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Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

It kind of bothers me that there's always an assumption on HN that we need to retrain people into coders instead of any one of the hundreds of other jobs in high demand. You'd probably have a lot better results retraining warehouse workers into plumbers, electricians, and HVAC installers, for example. Or on the corporate side, QA testers, entry level IT support, etc.

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It is not just coding. This WSJ article has some more detail:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-retrain-a-third-of-it...

The training programs could help Amazon workers find jobs in different industries, the company said. It is expanding a program for fulfillment-center employees called Amazon Career Choice that pays 95% of tuition and fees for certificates and degrees in high-demand fields such as nursing and aircraft mechanics

Thanks. I missed that part in the article.

> QA testers

I am one of these folks. Sometimes I have received stigma about being so. "Oh, get out of that" is one direct quote, and through an expression of disgust.

I still don't know why. You want your widget to explode? Just not turn on? Fail after three days? Shall I tell you just how many dud brand-new flash drives I've tossed over the past 6 days alone for -- I guess -- giggles and jollies and I should just smile and like it? That's what I'd like to "get out of".

We do exploratory tests these days - since value of individual users is just slightly above 0, quality is not exactly high on the radar, in most consumer oriented companies anyway...

The article only mentions software engineering courses, so I’m not sure it’s a result of this being hacker news as much as what the article states.

Imagine if everyone learned to code... the coal miners, the fireman and the classy janitor, the cashiers with dignity, the migraine workers... then no one would get paid the big bucks for coding.

Sounds like a good outcome to me. Cheaper software is a good thing.

I have colleagues who copy paste security restrictions to all controllers, disable XSS protections when an ampersand doesn't show, proliferate a tree of possibilities they can't fully account for. We will need a brand new generation of tools to reduce consequences of bad code.

I agree, but also keep in mind that bad code is often still better than no code. There are still many many low hanging fruits for automation left that are not worthwhile to tackle while programmers cost $100+ per hour and the humans that currently run those tasks make mistakes too.

We would have better success of giving them a choice instead of picking just one.

People work better when they're passionate about what they're working on.

The best way to control your flock is to let them roam free.

True, while I think that's what Amazon should do, I can understand why HN like to talk about turning everyone into a dev.

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