Negotiating a Software Career: Informality and “The Lads’ in an Irish Software Installation
dc.contributor.author
Tierney, Margaret
dc.date.accessioned
2026-05-05T07:33:43Z
dc.date.issued
1992
dc.description.abstract
Despite the glamorous imagery attached to software work, this paper looks at how software workers are not universally equipped to turn their expertise to best effect in pursuing a career in software. It addresses how and why stratified access to key software jobs is critically shaped, and reproduced, by the local social networks of the office. By analysing a detailed case study of an Irish software installation in terms of its recruitment and promotion practices; its informal work environment; and the structures and devices by which staff become identified as 'good material', the paper explores how 'the lads' in the office are best placed to successfully negotiate a rewarding software career.
dc.identifier.isbn
1-872287-36-0
dc.identifier.uri
https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/44639
dc.identifier.uri
https://doi.org/10.7488/era/7154
dc.language.iso
en
dc.publisher
Research Centre for Social Science / University of Edinburgh
dc.relation.ispartofseries
33
dc.subject
software work
dc.subject
softare workers
dc.subject
expertise
dc.subject
local social networks
dc.subject
office
dc.subject
Ireland
dc.subject
Irish software installation
dc.title
Negotiating a Software Career: Informality and “The Lads’ in an Irish Software Installation
dc.type
Working Paper
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