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Not Your Daddy's IT Force Anymore
Quill345 writes "The days of high-paying technology-based jobs right out of highschool are over. As writers for ACM report, the skill-sets required for jobs have grown over time. Academia has responded to the evolution with novel programs recruiting women and integrating IT into MBA programs. And as technology finds its way into every aspect of business life, the NSF is creating a grant program to fund service science, a blend of IT into other industries. Researchers at City University of NY are working on an NSF-funded project to infuse technology into Liberal Arts courses taken by students who are in primary tech-producer or tech-consumer majors. What are these crucial modern skills? Knowledge of laws like the DMCA? Interpersonal and group work skills? Experience with different technology platforms? The ability to discriminate between useful and useless information sources?"
We've seen that tech is being more and more commoditized. Pretty soon, tech jobs will be no more than plugging in parts. We will become plumbers.
Women are pushed into the workforce instead of being pushed into the kitchen. Instead of breaking the cycle and pushing women to rationally choose what they want, based on comparative advantages and disadvantages, things have just shifted from one sexism to another.
I'd like to call academic feminists "useful idiots" in that respect, but that'd be letting them off the hook as they have often whole-heartedly promoted the idea that women have no legitimate right to choose a traditional housewife role.
We aren't much closer to a culture where women choose the lifestyle that fits them. The pendulum has just swung from one extreme to another.
That depends. At my last job, managers were respected, and any developer over 30 was seen as past his/her prime and was the first to go. Maybe it's different now, but that wasn't too long ago. Development is seen by many as a young-man's sport (sorry ladies, you do good too) but once you're past a certain age, it is expected that you've moved beyond that point and are looking to management.
Well, at least that's how it is here on the east coast in the NY/NJ/PA area. I could see it being a different mentality out west.
Excuse my speling.
Making The Bar Project
I'd say that finding oneself a job where it's even *possible* to do these things is key. For example, I've worked as a computer technician before in jobs where it was taken for granted that I was going to be holed up in the "back room", doing my thing. I enjoyed it, because I was free of much of the "office politics" and could just concentrate on getting the work done. But ultimately, you don't advance that way. You're generally never given an opportunity to lead a group, because nobody in the company views you as suitable for that role. You might get a raise based on your performance, but that's only because they're treating you as a number. "How quickly are we getting broken PCs turned around with this guy working here? Do we have X percentage more capacity to take on additional repairs now?"
Even after you leave that type of work, it's rough finding something with more room for growth. Your resume says nothing about your potential ability to work with groups or lead one. Several buddies of mine tried to "get a foot in the door" of an I.T. career by starting out on a help-desk or as a PC tech. - and except in one case (the guy got a government job as some type of PC support person), I don't think it gave any of them much of an advantage. If they spent the time as a manager of a retail store, I suspect those skills would have worked just as well for them.
That seems to be the first question I am asked in a technical interview. Why would an UNIX admin/manager need to know the 7 layers? 2 or 3 of them, sure but all 7?
/etc/inittab!"
/opt dir.
The truth is, The degree does not mean squat! Heck the experience does not even seem to mean anything. If it did (with my 15 years in the field) I would not be asked to name the 7 layers of the OSI model. The certs do not seem to mean anything. So what is left? HR people just call one of there technical people in and have them quiz the new applicant. The technical person seems to take the stance of "Lets prove I am smarter than the new guy" and add questions like "In Linux what is init level 3?" and does not accept "Anything you set it to when you edit the
More recently I was asked "Where is Apache installed on Solaris 9?" I responded with "The install is a compile time option, so it is where ever you set it to be." I was told I was wrong because the package they get from their packaging department always installs in the
The issue is that HR departments and hireling managers (non-tech) have no way to judge an individuals skills. They have found that the guys with degrees do not always know what to do, Resumes are faked or fudged, and certs can be made with a good laser printer. What is left? They start to look for people that have experience in just the apps and hardware they have then have there existing guys judge there skills. Is there a better way? I really do not know, although I would start by teaching the general IT people how to interview. It mite make it a little easier.