This discussion of the state of the IT industry (via Fark) made me wonder, are things really this dire for IT personnel as far as real world job prospects are concerned?
I thought it was the information age, what’s going on?
I think part of the problem is that a lot of business-type people really think that software–and computers in general too–is magic. It’s pretty much invisible, and a lot of people think that all they have to do is say they want x, y, and z, and it will appear–that anyone ought to be able to write a program that does whatever they want, because it just isn’t that hard, and it ought to appear quickly and cheaply. You just write some code, right?
Lots of owners think that they can get away with hiring people overseas, without giving them any real direction, and still get a good product. This is delusional, and wastes a lot of time and money, and results in products that don’t work properly and have hideous code–but owners don’t necessarily know that, they can’t read code anyway.
(Perhaps you can tell that I’m a little bitter about our family’s current work situation?)
And hardware guys, especially the ones that keep the computers running at any given place, are also underappreciated. People don’t think they’re necessary, especially when they do their job well and everything is working. After all, everything is working great, so who needs 'em?
There was a great article in, I think, Fast Company a few months ago, I’ll try to find it, about the great need for ‘grown-up’ IT. Meanwhile, I have to feed the kids before they eat each other.
There are still many jobs in IT, but things are very different from 1999. I’m a physicist by training, but I’ve found it easier to find IT jobs than physics. Yes, out sourcing is a real issue, but there are other systemic issues to consider, also. For example, many companies require IT workers, but do not really have an IT career path. (If the company has 3 programmers, exactly how do you get promoted?) Even if the company is an IT company and so does have one, like say, IBM, eventually you become a manager and cease to use your technical skills. However, that has always been true of all engineering disciplines. (Back in the late 70’s early 80’s, engineers were told that their school knowledge might last 5 years, 10 years tops.)
In short, the IT field is like many others. You’ve got to keep changing if you want to have a career. I’ve always fed at the federal trough, which minimizes the outsourcing problems. (State and local governments work also.) However, it is better to be a contractor than an actual government employee, because the government pays poorly, and you are stuck working for a large beauracracy. Find a specialty that not just any Rhavid can do. I use my physics background, but there are other choices. Someone is telling all those overseas programmers what to write. I’ve never seen a situation so dire that the guys who really knew their product’s design were in danger.
Keep abreast of whatever specialty you pick, be prepared to change specialities, and you can do ok.
Would you care to tour my husband’s workplace? (He designs radiation therapy software, very heavy on the physics, btw.) You’ll have to come soon, since the owner’s strategy is apparently to kill his own company as slowly and agonizingly as possible, and it can’t go on forever.
In my ten years of work, it’s always been the same story. IT professionals for some reason believe that pure technical skills are the height of professional and intellectual achievement. They are completely dismissive of any other discipline in the business world as if they are somehow above it all. They focus purely of learning C++, VB, Java, .NET whatever and neglect other skills like project management, sales, presentation and other soft skills that they regard as “fluff”.
The result is that your typical IT worker has made themselves into an interchangeable commodity.
Corporate IT may be underappreciated but it’s because they are a cost center much like the accounting or operations group. Companies would rather outsource their IT operations and focus on their primary business.
Except that they seem to be creating software at least as good at a fraction of the price.
I will agree with you that there needs to be a ‘grown-up’ IT. IT has largely been regarded as a career for social misfits, Asians, Indians and quirky young people who don’t quite fit with Corporate America.
These are both symptoms of the larger problem: the number of people with strong (or even moderate) technical and business skills is nowhere near as large as it should be. Expect some growing pains while that gets sorted out.
My recent experiences with job searches in the IT industry in the Twin Cities is that you get the job interview because they think you can do the job. You get the job because they think you can fit into the corporate culture.
So, if you don’t have the skills, you can’t get your foot in the door. If you can’t fit into the culture, no level of technical training will get you the job.
YMMV wildly.
This, I’ve seen. I had a friend say to me once, “You know, I’m one of 100 people left doing a job 1300 were doing a year ago.” Some time later he said, “You know, I’m one of 12 people left doing a job 1300 people were doing.” Then it was one of 12, then one of 7, then one of 6. Then he left of his own volition. Basically, he made sure he was indispensable, so he could leave on his own terms. In his case, that mean being one of two guys who really knew their product’s design.
A real problem develops if being indispensable requires you to learn a very small niche technology. A friend is now commuting to Chicago, from Col. Springs, because there just are no jobs in his specialty. That is hard to break out of, but can be done. I went from physicist to Unix C++ programmer, to manager, to Windows C++ programmer, to manager, and back to physicist/Linux C++ programmer. The only good way to change specialties is to do it on the job, which can be tough. In your husband’s case, he might need to change companies, first.
