Why Computing ?

[escapeUK]

University degrees where never intended to lead straight to a career unless it was a career in academia.

Yes they were, off the top of my head. Medicine, Law, Engineering, Metallurgy, Architecture and of course Computing.

In theory I would agree that people who were fluent in languages were more employable, however, working with several companies who employ such people. No. Lets not forget there are an awful lot of Asian people who can speak English a lot better than we would ever speak theirs.

I know someone fluent in Japanese, he used to teach there, knows a little about computers, lots about telephony. Recently went bankrupt. He could have followed your tips and worked in a shop in London hahaha

[DimPrawn]

Secondly IT pay for permies is actually quite poor. I keep getting emails for permie roles at the same pay rates as 2000.

True dat. Permie salaries haven't moved in well over a decade. I was on £55K as a permie in the late nineties and if anything the pay has fallen, but the cost of living has doubled easily.

[DimPrawn]

I wonder where electronics is placed.

Lower than whale tulipe I'd have thunk.

I left the electronics industry for the much better paying IT world. Gawd the pay was abysmal, I doubled my wage in one fell stroke.

[MayContainNuts]

Only doubled it?

He had just had a stroke remember!!!!

[SimonMac]

I would say because the market is saturated with IT Graduates, so their worth has plummeted.

I never went to uni, I thought I could do better, or at least the same, by doing low rate desktops support for the years I would have spent at uni.

As for the original question, I choose IT for the chicks!

[tractor]

I left the electronics industry for the much better paying IT world. Gawd the pay was abysmal, I doubled my wage in one fell stroke.

well, maxing your euphemismics! anyway "Fell swoop" or "Single stroke".

[EternalOptimist]

velly good money where I am, Go-senmon wa, jo mata Halo Jones.

[BlasterBates]

I noticed how the Electrical Engineers have disappeared from that list. Electrical Engineering is sadly a "dead" profession. Yeah sure there are Electrical Engineers in dead end jobs pottering over to check the switch gear and transforners once in a blue moon, but from what I see basically it´s now really an extension of IT. Gawd when I was at Uni Mining Engineering was a dead end job, bunch of boozers with a 20 year life expectancy, we used to scoff at them, but look at them now, glittering careers.

[Ignis Fatuus]

...
From what I understand from any employer, a degree shows comepetence in learning, and as most degrees are not vocational, the learning aspect of many degrees is to give you clues as to where the water is, and let you find out how to get a drink, where as vocational qualifications lead you to the water, give you a cup and show you how to drink. It's the ability to work off your own back that I think the employers want from degree students. IMO

+1.

"Learning a computer language does not make you a programmer.
Learning to think does that" -- E. Dijkstra

[SueEllen]

I know someone fluent in Japanese, he used to teach there, knows a little about computers, lots about telephony. Recently went bankrupt. He could have followed your tips and worked in a shop in London hahaha

He should have owned the shop and the online shop that went with it.

There are some particular European designers of items that the the Japanese love and they aren't on the cheaper end of the high street.