Parents, don't let your children grow up to be developers....
Tim Bray wonders if he should let his kid go into IT?
It's all supply and demand. Personally, I'm trying to get my son to learn Chinese. Why? Because China is going to be more and more of a world power and very few Americans learn to speak Chinese and those that do will have a great job being middle-men between Chinese and Americans.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]
This is unfortunitly also a issue that I am dealing with. As a matter of background, I am 26 years old, I have a B.S in Computer Science and a B.A in History which I finished last year. Unfortunitly, the company that I have been working for the last seven years is in bankrupcy right now. So this last week I have started doing the whole job search thing again. I have 3 years experience programming in Java and .NET (since the betas) and 8 years experience doing enterprise level Systems and Network administration. I might just have to throw all that away.
Why?
Because the job market still sucks despite the fact that the recession was shallower then anyone thought it would be and despire the fact that the GDP numbers come back stronger then expected everytime. Why? Part of it is pure economics. We are too productive. Productivity is the mortal enemy of headcount. If you are more productive, you need less FTE's to acomplish the same task. Even though the economy will probably grow somewhere in the mid-3% (which is impressive, esp when you note how bad Europe's economy is right now) we need a significantly higher number to ofset the fact that it takes less and less resources to acomplish old tasks.
There is also that last bugaboo which Infoweek screams about every week: Outsourcing. Is outsourcing a concern? Yes, and it will be until the next wave (just like it was a concern when the Japanese companies got involved with mainframes, and just like it was a concern when PC manufacturing went overseas.....) What is that next wave? I am still inclined to think something like PDA or wireless, but I honestly don't know.
Which brings me back to my original point. At this point I am seriously considering going and taking my LSAT's, getting a masters in Law at CU, and practicing IP law (hey, if SCO can get away with their shenanigans, why not me?). Hey, any of you know anyone that needs a good .NET programmer or IT wiz in Colorado or Georgia?