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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Technology |
I.T. experienced people need your advise.? |
This is serious & I truly need some feedback & forescast on the I.T. market. I will graduate next term with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Information Systems. I have been looking the job openings & they pretty much tell me my Bachelor is worthless & I need to get certifications but I can not get certifications without experience, and I can not get experience without certifications. Would you change careers? I was thinking on either graduate and come back to my school for 1 more year for a bachelor in accounting (cause I have all the business core classes alread- it will take me only 1 more year) or apply for law school. I do like any of the three so I will be ok, the reason is that I don't see a future in the I.T. field, seems flooded to me and companies are OUTSOURCING. Now I have no kids and have the money and time. Should I make the change?? Can I have some feedback from the I.T. people already in the industry?? thank you As a 15+ year IT pro with 3 college degrees, I believe that the Law degree may have the best future promise for you. Reasons? 1.) Masters degrees in IT do not hold promise as more higher end IT jobs are shifted overseas. 2.) White collar jobs in Accounting and other "back room" operations are slated to be outsourced overseas. Many accounting firms IT operations have already shifted overseas. For example, Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting) moved not only its IT programming operations to India, but also its corporate HQ to the Bahamas (for tax reasons). 3.) A position in the legal field as an attorney may offer more stable employment working for yourself instead of large multi-national companies. The hours that lawyers put in are long and could be boring and/or stressful, but attorneys cannot be easily outsourced. Besides, lawyers are often self-employed and have control over their career direction. The bottom line is that no job should be considered "safe" in today's job market and the social contract between employer and employee is broken. The adage that you should "do a good job and you will be hired until your retirement" no longer applies because employees are now treated as interchangeable parts. Standardized training and testing in the IT industry allows IT workers to supposedly move more easily WHEN CERTIFICATONS ARE UP TO DATE, but the advent of the Internet has enabled most IT jobs to be moved overseas. Company staff and employees are now considered "just in time" commodities where IT outsourcing, low wages, and short term projects are considered the norm. This has really hit the IT field where new technology changes occur very quickly and product life cycles last about 6 months. IT staff are often expected to pickup IT training costs on their own, in addition to increasing employeer demands for more productivity at work. IT wages across the board are declining and the use of H1-b and L-1 workers are increasing where most IT employers look for very specific skills because the employer is not willing to train a new employee or pay employees the prevaling market wage. Narrow job requirements and use of IT off-shore outsourcing are used as a subtle forms of discrimination against American workers. Another factor you may not have considered is that there is a huge age discrimination problem in the IT field as you get older. This is why you never see older people in IT. How do I know? I have 15+ years contracting experience and earned the following degrees and certs where I am now considered "over qualified" and IT wages in my industry segment and geographic region are declining: BA Political Science BS Marketing BS Information Systems MCSE NT4 completed - now outdated with a $5000 original cost Novell CNA Of your 3 career paths to pursue, the legal field as an attorney may hold the most promise for career stability, but career burnout is common. I would not advise my kids (one is a Junior in college) to go into IT. For more information about reasons for the demise of IT in America, please visit the yahoogroups TechsUnite and AmericanWorkersCoalition Good luck in your career choice and do not be afraid to change your mind or direction in life. Welcome to the real world. Best I can tell you is to start low and work your way up. Don't just think that because you have a 4 year degree that you should be able to be a DBA or something like that. Think of it as the Sims. With a business track you start off in the mailroom and move up to CEO. Same deal here. Start with your simple helpdesk jobs, get a few A+ or MCSE books and take those tests while you are working and get yoru certs. I've been an IT Professional since 1993. You can't expect to come out of school and get a dream job instantly, no matter when you studied. If you want to seek a career in IT, you will most likely have to start where you don't want to. Yes it's true that most entry level jobs are outsourced but there are plenty of jobs to be had here. I for one do not have a shortage of clients and have plenty of work. I don't think you should change your plans. Just expect to start at the bottom and work your way up. Find an area of IT that you enjoy and are good at. IT Professional Yes, you should consider changing careers. The IT industry is flooded with more people looking for jobs than employers looking for employees! Employers report receiving hundreds of applications for every opening. This has been the case for a few years in most geographical locations in the western world. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ottawahite... IT is a great field if you have good communication skills. You just have to work your way up. Not everyone is outsourcing. Project Managers, business analysts, and data analysts are needed everywhere. Try to get an entry level job and work on a certification. The field is constantly changing, so pursue something trendy. no need to change careers, your degree is general enough that you can so a variety of things if you apply yourself. The reason you are not perfectly suited for IT right now is because you studied Information Sci, as opposed to computer science. So, you probably don't know how to code, which is where many IT professionals start out. But like I said, there are other areas of IT and business that you can pursue, just keep at it. IT is a WONDERFUL, high-paying field. Good luck! |
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