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Red Hot: The Computer Science Job Market

5 pointsby ssnabout 14 years ago
"It’s incredible that CSE students still in school can earn summer salaries twice as high as students from other majors can expect to earn after graduation."

1 comment

NY_USA_Hackerabout 14 years ago
Do the jobs pay enough to buy two new cars and a nice house and pay for food, clothing, furnishing and running the house (insurance, utilities, maintenance), running the cars (insurance, maintenance, fuel), medical care, recreation, more insurance against risks, children and their education, and saving for retirement?<p>Typically a career will need to last over 40 years. How long with those jobs last?<p>When such a job ends, then what?<p>What these students will likely find is that the day they buy a house, assuming they can, a guy still in high school, with no college debt, started in plumbing or grass mowing, got his own business, hired a few workers, got customers in the neighborhood of the house, and 10 years later the computer guy got fired and was unemployable and the high school guy was able to buy the house.<p>In the US, being an employee sucks. Even being a computer science employee sucks. Instead, it is necessary to start, own, and run a successful business. The business might be just grass mowing or might be a hot information technology startup that gets a really good 'exit', but, whatever, it is necessary to start, own, and run a successful business.<p>As far as the "hot" job market, that's nonsense: The US is just awash in very well qualified people in software who are absolutely, positively, totally unemployable. The reason: They are over 35 years old.<p>Big secret: US hiring is still back in the days 80 years ago of a Ford factory where the supervisor was to know more and the subordinate was to know much less than the supervisor and there just to add muscle to the work of the supervisor. These college guys are 'desired' not because of what they do know but because of what they do not: The hiring managers assume that the college guys are naive, not very well qualified, not competition within the organization, and easily manipulated.<p>Here is a fundamental reason why: For a 'job', there needs to be someone else who creates it, that is, has the product or service, customers, revenue, building, office, desk and other equipment, other overhead, work to be done, and money to pay. It is rare for such a person to create a job good enough for the employee to have a good career for 40+ years and do well supporting a family and saving for retirement. Instead, the person with the chance of a good job is the one who created the job for the college guy. The guy with the best chance of a 'good job' is the guy who started, owns, and runs that business. For the college guy, that's the job he wants; that's the career direction he needs to keep in mind.<p>The real opportunity remains the one close to reality: Start, own, and run a successful business. For that opportunity, computing can help, but the field is not 'hot'. E.g., can also do well in plumbing, running several pizza shops, etc.