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Mixed Signs On the State of IT Education
snydeq writes "Advice Line's Bob Lewis comments on the mixed state of IT education in the US, which sees some students graduating with computer-related degrees despite never having written a line of code. And while some institutions are emphasizing the value of teamwork in their curricula, an approach that fosters specialization in lieu of uniform standards, others are simply advertising their 'success rates' in graduating students. 'Education is a marketplace, and if you have the money and want to buy, you can find someone willing to sell,' Lewis writes. In other words, 'If you want a degree that indicates you know something about computers without having to actually know very much about computers, you can get one.'"
I think it depends on several factors. 22 year old kids with a bachelors in CS from a state school are usually bright eyed and eager to learn. If they come from "prestigious" tech schools and "settle" on a company that isn't a household name, they are usually aghast that they aren't everyones manager a year into the job as they've over-engineered every piece of software they've been tasked to write and treat even seasoned veterans as if they don't know what they are talking about.
Also be wary of anyone with a Masters in Computer Science getting their first industry job. Be sure to grill them about why they aren't getting their Ph.D. Often it's because they were good enough to get to the Masters level but couldn't get into a Ph.D. program. Those kinds of people often end up being overly expensive dead weight as they try to turn their job into their own personal Ph.D. program.
Seems to me that US employers have shown a strong preference for foreign workers. Less than 25% of people who work at IBM were born in the USA, and Bill Gates testifies before the US congress, all the time, saying the US needs to raise H1B caps.
Yeah, and most of those work in the US. I'm sorry but seeing an engineer from India working in the US is not offshoring. We see a lot of foreign-born engineers working here because there is a demand for them. We do not produce sufficient engineers here, and whether people like it or not, many of those produced here suck. To be fair the same is true with an overwhelming number of engineers in India (as many companies have badly found out when trying to offshore.)
Why bother with any kind of tech degree, when you will just have your job offshored anyway. Either that or you will be training your H1B replacement.
Only inexperienced fools believe that. We offshore call centers, we offshore *some* development and IT support so that we work around the clock. I've worked with plenty of offshore teams (good and bad) and with companies that offshore (good and bad). There is nothing, nothing, but nothing that suggest, even remotely suggest the entire engineering disciplines will be replaced by offshoring.
Seriously, rub a pair of neurons together and tell me, how the hell are hospitals, insurance companies, or the military going to offshore their IT and software development efforts and assets? And what about the small company that has its IT group of say, 10 people. This is the typical small setup which constitutes a big chunk of IT work. Do you think they can offshore? Are you capable of grasping the impossibility of it?
Yeah, there are companies that offshore entire projects unsupervised... and they get bitten in the ass. Common offshoring that works to the benefit of US and foreign companies is when 1) you have qualified team leads offshore guiding efforts locally, or 2) qualified leads that are LOCAL leading the effort offshore, or 3) a combination thereof.
If you are so afraid of offshoring, shit, specialize, get an advanced degree, prove your worth, constantly improve your skills, be versatile and adaptable.
Been hearing this shit about offshore replacing since, what, 95? Didn't happen. It ain't happening. It just doesn't work that way. This reminded me of the clueless morons who used to tell me that studying computer science was a bad idea because computers were going to write their own programs and crap... and that got that info from watching Tron or something.
Let me know if you believe in unicorns too!