Actually, every time this subject comes up in the news sources I frequent, the hiring people say they are ready to ramp up IT hires again, but there are no new graduates, since everyone’s been scared to study it for the past 5 years.
The ACM assessed the state of the industry in the Spring of 2003 (right when I got my CS degree), and concluded that a combination of not being too clear on what exactly they averted by Y2K compliance, and losing money in the burst of the internet bubble, made management very reluctant to spend money on IT. This led to a lot fo outsourcing and no equipment upgrades for a few years. Some of the outsourced jobs are starting to come back, though, and hiring is beginning to creep up, as the ACM predicted it would.
Hopefully it’s in full swing again by Spring 2008 when I get my MSE.
I call BS on your first and fourth paragraph. In my 16 years in the IT or technical fields, and toss in 6 more for grad school, I’ve hardly ever seen IT workers who thought of project management, sales, etc. as fluff. Most IT workers disdain sales people, but only because they tend to lie about what the product does, or will do in the near future. Likewise, there is disdain for managers who set a deadline based on when “it needs to be done”, not when it can be done. IT worker bees tend not to be in the other fields, not because they dismiss them as “fluff”, but because either they are not especially good at them, or they do not like them. I’ve been a manager often enough to know I do not like it, and it is not my strength. (This, also, is not peculiar to IT fields. A friend of mine is a manager at a print shop. Shortly, after becoming a manager he remarked, “I hate my job. Everyone is a f–cking whiner.” He’s gotten used to it, but a lot of guys just leave.)
As far as the fourth, I’d like to see the proof. What I read says that it is very difficult to get outsourced software to be just somewhat less useful than home grown code. If nothing else, there can be tremendous difficulties in communicating what the software really needs to do. E.g., Northrop Grumman outsourced its electronic timecard system. (In country outsourcing, but they did not go to their own IT shop, nor any of the various software shops within the company. I worked for one of the latter.) The timecard system was an almost unusable turd. On paper, outsourcing looked cheaper. The reality was different, but that was because the true cost of using the software was distributed throughout the company, whereas the cost of production was in one easily identifiable place. It is my opinion, that any company considering any form of outsourcing, needs to find a way to quantify the cost of an outside source not understanding the culture and use of the system. Then make the decision.
But your other points are well taken. It is incumbent on any IT pro to bring something different to the table than an Indian or a Brazilian programmer. In this sense, management is easier, because no one ever decides to outsource themselves. (Management is rarely a core competency, now is it? Nor is sales.)
Another thing to consider is that salaries in IT start relatively high, but cap out waaaaay below management. (I don’t know why. Who makes the most money on a football team. The coach or the players?)
Well, I really shouldn’t comment more, because of the current situation. Give us a few months (I hope) and I’ll write a novel on how not to produce a good product and make lots of money.
Here’s the Fast Company article I was thinking of. It interested me because while the article’s example of how shuttle software is written is clearly too perfectionist for ordinary use, the basic model would result in huge improvements. Reasonable, clear planning, proper design, good recordkeeping–all completely doable procedures that would result in much better software than the process we mostly have now.
OK, it’s really pretty off-topic, but I thought I’d share.
Just out of curiosity, the in-country outsource did not happen to be based near Boston, did it?
As someone with personal experience with NG’s electronic timecard system, I can vouch for its fecal status. Now that I know it was outsourced, it makes a lot more sense!
Wow… are you me?
I’m an IT/software development guy, but I’ve definitely been moving toward the business side lately. I think most predictions of IT doom are overwrought but it never hurts to be more well-rounded.
That’s like any non-revenue generating corporate position. You will never make big money just be a staff accountant or a marketing analyst. Corporate IT workers are not superstars like an NFL football player. They serve a function that can be performed by any number of individuals with similar knowledge.
Yeah, only middle aged, middle class white guys should be allowed to work in IT!
MSE - Are you in the Fullerton program?
Indeed! The online master’s degree!
I’m currently looking for a development job right now. Because of my resumes on monster.com and dice.com, I get a couple unsolicited emails asking me to call them a week. And usually a phone call as well. And this is for a person that’s just recently graduated and with minimal real-life experience. (Granted, I have a degree from a prestigious university).
As I peruse the job boards, I find a lot of jobs being posted over and over again. I think there are a lot of jobs out there, even though many of them are crap. My feeling is that right now we’re in a mini-boom. And this may be because of the big drop in graduates since the dot-com crash. As far as long-term viability, who the hell knows?