On TV.com: TRUE BLOOD Meets a Werewolf Biker Gang
BNET Business Network:
BNET
TechRepublic
ZDNet
TalkBack 9 of 30:
Next »
« Previous
Media vs. Reality
The media is giving a terribly distorted picture of the state of technology jobs in America. It's not the late nineties anymore, but entry-level engineering jobs are still the highest paid entry level jobs out there.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/15/pf/college/starting_salaries/index.htm

I think a big part of the media distortion is that many, many people working in IT do NOT have CS/CE/EE or even IS type degrees. I don't know the statistics, but based on where I work, I bet the majority of IT jobs (not just software development) are staffed by people with CS/CE/EE degrees.

So when some guy who went to night school to get an MCSE loses his job to a Computer Scientist in India, our media sends the message that we should stop producing Computer Scientists because all those jobs are going to India. Truth is, we should produce more (and better, no softening the programs!) Computer Scientists because there are a lot of jobs out there that really should be done by someone with that level of education that are being done by under-skilled individuals.

As it ever occured so anyone that IT offshoring is the result of a failure of Americans to meet the demand of American businesses for highly-skilled IT professionals? When a business has a problem with suppliers - they don't deliver on time, they don't deliver as promised, they keep increasing costs - the business looks for new suppliers. Wages in the nineties shot up while IT projects continuously exceeded budgets, ran over schedules, failed to meet requirements, failed to deliver promised business benefits, and all the while kept on demanding higher wages.

The US needs to fix this problem by graduating more highly skilled CS/CE/EEs. Not by creating more liberal arts majors or creating a flood of business majors. We need more scientists and engineers.
Posted by: Erik1234   Posted on: 07/17/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
Reply to Story Reply to Message

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

And substantial amount of higher-level work is moved offshore  ChinesePhDinCA | 07/15/05
So what should they major in instead?  LateBlt | 07/15/05
forget business skills, I would learn IT  wildranger | 07/15/05
I hope you're right...  LateBlt | 07/15/05
if you were an employer which person would you pick...  wildranger | 07/16/05
They can still try for it  Mark Miller | 07/16/05
yep I agree...but  wildranger | 07/16/05
get real!  icorson1 | 07/16/05
Media vs. Reality  Erik1234 | 07/17/05
sorry, but not quite accurate....  wildranger | 07/17/05
Paper Qualification vs. Actual Qualifications  Erik1234 | 07/18/05
Ironically these are AMONG the majors that should be EMPHASIZED  michael_t | 07/17/05
we must regain entry-level IT jobs to survive  wildranger | 07/15/05
entry level is very important  zzz1234567890 | 07/15/05
Can you tell me specifics of IT position?  kaizada | 07/16/05
one recommendation  wildranger | 07/16/05
OffShore Is Not A Solution  flipper1975wat@... | 07/16/05
changing american dreams  pesky_z | 07/16/05
If I had a kid...  wildranger | 07/16/05
American Culture  Erik1234 | 07/17/05
American Innovation in Information Technology is the key...  wildranger | 07/17/05
It's more that Innovation  Erik1234 | 07/18/05
You are absolutely right.  michael_t | 07/17/05
Protectionism  Erik1234 | 07/17/05
What is the American dream?  voska | 07/18/05
Another industry lost....  redstone | 07/16/05
more foreign companies buy services from us than us from them  wildranger | 07/16/05
Jobs like what? Disk drive swappers? (nt)  michael_t | 07/17/05
Proposition to consider.  Anton Philidor | 07/18/05
Entry level work. Grunt work. Yeah, that's a living at minimum wage...  HypnoToad | 07/18/05

What do you think?

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

advertisement
advertisement

SmartPlanet

Click Here