http://cloudjobs.net
http://cloudjobs001.wordpress.com
http://cloudjobs.blogspot.com

http://cloudjobs.net
http://cloudjobs001.wordpress.com
http://cloudjobs.blogspot.com

While I don’t think the article is total BS, it does show a level of detachment that is disturbing. As a 1997 CS graduate (with honors) who has never held and has been unable to obtain a total CS job, I find some of the authors coments insulting.

I’m just tired of taking classes to remain current without a reasonable job as reward.

I have given up taking classes, I just can’t afford it any more.

What about all of the 90s graduates who have spent large sums of money educating ourselves only to find out, that we can’t get a job because our skills have fallen behind. I can’t afford to spend the money without some assurance that I will be able to get a job. What about ME.

What I do find frustrating and exasperating is how incredibly out of touch the computer science elite is to the realities of job market _for the average CS graduate_ or even a top CS graduate _from an average school_. The Ed Lazowskas and David Pattersons of the world apparently don’t have a clue about this because what they see, and really what they care most about, is what happens at the very top of the food chain, where already-bloated software companies do battle to devourer the cream of the crop. Of course, the 150 graduates of UW are going to get nice offers. Ditto for those from CMU, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkley and some others. Is there really anything surprising here? But what about the rest of us? What of the remaining 52,405, after the top 5000 have found jobs at Microsoft, Google and Amazon?

What we need is a basic reality check. In this regard the 2004 undergraduate degree production stats are actually very revealing, but not in the way Lazowska thinks they are.

The question I ask is this: do we really need twice as many CS grads as all of math, physical sciences and earth sciences combined? And, do we really need nearly as many CS grads as all other engineering disciplines combined? The answer is: of course we don’t. But don’t just take my word for it. The proof is in the combined intelligence of thousands of individual decisions by people who know that they are making one of the most important decisions of their lives in choosing their college major. These folks are not simpletons being “mislead” by media reports of lack of opportunity in CS. On the contrary, they are being educated by these reports and quite appropriately taking them into consideration.

If I had it all to do over again would I have picked other majors? No, I wouldn’t have. Even if I never get an offer at a software company, I have always loved math and CS (I read Douglas Hofstadter and Marvin Minsky in middle school). But I know I’m in the minority on this one. Most go into CS expecting and indeed needing a job at the other end. For them, this post is a lot of hype and not much help.

Are these jobs also increasing?. The BLS statistics demonstrate a high degree of collectivity in job categorization which doesn’t appear to align with either the diverse range of computer/technology related jobs or with the types of degrees offered. At best I think we see a general increase in the overall IT job market.

The real question wrt enrollments is whether the country is educating enough IT professionals. The numbers we see from BLS seem to indicate a huge educational shortfall, but not all IT jobs require IT degrees, so it is not clear that there is a shortfall. We need to get used to the idea that CS enrollments fluctuate widely. This has been the case for the last 30 years. If we had solid idea what the ideal level of enrollment should be, we’d be able to look at the enrollment situation in a more objective way. Moshe

That is, lots of people get computer science degrees to go to law school, business school, medical school, biotech labs, etc. And even “Information Technology” is much broader than the software industry. 70% of all IT jobs are with “IT ……