>Hi Thomas,
>
>>Specific Domain knowledge probably will never be a skill worth something in another job or company. Staying at my solution from last sentence: be prepared to pay more for that domain knowledge after a certain time.
>
>Payment is not the problem. Getting developers that are able to dive into a problem (analyze and understand) and find the best solution is a whole other challenge.
>
>From the beginning I always had a desire to understand the problem fully. The biggest problem in our field is that when clients ask you to program something, they come with a solution, rather than explaining the problem they are trying to resolve.
>
>Since we own the product, rather than the client, we are not to keen to build solutions specific to clients needs. We need to deduct it into a common denominator with other clients. Domain knowledge is absolutely necessary in those cases to understand what the exact problem is they are trying to solve.

By far the best programmer I ever hired during my management days was a sorter operator (punched cards were still around.)
He seemed like a bright kid so I gave him a 1401 Autocoder manual to look at.
A few days later he told me that he was ready for a project so I gave him a small 1401 tape project.
That was his last day on that sorter.
Fast forward a few years and I was CFO and he was running the IT department and it ran like a Swiss watch.