Yesterday, Boss Ross sent me a stack of presentations from Evans Data
Corporation’s 2005 Developer Relations Conference. Seeing as my job is
developer relations, I feel a little silly for having been unaware of
its existence and have adjusted my radar accordingly.
I went through the presentations — mostly outlines of the developer
relations techniques used by various companies — looking for ideas
that could be incorporated into Tucows’ developer relations strategy.
One slide in
particular caught my attention. Its title was Who is the Developer? and
its bullet points outlined the average developer, based on a study by
the Evans Data’s 2005 study of the developer market:
- Male (over 90% of respondents)
- 40 years old
- Married (nearly two-thirds of respondents)
- 15 years’ experience
- Loves programming and isn’t in it primarily for the money (two-thirds of respondents)
- Enjoys logic and puzzles (57% of respondents)
- Skills picked up mostly on the job or self-taught (75% of respondents)
My own experience is not the norm (in fact, the master of
ceremonies at my friend Rob’s wedding introduced me as “a guy whose
life was engineered to be offbeat”), having spent most of my career at
start-ups and oddball companies. I expected that the average developer
would be thirty and single with closer to five years’ experience.
Upon further reflection, I realized that as of a month ago, I match
those stats. That’s a little frightening. Confronted with
this realization, a lesser man might admit defeat, program an “easy
rock” station into his radio, buy a Ford Taurus and restock the
wardrobe with golf shirts and elastic-waistband slacks.
But me? I’m cool.
