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From: kevin@nospamworld.com
Subject: Re: US-MN-Mpls >>> Ada Software Engineers <<<
Date: 1999/02/10
Message-ID: <79tk4j$cqf@drn.newsguy.com>#1/1
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References: <alwillF6y5tr.7Cq@netcom.com> <79scn2$k04@drn.newsguy.com>
 <36C2036B.D2B4B148@pwfl.com> <36C24646.804BC44E@stny.lrun.com>
Organization: Newsguy News Service [http://www.newsguy.com]
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1999-02-10T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <36C24646.804BC44E@stny.lrun.com>, Dino says...
>

> Also based on supply/demand I would
>think that engineers with Ada experience could name their price these days ?.

Actually, Ada programmers make less than C++ or Java or even C.

You don't have to believe me, just go to http://www.dice.com, search
for Ada as key word, you'll see about 30 or so positions, with less pay than
C/C++/Java/Unix positions. (If you search for C++ you'll get 100's of
positions). 

When I last was looking for a position, calling the Ada work agents listed,
they would be shocked if I mentioned a rate over $50/hr. Yet, calling the
C++ agents, and asking for $80-$100/hr was not even questioned, and many 
positions would be happy to pay that for the right person. One agent told
me not to bother sending my resume if I am asking for more than $50/hr,
and this was for a huge defense project done by a huge defense company.

The reason is simple. Ada is used 99% of the time in defense and/or
goverment work. And these pay less than private commercial work where
Ada is hardly used.

It is sad really, since Ada is a better language with no question, but
since there is little demand for it, the pay is less, even though there
are many more C++ programmers, the C++ programmer still makes more than
then Ada programmer.

This is my own list of software skills, listed on decreasing order 
of pay level:

1. C++/Perl/Java beans/Corba/Networking,System programming, drivers, etc..
2. C/Unix/Windows/GUI/Plain Java/Swing/Web-HTML-CGI/Porting work ..
3. Database stuff, oracle/sybase etc../system admin work, scripts
4. VB, word, backoffice, all other MS boring stuff.
5. Ada/real-time/embeded programming/defense work

(notice no one cares about design and software engineering in the real
world, that is why this skill is not listed, no one ever asked me about
those skills, they only ask how many years of C++ I have).

Well, hope this helps.

Kevin