> Only in recent times, (post 2019) I have noticed that people are obsessed with performance rating systems and gaming them. I notice junior engineers are not as curious to learn or challenge-seeking as engineers a decade. And I notice recently promoted senior engineers are not as talented either. I used to think this had to correlate with dominant programming language – c/c++/go vs ruby/java etc. but I don't know if that fully explains it.
The problem is financials on both employee and employer side.
If you actually want to have a chance at a decent lifestyle without being born into existing wealth, there aren't that many options in the first place, and of these IT is the only sector that doesn't take care much about formal qualifications/education - although you're almost guaranteed to make money if you have a CS degree, you still have a very high chance of doing so if all you have is a coding bootcamp and willingness to learn.
However, unless you land in a well funded startup that has money to burn and not much oversight / managers have actual freedom, the organizations capable of paying that kind of money tend to be very large, very bureaucratic, and pay rises are closely tied to some sort of "performance metric" - hence if you want to rise in level and pay, you gotta game the system because HR won't just give you a pay rise based on your manager's good word, they want something as evidence, even if only to insulate themselves against claims of discrimination or nepotism.
And to make it worse, even if you're in the first case of a well funded startup, if it succeeds and grows eventually "professionalism" will creep in sooner or later - either because the company hires enough experienced people (particularly in HR and finance) that bring it with them, because the company gets pressured to do so by investors/boards/unemployment insurance/legal requirements, or because inevitably complaints of discrimination crop up.
The problem is financials on both employee and employer side.
If you actually want to have a chance at a decent lifestyle without being born into existing wealth, there aren't that many options in the first place, and of these IT is the only sector that doesn't take care much about formal qualifications/education - although you're almost guaranteed to make money if you have a CS degree, you still have a very high chance of doing so if all you have is a coding bootcamp and willingness to learn.
However, unless you land in a well funded startup that has money to burn and not much oversight / managers have actual freedom, the organizations capable of paying that kind of money tend to be very large, very bureaucratic, and pay rises are closely tied to some sort of "performance metric" - hence if you want to rise in level and pay, you gotta game the system because HR won't just give you a pay rise based on your manager's good word, they want something as evidence, even if only to insulate themselves against claims of discrimination or nepotism.
And to make it worse, even if you're in the first case of a well funded startup, if it succeeds and grows eventually "professionalism" will creep in sooner or later - either because the company hires enough experienced people (particularly in HR and finance) that bring it with them, because the company gets pressured to do so by investors/boards/unemployment insurance/legal requirements, or because inevitably complaints of discrimination crop up.