""Marc Thach Xuan Ky"" wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... > A few points: > When I was fresh in the IT industry (over 20 years ago) the old-timers > who had been working maybe four years already would tell me that there > was no future in programming, after all they said, who uses a chauffeur > now that cars are so easy to drive? > Cars need very little maintenance now, there are still plenty of > mechanics because there are more cars. > Phone companies still employ a lot of telephone engineers, large > corporates often have on-site telephone staff. There are more phone > companies now. Voice is a commodity. > Here in London during the 80's property boom, electricians and plumbers > on the large contracts were being paid a lot more than any network > engineer I heard of at the time.
I would just add that many times (actually, more often than not, predictions actually turn out to be correct). For example, decades ago, people predicted a decline in the number of jobs in farming. And indeed the number of jobs in farming declined substantially. People also predicted a huge decline in the number of jobs in old-school manufacturing - steel, mining, etc. And indeed that came to pass. And even for those jobs that didn't decline, there was significant change in what they did. Mechanics can't just know how to fix carburetors, now they have to understand fuel-injection. IT has always been an industry of change. What was hot at one point of time may not be hot at another. IBM mainframe skill was in big demand back in the 70's, and it has been on a slow decline ever since. COBOL was also huge back then, and enjoyed a brief resurgence due to y2k, but is now declining. I believe R/S skill will fade into the background because quite simply not as many organizations are building out new networks anymore, nor do they really need to. The networks are built with most likely only incremental buildouts in the near-future, and so now the question is what are you going to do with the network. That is what is going to get you jobs. For those of you who are still waiting for another huge network buildout boom, well, sorry to tell you, but that train has left the station. > rgds > Marc Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=59390&t=59390 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]