Being in IT for my entire career, parents and young college students frequently ask me whether I think it's worth it for them to pursue a career in IT. The last time someone asked me that, I had to really stop and think about what my answer was. Let's assume that the person is mentally tough enough to be in the field, and knows that there is rarely such a thing as a 40-hour workweek. Instead, let's focus on the issue of whether they will be able to get a job. Although the IT job market has rebounded nicely from the recession, there are still a lot of challenges to breaking in to a career in IT.
One of the challenges, especially for recent college grads, is the decreasing number of entry level IT jobs in major American corporations. Many large US companies have outsourced help desk, application support, and programming jobs. And companies that haven't outsourced these jobs are trying to fill them with fewer and fewer people. In the past, these entry-level jobs were where new IT professionals could break in to the industry with a large company and get that much needed real-world experience. Now that there are less of these jobs, how does a young college graduate break into the field?
While it might not be the ideal job situation, young graduates could try and get a job with an IT vendor or IT services company as a "road warrior". These jobs deal mostly with travelling to remote client sites and providing on-site support, upgrades, and maintenance to their systems. Usually, these jobs consist of network and PC support, but they can also involve application type support. Depending on the type of company you work for, you may also get the type of hands-on experience that may lead to better jobs as a network engineer, security specialist, or application support leader. The pay is not always great, but it does provide exposure to a broad range of IT skills.
A second option is to try to land a programming job at an IT vendor or a company in an industry that works with processing a large amount of data (i.e., publishing, financial services, insurance). These companies may be more likely to hire entry level programmers because they have a lot of custom development needs in areas where the level of complexity may not be as great as other industries. Pay is usually a little better on the programming side of IT, and it opens up a lot more doors than the hardware side.
In my opinion, the safest option is go get a second degree, or at least minor in finance or accounting, in addition to computer science. With all the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance issues around today (and in the foreseeable future), there is no shortage of compliance related IT jobs. Heavily regulated industries will continue to have compliance related needs for decades ahead. While it may be difficult for existing out-of-work IT pros to put food on the table and go back to school for a finance degree, young college students are in the perfect position to add the skill set to their resume in order to better position themselves down the road.
Talkback
Greg I read your article from August 3 about IT careers and I would like to tell you that IT careers are alive and well in the heartland. Four years ago I got the job of training IT students at MIT (Murray In Tishomingo), we have never looked back. Even during the dark times of 2001 we found jobs for our 30 students. The key to finding jobs for these people is 1. Putting together a great training program that actually trains’ people. We spend 48 weeks training people in Microsoft, Cisco, CompTia, Linux and Web design plus during that time we send our students out on internships to various businesses. 2. Developing a good relationship with all the local business, for rural Oklahoma that means anyone within a 100 mile radius, and schools. That’s right schools; people in the IT industry have forgotten that E-Rate dumps $2.5 billion into the schools of the US each year. What that means is that the Education community is awash in technology and for the most part has no one to take care of it. We have been addressing the problem for the last four years with great results. All in all we have found if you produce a good product people will buy it.
Thanks Greg
Murray State College
One Murray Campus
Tishomingo, Ok 73460
580-371-2371 x265
I would have said this
"Unless you are naturally good at IT keep away. We don't need scholars, we don't need book readers. We don't want people in it for the money. These people come in, take good jobs and ruin the chances of others who are genuinely interested in IT. I have seen so many people in IT for the money or because they read a couple of books; it pains me. The don't know a local host from a broadcast address but getting them to explain each of the OSI layer models is easy.
Unless you picked up a computer when you were 10 years old or less, we don't want or need you in IT. Leave IT to those of us who actually want to be in IT. Not because it might land you a well paying cushy job!"
It might be harsh, but we have too many idiots in IT leaving a trail of mess for me to clean up.
If you are after an easy job in IT you have missed the boat by about 4.5 years. back then as long as you had some kind of Cert you could walk into a job without any trouble.
