Read this, and re-read it a couple times a year:
http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/how-the-other...
http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/how-the-other...
Ironically, using a sample size of 2 companies to make sweeping generalizations about "the social status of software engineers" indicates the author is not cut out for data science. Anyone who would rely on anecdotes and tiny sample sizes to draw such strong conclusions should stay away from statistics.