IT as a future job

Quiet reflection

I noticed an article, via Slashdot, in ComputerWorld entitled "Why Good Technologists Are Hard to Find" and the "myth" of why IT is a bad choice to make for a prospective student. See the article here. It's an interesting take on an issue I first brought up in 2000, that the way things were going then would lead to issues of employment down the road.

The article takes the line that Industry and the press have somehow conspired to victimize IT and make it out to be a pariah.

I find this argument a little strange as Industry, being the entity that employs us all, can hardly create a myth about us not liking the way they're treating us. All they can do is create fact: they're the ones that are messing with IT being a potential career path.

Having read the article I decided to go back and read the opinions I have written since starting this web site in 1998 (Established in the last Century, Wooow!) Much has happened in the industry in some way's since then, but in others it has been a direct line, straight into the ground, as predictable as watching a clown trip on his oversized shoes and fall to the floor with a resounding Cruumphhhh! The lack of reliable career steps, the lack of benefits (an issue plaguing all aspects of US and European industry, not just IT), the lack of corporate reliability, and the seeming glass ceiling that all technical people face in the corporate world, all lend themselves to reinforce the "myth" that there is no career here. It's not a myth - it's a fact - THER IS NO CAREER IN Information Technology! It's an exit level job, right from day one. If you avoid being down sized, right sized, left sized, out-sourced, re-sourced or given the option of promotion to get you out of that dead end role and into the "real" stuff - getting a sleazy job in marketing or sales (Yuck!), then you are a rare individual.

Survivalists

IT is a young persons industry in a world where young people don't want to do it. The old hacks are getting older and more intransigent, and somehow finding ways to hang in there. I suppose when you have been beaten up enough, more pain from a junior wannabee corporate suit no longer makes an impression, and if there is no career path, then the statement "Just Fire Me!" is an awesomely powerful insult!

Only industry can turn this around. It's been going on for nearly 30 years. It is a ship that won't turn around in a day, but until industry makes an effort to change direction, no matter how small a move, it can't stop the pain to itself or change the myth about IT "careers."