Now everybody wants real world experience, people with good technical skills in multiple areas along with a good understanding of business needs and costs.
Most entry jobs are hard to find now and usually require working on a 24hour shift pattern just to get your foot in the door.
But hay it's not all doom and gloom, there are jobs but you have to be prepared to work your way up and put in 110% to meet the skills needed by the industry. A good place to start looking is the public sector as the government seems to be moving into enabling on-line access to most of its services(pay is not the best but getting better). Next best place is a service provider starting as a field engineer or on a helpdesk and working your way up.
The Industry is currently in limbo so everybody is keeping their heads down and waiting for the dust to settle, while trying to hang onto their jobs the best they can, as we are definitely in an employers market.
If you don't mind long hours, hard work and going a couple years without a pay rise and job security only for a couple of years, then IT might be for you.
If you don't fit into the above then you should be looking elsewhere
When I started in DP (note: not IT), it was really interesting and hands-on. This is back in 1974. Now, although I still enjoy the challange of making the machines do the work the clients want, either in my development role or in support, I wouldn't reccomend it as a career. It's become highly specialised in that nowadays you have to know your specific narrow subject extreemly well, consequently (for me) a lot of the variety and interest is lost. Also, I find ICT staff tend to be undervalued and scapegoated and quite often you are stuck in professional salary scales that take no account of some of the outrageous hours you have to work.
Bravo Greg! At least someone has a sanity check and describes things as they really are. What i would like to see is a judicial investigation or expose into the total lack of due diligence shown by senior management these days in their blind rush to embrace offshoring/outsourcing as the IT cost nirvana. Managing your information systems is NOT simply a line on a quote - sit down and work out the TCO and don't forget to include the business cost impact of communication problems, lack of flexibility, response times, inability to prioritize, faceless responsibility, helpdesk blackholes and user frustration. Oh, and try and find someone in management prepared to admit they accepted these when they signed up...good luck! A full IT career in today's world? Battery hens have more variety.
Greg,
This is a personal question and the answer can only be tailored to the individual. And to provide the answer requires an understanding of what drives the individual. To have asked the question almost begs the response 'probably not'. A good career choice is about doing something you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about anything, a *good* choice isn't really an option. But a mediocre choice is.
What a surprise, another IT educator claiming IT is great for jobs, etc.
The *only* people who say these sorts of things are the educators who NEED to sucker in students to keep their own pay checks coming.
IMHO I don't think people who gain to benefit from increased IT students (ie, IT educators and big companies) should be commenting on whether IT is a good field for getting a job in.
Dankie ngyabonga, I give a High Five to the post above.... We really don't need scholars, book readers as well as chancers. A lot of people think I.T is in the books ... Wake people ...vukani bantu bakithi ,, you must have brains for I.T nad if you didn't start it from a scrap then you haven't started, and if you didn't start it at a younger age it means you still young in the game...
I find this whole notion that you need a degree to work in IT rather negative, and likely to deter a large number of highly talented and capable (but relatively uneducated) youngsters.
I believe a flair for problem solving, analysis & plain old fashion 'building things' is a damn sight more use than a degree (ie. spending several extra years jotting down notes).
Granted the top end of the profession DOES need high intelligence and education, but for run-of-the-mill business IT?, I don't think so.
Personally I just started with a ZX81 & took it from there...
I started in working in IT in 1979, after completing a BSc in computer studies, and when I started it was interesting. There was lots of different manufactures all with their own machines and operating systems. Today, it is very boring, dominated by one operating system (which hasn't changed much since 1990), and manufacturers all making basically the same machines. As a consequence, for the last 20 years, I haven't found it to be an interesting career. I've never found found it to be well paid either.
Why do I stick at it? Laziness! The time that I would have had to spend studying another degree was time that I used pursuing my hobbies. Some might see this as wasted time, but I don't. I've very happy in my life, except for work. Also, while I've been in IT, somebody else can be doing a well paid and interesting job. Given my time again, I'd do something "honest" like bricklaying, plumbing or carpentry.