Most IT Workers Don't Have STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math) Degrees

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Most IT Workers Don't Have STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math) Degrees

Posted by Soulskill on Monday October 21, 2013 @06:00AM from the contrast-this-support-ticket-with-john-donne's-early-elegies dept.

McGruber writes "The Wall Street Journal's Michael Totty shares some stereotype-shattering statistics about IT workers: Most of them don't have college degrees in computer science, technology, engineering or math. About a third come to IT with degrees in business, social sciences or other nontechnical fields, while more than 40% of computer support specialists and a third of computer systems administrators don't have a college degree at all! The analysis is based upon two job categories as defined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics: network and computer systems administrator, and computer support specialist."

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I wonder how many of them by mark_reh · 2013-10-21 06:14 · Score: 4, Funny

know what "IT" stands for?
Re:As someone who runs an IT company by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-21 06:14 · Score: 4, Funny

Oh, you mean you prefer employees able to read your mind over those that ask you to clearly verbalize your expectations?
Spoken like a true college grad. :)
Re:STEM education is great but it's not everything by doggo · 2013-10-21 06:23 · Score: 5, Funny

Well, if there was an "Edit" button we couldn't pick on you for a typo.
Re:As someone who runs an IT company by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-21 06:32 · Score: 4, Funny

Not at all. My expectations are usually along these lines:
"Hey, Person J says her computer keeps locking up. Can you go figure out what's going on?"
Good IT:
"Sure." "Turns out she had installed a toolbar that kept popping up a hidden prompt for her to click on. It's all cleaned up now, and she is good to go."
Bad IT:
"Sure." "The screen seems frozen. What do I do?" "Ok, I hit alt+tab, and there seems to be a prompt. What do I do?" etc.
Real IT Person: "That's against company policy to unfreeze this computer"
Re:Personally by strength_of_10_men · 2013-10-21 06:35 · Score: 5, Funny

It's focus was on technical writing.
You don't say? :)
Re:STEM education is great but it's not everything by nwf · 2013-10-21 06:39 · Score: 5, Funny

Sigh... Tell me again why /. doesn't have an "Edit" button?
Because computers are hard and most developers don't have a degree.

--
I don't know, but it works for me.
Re:As someone who runs an IT company by Dcnjoe60 · 2013-10-21 07:13 · Score: 4, Funny

Not at all. My expectations are usually along these lines:
"Hey, Person J says her computer keeps locking up. Can you go figure out what's going on?"
Good IT:
"Sure." "Turns out she had installed a toolbar that kept popping up a hidden prompt for her to click on. It's all cleaned up now, and she is good to go."
Bad IT:
"Sure." "The screen seems frozen. What do I do?" "Ok, I hit alt+tab, and there seems to be a prompt. What do I do?" etc.
Real IT Person: "That's against company policy to unfreeze this computer"
Real IT Person: "Did you try turning it off and back on again?"
Re:Personally by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-21 07:28 · Score: 5, Funny

Its one of those ridiculous English quirks, that I have to say in my head occasionally to ensure I've got it correct. See Wikipedia.
You should do that more often :)
Re:Personally by jason.sweet · 2013-10-21 07:49 · Score: 4, Funny

I think you meant to write, "It's's possessive."