Money, Tubs Of Peanut Butter Can't Buy Everyone's LoyaltyMoney, Tubs Of Peanut Butter Can't Buy Everyone's Loyalty

Software development remains a lucrative profession, but these days, coders are less satisfied with their career choice. Among the 500 developers interviewed by Evans Data Corp., the number of programmers who say they would switch careers for more money has gone up 9% since last year's survey. Today, if you offer developers enough cash to change careers, about half of them will take you up on it. "The decrease in dedication may be a reaction to the bursting of the dot-com bubble," explains Janel Garvin, VP of research at Evans.

"Two years ago, millionaires were created overnight by following their technical bliss," Garvin says. But amid so many layoffs, loyalty to the career has been shaken. "Today, more cynicism seems to have settled in," he says. That cynicism is reflected by at least one unemployed developer. "Programming is still fun, but being out of work generally has the effect of producing some erosion in career satisfaction," says Bill Mothershead, who describes himself as "software engineer ... available."

Of course, the career still has die-hard fans. "As a programmer, I have deadlines, I have paperwork, but I control the outcome. So I will take my 24/7 casual dress, my work-from-home days, my solitude, my bucket of peanut butter in my filing cabinet. I'll be a programmer until I retire," says Robert Loy, a former salesman now coding at Pegasus Solutions Inc. in Phoenix.

Could someone convince you to change careers? If not for cash, what would it take? Share your opinion in the career forum: http://www.information.com/forum/career.