Would you encourage / discourage family or friends on a career in IT?

[Sysman]

What I find odd is that I'm writing much the same sort of stuff as 30 years ago, the difference being that the hardware is now one chip instead of some anonymous box of CP/M.

A lot of the performance related stuff is the same too. Disk was always a bottleneck and surprise, surprise it's still a bottleneck. Except now there are added elements of bottleneck in network and security gubbins.

It's still a matter of eliminating unnecessary I/O and software bloat. Not much new in this respect.

Ah.

My mistake you're talking about IT, not software engineering.

[SantaClaus]

Just my tuppence worth...

The IT industry treats us as commodities (they just want bodies to fill seats, whether they come from the UK or India).

Other professions such as doctors, lawyers, accountants get the respect they deserve.

I will do everything I can to stop my children going into IT!

[SussexSeagull]

I think it is the latest in a long line of industries that the powers that be has sold down the river. Give it ten years and there will be government reports on how we are lacking in IT skills but by then it will be too late.

[Sysman]

I think it is the latest in a long line of industries that the powers that be has sold down the river. Give it ten years and there will be government reports on how we are lacking in IT skills but by then it will be too late.

I recently came across a report on job prospects for security folks.

It made grim reading because as soon as they'd pointed out that there's a shortage of well qualified folks in the field and mentioning that good salaries are on offer, they moved onto saying they could drag the salaries back down by educating lots of security folks.

You never hear about this incessant need to reduce costs for doctors or solicitors.

[Unix]

The offshore/bob things is way overplayed, people have been spouting that rubbish for years but there are still lots of contracts out there at good rates.

[vetran]

The offshore/bob things is way overplayed, people have been spouting that rubbish for years but there are still lots of contracts out there at good rates.

about a quarter to a third of the work that used to be done in the UK in my multinational is now done by Bobs or Miguels. No routine manufacturing is done in the UK.

Previous clients its approaching 80%.


you may not of been Bobbed yet, but its likely to happen one day.

[SussexSeagull]

The offshore/bob things is way overplayed, people have been spouting that rubbish for years but there are still lots of contracts out there at good rates.

I agree there is enough to keep experienced contractors (and indeed Permies) interested but I wouldn't want to be starting out.

[Unix]

about a quarter to a third of the work that used to be done in the UK in my multinational is now done by Bobs or Miguels. No routine manufacturing is done in the UK.

Previous clients its approaching 80%.


you may not of been Bobbed yet, but its likely to happen one day.

If you can be replaced by a bob then your skills must be very limited. No bobs where I work which is one of largest companies in the world.

My wife just switched from scientific research to IT via masters and has a job already as a dev with same large company. I would advise talented intelligent people who are willing to work hard to enter IT but not low skilled slow thinkers like yourself.

[minestrone]

If you can be replaced by a bob then your skills must be very limited. No bobs where I work which is one of largest companies in the world.

That just simply is not true, companies regularly replace whole teams, floors, buildings with bobs with not consideration to the value of individuals.

I would think your knowledge of the contract market is very limited.

[Unix]

That just simply is not true, companies regularly replace whole teams, floors, buildings with bobs with not consideration to the value of individuals.

I would think your knowledge of the contract market is very limited.

I have seen that happen actually years ago when outsourcing was the big thing. The project stalled as the bobs were are poor graduates but sold as experts and cost millions and had to be redone with a bunch of contractors (including me ). Didn't realise it still happens but I can guarantee it will fail and they will end up having to hire expensive experts to sort out the mess.