<rant>
This is a continuity reboot of the "Webmaster test" thread.
I'm a member of the ACM, although I don't know why. There's a lot of
handwringing in "Communications of the ACM" about the state of the IT job
markets... Is it expanding or contracting? Why aren't more women in IT? It
sounds like "blah blah blah" to me.
You hear a lot of talk about the threat of outsourcing to US IT jobs...
The way I see it, outsourcing doesn't cause unemployment for IT workers but it
does lower our pay and it does lower our social status -- which is the point
people don't talk about.
I see two things that suck about careers in IT: (1) the pay, and (2)
working for people who don't know what they hell they're doing.
I'm not going to complain about my current situation, which is pretty much
what I need at this point in my life, but, like a lot of people in IT, I've
worked at a string of crazy places.
IT jobs pay better than working for Wal*Mart, but my brother-in-law, who
works as a foreman on a construction site, gets paid better than me -- despite
the fact that I've got twice the education and skills that seem to be rare and
in demand... (It's always seemed that way no matter which side of the table
I've sit at in job interviews) Construction workers have a union, but IT
people don't work.
Last summer I was a contractor at a company that had a great culture,
great clients and was working with interesting and fun technology. I got
offered a job that had a big 401K (makes wall street rich) and the potential
for a large bonus, but no health insurance. I mean, I've got a PhD and I
can't even manage a middle class existence?
The work I do takes as much training, skill and independent thought as
being a doctor, a lawyer or accountant -- but I don't get paid accordingly and
I don't get the respect... For a while I worked at a place that hosted a talk
by the author of a book called "Leading Geeks" -- could anybody get away with
writing a book about "Leading Niggers?"
Connected with the low social status of IT, there's the whole problem of
taking orders from people who don't know what's going on... There are
certainly some counterexamples... Certainly some places that know what time it
is, but there's a reason why so many people feel like Dilbert.
</rant>
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