I disagree with the author that the XKCD method isn't a good one. The XKCD comic presented the idea of using 4 completely unrelated words, but the author used a four word example using a sentence. His main issue seems to be that people are too stupid to remember multiple username/password combinations for multiple sites.

It's easy to come in at a much smaller amount when you're not dealing with the rampant corruption in US government contracts. If the Indian government was willing to spend $900 on toilet seats and hammers then the Indian contractors would be screwing their government like our contractors screw us and our tax payers.

This has been going on since the 90's with the huge influx of H1B visas for tech positions when we had enough American tech workers to fill the need. In 1997 I worked for a very large payroll company (although not in their payroll division), and my VP told me he was instructed to fill future computer programmer/analyst positions with Indian workers that needed their green cards sponsored. This allowed them to lock in someone to two years minimum at a low wage. It was bad for the person being hired because they didn't know any better, then they were trapped (unless they wanted to start process all over again at another company willing to sponsor them). It was a way of screwing over citizens and current green card holders, by bringing indentured servants on the promise of a green card two years down the road.

Agreed. I started when I was 25 and this August will be my 20th year in the business. I've been steadily employed in various industries in WV, MD(DC Metro area) and Northern VA (DC Metro area) since 1992. I've never been layed off, although luck plays into that since I was at WorldCom through about 6 or 7 rounds of layoffs.I started out in C/C++ which was mostly us using C++ compilers to compile C code. Eventually I got into Visual Basic, then VB.Net and finally settled into C# about 5 years ago. I know quite a few people my age or older that are still SE's. Contrary to what was written in the article I've seen a lot more people flame out after going into management versus staying a programmer. It's been my experience if you're good at what you do there will be a place for you in your company as an SE but if you go into management you're a lot more likely to get fired as a scapegoat as much as anything else. As to what the writers are smoking, they're writers. A friend of mine that has an MBA in Finance (but works as an SE) pointed out to me years ago that financial columnists for most news organizations are making a lot less than us. They aren't necessarily more in the know just because they're writing an article published by Bloomsberg, CNN, etc. Every time I see a moronic article with glaringly obvious interview tips, etc I think about his comments. Should you really be taking interview advice from a jr. writer? Even if for what ever reason my job goes away or I'm replaced by someone younger, I won't be answering to an English major unless I take a temp job at McDonalds.