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

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."

Comments

Re:This says more about the categories...

[doggo]

The truth is, most "computer support specialists" & "network administrators", & "system administrators", and I am one, are technicians, not engineers. Even some of the IT guys with "engineer" in their titles are really technicians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technician

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer

And that's okay. Well, except for inflating the importance of the the job by adding "engineer" to the technician's title.

Technicians are important. Technicians keep technology running. Being a technician is a noble pursuit.

Engineers take what the researchers have discovered and create the technology, technicians deploy the technology and maintain it.

Re:I'm a non-degree slacker

[morgan_greywolf]

I've got a degree. It didn't teach me a damned thing about IT, but I've got the degree. The degree helps get your resume through the HR drones, though, but not much else.