>From the extensive amount of job hunting I did over the last few years, I would say that there's anecdotal support for Joe's numbers. I have a 4 year degree, but IBM was only taking on college graduates as employees, everyone else was brought in as a contractor at roughly 33k. I eventually managed to jump up to 45k at a small company, but they only hire people with a degree. Everything else I found that didn't want a degree hovered around 30k/year. I was never able to intuit any certificates in particular that looked like they would be helpful in securing a job.
To answer the original questions: * If you were starting over what would you do? More internships while I was in college, getting professional experience doing the things I already knew how to do was very helpful on my resume. * What fields do you think will have a future demand? Local hardware support. As long as you have workers who need computers, you have workers who will fuck those computers up. I don't forsee mailing computers out to overseas hardware support being something that happens anytime soon. * What resources do you recommend for accurate information? Man pages, help files, google, web tutorials, experts-exchange.com, #mhvlug, LUG Lunch. That's the exact order I use to get help for any problems I have. * What fields will offer rewards not only monetary, but also enjoyable days at work? That's going to be different for each person I imagine. The jobs I've enjoyed best are the ones I've been able to get involved in all aspects of the business. Namely, working as part of a two-man IT team for a small company where knowing a bit of everything was required, and now managing an IT department where I can involve myself in whatever is appealing (though this is balanced by the whole aspect of being responsibly for what other people do, and having to deal with problems that I used to ignore and let management handle. ;-) -- John D. Mort http://john.mort.net On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 3:39 PM, Sean Dague <[email protected]> wrote: > On 05/03/2010 02:21 PM, Sean Dague wrote: >> On 05/03/2010 01:26 PM, Joseph Apuzzo wrote: >>> Well earning potential in the pure computer field in Dutchess county is >>> around $27-30K at best ( at this time and the foreseeable future ). > > Anytime someone decides to try to bolster their argument with numbers, > I'm pretty much a stickler for them actually basing them in facts, not > just making things up. > > The NY State Comptroller's office has a very different view of dutchess > county: > > http://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/economic/dutchess_08.pdf > > "In 2006, the average salary in Dutchess rose by > 4 percent to $43,090. The average salary in > manufacturing grew by 3.5 percent to $84,980— > the highest among all the major sectors. Within the > manufacturing sector, the average salary for > workers in computer and electronic products was > even higher, at $94,950." > > If someone else has some other more relevant survey, please feel free to > post. > > -Sean > > -- > __________________________________________________________________ > > Sean Dague Mid-Hudson Valley > sean at dague dot net Linux Users Group > http://dague.net http://mhvlug.org > > There is no silver bullet. Plus, werewolves make better neighbors > than zombies, and they tend to keep the vampire population down. > __________________________________________________________________ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > May 5 - Crack and LLVM > Jun 2 - Android > Jul 7 - Patent Absurdity - The Movie > > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium May 5 - Crack and LLVM Jun 2 - Android Jul 7 - Patent Absurdity - The Movie
