I've worked for some of the biggest names in American IT and seen the American IT worker become an endangered species from 1) offshore outsourcing and 2) corporate use of foreign "guest workers" (H-1b & L-1 visa) as replacements and primary labor sources inside the U.S.
One or more of my children might have become a third generation software engineer. NO WAY! I actively discourage that thought! Paying for an expensive engineering program only to face nationality and age based discrimination is a foolish waste of valuable resources: time, brain power and money. Taking a degree in an IT area of study is, in my opinion, an "opportunity cost" that my family can ill afford in an era of stagnant real income and declining middle class employment opportunities for Americans.
If I, myself, had another viable career opportunity which replaced my current income, I'd strongly consider leaving IT altogether -- not because I dislike any aspect of the often interesting technical work but because corporations and politicians seem determined to destroy employment opportunities for American workers. I and many thousands of other American IT workers like me have been put on the road to extinction by the likes of Bill Gates (M$), Mark Hurd (NCR & HP), Carly Fiorina (HP), Sam Palmisano (IBM) and Scott McNealy (SUN).
I don't know who participated in this survey but I speculate that those who have some "time in IT" and been through the wringer on offshore outsourcing or job loss due to use of foreign replacement workers chose not to waste their time on such surveys...
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I've worked for some of the biggest names in American IT and seen the American IT worker become an endangered species from 1) offshore outsourcing and 2) corporate use of foreign "guest workers" (H-1b & L-1 visa) as replacements and primary labor sources inside the U.S. One or more of my children might have become a third generation software engineer. NO WAY! I actively discourage that thought! Paying for an expensive engineering program only to face nationality and age based discrimination is a foolish waste of valuable resources: time, brain power and money. Taking a degree in an IT area of study is, in my opinion, an "opportunity cost" that my family can ill afford in an era of stagnant real income and declining middle class employment opportunities for Americans. If I, myself, had another viable career opportunity which replaced my current income, I'd strongly consider leaving IT altogether -- not because I dislike any aspect of the often interesting technical work but because corporations and politicians seem determined to destroy employment opportunities for American workers. I and many thousands of other American IT workers like me have been put on the road to extinction by the likes of Bill Gates (M$), Mark Hurd (NCR & HP), Carly Fiorina (HP), Sam Palmisano (IBM) and Scott McNealy (SUN). I don't know who participated in this survey but I speculate that those who have some "time in IT" and been through the wringer on offshore outsourcing or job loss due to use of foreign replacement workers chose not to waste their time on such surveys...