So one day I'm minding my own business working at my job (United Stairs Corp. Hwy. 35 Keyport, New Jersey) and Bill and George come up to me and say "What are you going to do?" I said "I'm doing this".
"Computers are going to be big"
That's what the forman Bill B. at United Stairs Corp. in Keyport New Jersey told me in 1985.
Bill had a future nephew named Bill that was signed up to go to DeVry and would also be starting work at United Stairs while attending DeVry.
So Bill told me "You have to go to Devry".
I had been working at United Stairs since the day I turned 18 in 1983. I was 17 and looking for work and my friend Robert put in the good word for me so I went there to apply and they told me to come back when I was 18. So the morning of my 18th birthday the day I was there at 7AM ready to start work.
Bill was right.
In 1980 there were about 15,000 software developers in the US.
Though I had been exposed to computer programming in the 1970s at AirCo Chemicals and Plastics / Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. In the late 1980s is when I became interested in the field and began learning, shell, Pascal, C, and others.
I was working at Electronic Associates Incorporated - West Long Branch, New Jersey 03/1987 — 06/1990 Where I was a testing and debugging technician on a wide array of products which EAI contract manufactured for companies including IBM, Instrument Labs, AT&T, Pyrotronics, & Channel Net.
Electronic Associates Inc. (EAI) was the largest analog computer company during the mid-20th century, particularly the 1950s and 1960s, known for its general-purpose analog computers like the popular PACE series, which were crucial for NASA and aerospace projects. Large, room-sized machines solving specific physical problems (e.g., flight simulation, satellite trajectories). The dominant force in analog computers during their peak, supplying complex systems for scientific and defense applications, notes www.computerhistory.org/brochures/d-f/electronic-associates-inc-eai/
One of the things EAI contract manufactured was IBM frame 5. I remember model numbers 5690, 3090. These were water cooled giants. We tested these things in a raised floor computer room that had a quite a couple mid-sized IBM computers and a few terminals connected to other computers at IBM up in Poughkeepsie, New York. John Pell from IBM was the manufacturing test software engineer. Working with John introduced me to being a software engineer.
In 1990 there were about 150,000 software developers in the US.
In 2000 there were about 700,000 software developers in the US.
In 2010 there were about 1,000,000 software developers in the US.
In 2020 there were about 2,000,000 software developers in the US.