80s, and when I quit to work for Apple, I had people at the shop who were genuinely concerned about me — and these are pool cleaners,” he said. “Today, being a software developer, it’s not apologetic. They’re becoming the power class.”

Entire businesses, Crist said, now revolve around the thoughts and feelings of their developers.

“Developers used to be in service to the business. The business is now in service to the developers.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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