Comment Re:Getting a job (Score 1) 578
Its near impossible to find skilled IT labor. The jobs that are being oursourced to other countries are the jobs that Colleges are cranking out gradutes to fill. If we expect to fill our own need in the technology world today there needs to be reform in the K through 12 grades. Students need to be tought the fundamentals of computer logic at an earlier age.
If you want to be a corporate IT drone, you should goto college. Learn what the professors can teach you. In high school I attempted to teach the programming class the basics of Java in 2 weeks, out of the 25 or so students only 1 caught on to the basics. A couple years ago I spent a semester teaching C++ at the local community college, its not the easiest thing to teach studentes that don't understand fundamental computer logic at that age. I'm not saying that I'm a great teacher, I know I'm not. I have absolutely no patience. My point, if you're going to College for IT, you should be working on advanced projects, defintely not fundamentals.
Colleges are starting to catch onto the fact that IT is not something that should be taught to people the age of college students. After the basic classes they are providing students with projects that allow them to hone their skills for the real world. If you're not ready by the time you're done with high school, this is a great opportunity.
Personally I wouldn't be where I am today if I took a job as an IT drone. The job I took when I dropped out of college was for a Project Manager. I'm definitely not condoning that students drop out of college to be a computer technician at Best Buy. If you have an opportunity that has room to grow, and will provide you with experience, I feel you should take it. 75% of the non-college graduates that I have placed in consulting positions have been hired for fulltime positions by the company that they were placed at. Some of the remaining 25% probably weren't cut out for the industry, they might actually benefit from some time in college. After a little more training they could probably fill some of the simple database programming and tech support roles (that my company outsourced to India and the Philippines).
The most important advice I can give to people is, don't underestimate yourselves and don't sell yourselves short. People who make money in this world are the people who own businesses, definitely not the people who take jobs at the bottom of a large coporation. I'm 24, own a profitable company and a not so profitable company, and spend most of my time sitting in a cushy chair in a nice office with Chief Information Officer on my door.
Another bit of advice: If you're in school, and want to be a developer, join the open source community. There are a lot of projects out there that need help and can provide you with valuable knowledge. Novell http://forge.novell.com/ is doing some great things with Mono http://mono-project.com/ and SuSE. Microsoft will enter this space soon, it will be a good place to be. Technology is due for another leap; with emerging technologies like AJAX and XMPP http://www.coversant.net/, renewed competition with Microsoft (Google), we (the IT industry) will need more skilled labor.
If you want to be a corporate IT drone, you should goto college. Learn what the professors can teach you. In high school I attempted to teach the programming class the basics of Java in 2 weeks, out of the 25 or so students only 1 caught on to the basics. A couple years ago I spent a semester teaching C++ at the local community college, its not the easiest thing to teach studentes that don't understand fundamental computer logic at that age. I'm not saying that I'm a great teacher, I know I'm not. I have absolutely no patience. My point, if you're going to College for IT, you should be working on advanced projects, defintely not fundamentals.
Colleges are starting to catch onto the fact that IT is not something that should be taught to people the age of college students. After the basic classes they are providing students with projects that allow them to hone their skills for the real world. If you're not ready by the time you're done with high school, this is a great opportunity.
Personally I wouldn't be where I am today if I took a job as an IT drone. The job I took when I dropped out of college was for a Project Manager. I'm definitely not condoning that students drop out of college to be a computer technician at Best Buy. If you have an opportunity that has room to grow, and will provide you with experience, I feel you should take it. 75% of the non-college graduates that I have placed in consulting positions have been hired for fulltime positions by the company that they were placed at. Some of the remaining 25% probably weren't cut out for the industry, they might actually benefit from some time in college. After a little more training they could probably fill some of the simple database programming and tech support roles (that my company outsourced to India and the Philippines).
The most important advice I can give to people is, don't underestimate yourselves and don't sell yourselves short. People who make money in this world are the people who own businesses, definitely not the people who take jobs at the bottom of a large coporation. I'm 24, own a profitable company and a not so profitable company, and spend most of my time sitting in a cushy chair in a nice office with Chief Information Officer on my door.
Another bit of advice: If you're in school, and want to be a developer, join the open source community. There are a lot of projects out there that need help and can provide you with valuable knowledge. Novell http://forge.novell.com/ is doing some great things with Mono http://mono-project.com/ and SuSE. Microsoft will enter this space soon, it will be a good place to be. Technology is due for another leap; with emerging technologies like AJAX and XMPP http://www.coversant.net/, renewed competition with Microsoft (Google), we (the IT industry) will need more skilled labor.
