I'm kidding, sort of. I haven't seen the inside of a Fortune 500 company in years; I'm in startup-land now. But from what reports I hear, I imagine it's the same. Lots of "commodity" programmers driving the costs up an order of magnitude beyond what more talented programmers consider reasonable for the functionality. Then they pay a few brilliant people, often consultants, to drag them across arbitrarily designated finish line.
Meanwhile, startups, small companies, and the few large companies who take engineering seriously are bidding up the rest of the talented programmers. With cash, with freedom, with the ability to actually make something they aren't depressed by.
I'm kidding, sort of. I haven't seen the inside of a Fortune 500 company in years; I'm in startup-land now. But from what reports I hear, I imagine it's the same. Lots of "commodity" programmers driving the costs up an order of magnitude beyond what more talented programmers consider reasonable for the functionality. Then they pay a few brilliant people, often consultants, to drag them across arbitrarily designated finish line.
Meanwhile, startups, small companies, and the few large companies who take engineering seriously are bidding up the rest of the talented programmers. With cash, with freedom, with the ability to actually make something they aren't depressed by.