Mr. Gates goes to college

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What comp sci students are interested in: "I know a lot of programmers and not a one of them are "excited" about anything Mr. Gates mentioned. In fact most would go out of their way to avoid these things. That begs the question, has Mr. Gates lost touch with "people" and what they want from their PCs? Is he so enamored with "corporate" customers that he forgets that is only a small part of the market?"

I knew a select few comp sci students who were interested in computer vision, AI, and such while I was in college. Most weren't because they thought these areas were too esoteric. Back 12 years ago, people didn't think that was a good area to get into anyway, because most job opportunities were in creating basic apps. But the "select few" are probably the kind of students he's talking about anyway.

I went to a local Office 2003 launch event last year, where the local Regional Director for MS was talking about the worrying trend of too few students pursuing science/technical degrees. I was glad to hear the concern, actually. Before that I had the sneaking feeling that corporate America was shipping the industry wholesale overseas and couldn't care less about the decline in technological development here. That's the impression I got from reading the trade press anyway. Unfortunately the trade press does what it thinks it has to to attract readers: Put out dire warnings of imminent disaster, even if they have to embellish the problem to make it sound worse than it is.

The NYT put out an article on Gates's visit to these universities. One of the quotes it printed that was not shown in this article was when he was asked by a student about the outsourcing trend, he said, "People are way overreacting to it," and proceeded to try and reassure everyone that in the future there will be plenty of opportunities in this country for those with technical degrees, even with the existence of outsourcing. I agree with that. Outsourcing is making it a bit tougher for the "job engine" to get going here, but as I always remind people, there was IT outsourcing going on in the 90s and we barely noticed it. From what I understand, the trend has grown some since then, but only by a bit. The difference is there just hasn't been sufficient growth in demand to force companies to start hiring again. They've been working people they have harder, and that seems to be getting the job done (hence the reason productivity has outpaced GDP).

Gates also scoffed at the notion that the technology industry has matured and that there are no future prospects for significant growth in the industry.

I don't blame students for being apprehensive about pursuing a technical degree. People have definitely gotten the message now that technology is not a stable career for a lot of people. In fact, any engineering career of any sort is a risky venture. You have to be willing to roll with the ups and downs in your career (and prepare for them financially) that will inevitably come with it. If people can't stomach it, then it would be best for them to pursue something else. A move that's payed off for some is to double-major while in college, comp sci with something else that's not necessarily technical. That way if technology takes a dive they have something else to fall back on. Not a bad idea.

As for your assertion that corporate customers are only a small part of the market, it depends on where you sit. For most programmers, corporate customers ARE the market. That's the reason so many are out of work now.; Posted by: Mark Miller Posted on: 03/01/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use