The Future of IT in America?

tomocoo asks: "As a young person considering various choices for the future career I'd like to pursue, IT and computer science continually reappear near the top of the list of fields I'm interested in. In fact, one of my only hesitations is the suspected ease by which programming and other related tasks can be sent to other countries for pennies on the dollar. How much of a threat do the readers of Slashdot feel outsourcing is to the American programmer? Should I and other young people be pursuing something more specialized or have I simply been watching too much CNN?"

IT.

[Anonymous Coward]

IT: run as far away as fast and as you fucking possibly can.

Re:High real estate + low wages == collapse

[NitsujTPU]

Yeah, but if you're going to buy into that, the safest thing to do is to move out into the mountains, grow your own food, and have a really trusty shotgun. That, or move to Canada.

Re:don't do information systel.ms

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

They are also much hard than IS. I took some IS classes to learn some new things at a local state college. I thought the classes were a joke. The classes were easy.

... I'm guessing English 101 wasn't one of the classes.

You'll need to learn ajax

[tlynch001]

Be sure you learn ajax. And get certified in web 2.0.

Re:Learn a new language?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not going to say a word about irony here. Not a word.

Because I try to be act good behavior on /.

Re:Career choices

[eyegone]

I can take my business income and spend it as I see fit without having to "go through the channels" and "get everyone's buy-in".

Until you get married.

Re:Learn what you're good at.

[eddeye]

Whatever it is you REALLY enjoy, there is a way to make money at it, and a way to make yourself valuable in that field.

If that were true, we'd all be pornstars.

Re:Learn a new language?

[Ohreally_factor]

I constantly have to ask them to repeat, speak up, and/or move the mouthpiece closer.

And eventually you have to ask them to pull up to the window.

"I couldn't tell if you were asking for the apple pies, or the extra large fries."

Re:Students, please note the above response

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Its 25 years later and I'm in charge of the technology for a fortune 1000 sized firm, I make $150K and I work 45 hour weeks.

And post anonymously on Slashdot. How exactly is this a success story?

Re:Learn a new language?

[bwanagary]

*KNOW* what you want! Understand what business you're in.
If you want to be in the business of making money, go into sales.
If you want to be in the business of making technology to make other people rich and be allowed to work hard until you burn out, be a techy.
If you want to not work too hard, not burn yourself out, and basically have little accountability, go into management.