Serious doubts about IT Career.

[takeone]

As always...thank you for taking time to give me advice.

I am asking you for your honest opinion about what I'm
about to ask you.

Lately, I am having a lot of doubts about IT Job
Market and its future. Perhaps this has been going on
for some time.(In the previous quarters, some of my
classmates told me that CIS will not be that useful
and some even say it will become obsolete? although I
don't completely agree to the latter) Perhaps this
simply may have derived from my disappointed feeling
because I did not get that LAN Admin. Internship at my
County.(They say they are putting a hold on all of
their internship opportunities due to space
limitations?) Also, the unpaid internship(what I'm
currently doing) that I got from the County which was
"supposed to be database related" was in fact, "Class
specification & Salary projects intern position" which
had nothing to do with database or IT. As a matter of
fact, the Los Angeles County HR Dept is currently
operating under Hiring and Promotion "Freeze" due to
Budget problem.

I have been and still am concerned about the ever
increasing number of American companies offshoring IT
jobs to other countries such as India.(India, the next
Silicon Valley?) While I am not happy with this since
this is taking away opportunities for American IT Job
Seekers(the field is already too crowded with or
without offshoring), I totally understand why
outsourcing makes perfect sense from companies
standpoint. That is...they are saving millions.

If the CEO's are to blame for outsourcing since they
are not protecting American jobs and because of their
greed, what can I say? What can I do? What I can do is
study hard and get A's, get letters of recommendations
from professors, do the IT internship(if there is one
that is..) and see what happens but the things I'm
hearing are just too discouraging for young students
studying tech like me. Oh and of course I can vote.
But even if Mr. Bush steps out of office, I doubt
things won't change overnight. That's for sure. Please
take a look at these websites:

http://www.washtech.org/wt/forum/read.php?f=19&i=48&t=48

http://www.washtech.org/wt/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=4633

http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/650,000LostITJobs.htm

I am also concerned about the negative medical effects
the long hours of strenuous computer work(configuring
servers, routers, writing codes, etc.) will have on my
health in the long term.

Also, it seems true that the field is getting too
saturated. more supply than demand.(unlike in the 90's
where it was just the opposite.)

I am seriously considering changing my major from
computer info. systems to some other field of
study.

Please let me know. Thank you.

" I get a lot of e-mail from university students and
teachers asking me how they can a get a job when they
graduate. I’m never sure what to tell them. I
certainly don’t want to write back a computer science
professor and tell him or her that his students wasted
4 years and thousands of dollars only to never have a
chance at a computer job because it was outsourced to
India."(I get a nightmare and lose sleep over it when
I think that either I won't be able to find the IT
job, wander around, or make money doing something
totally irrelevant after graduating with 3.5 GPA,
getting letters of recommendation, unpaid internship,
MCSE/CCNA just because the industry/companies don't
need any more and even if they do, they prefer to
outsource. If it would be the case, I'd rather be more
smart about it and make my decision now rather than
later and spend my time/energy/passion into some other
field of study where the companies where I would apply
for at least have concern about protecting American
jobs and not outsource for company benefits/gains.)

From Douglas Chick(statement inside the parenthesis is
"mine")
www.thenetworkadministrator.com

[Greenstead]

Hmm...my thoughts..

First is reality. All private business has to compete and make money, not guarentee jobs for anyone. No amount of wishful thinking or patriotism will change that. Nor should it change. Only competition can make a healthy economy. Greed is an inevitable byproduct, that will never change either. Thats reality. It is not sad, it is the way of the world.

Second is yourself. If you truly want to do what you choose (IT, engineer, nurse, whatever) then you will excel at it and become valuable. Of course you have to find the opportunity to prove it so you may have to travel to the other side of the US, or the world. (Where do you think all the americans came from, not America).

My advice, choose a career that captures your imagination and inspires you, and go do it. To hell with everyone who says it can't be done.

[takeone]

Thank you Greenstead for the reply.

I understand it is totally up to me who has to make this decision since this will be my career and my life.

I have about 15 more courses to graduate and get my bachelor's degree in CIS/IT and my GPA so far is around 3.0. I did some math and it looks like if I can get 15 A's from now on, my GPA will improve to either 3.5 or 3.6. I'm also planning to obtain a part time paid internship related to IT field.(If there is one...that's how bad it is...right now.)

I mean I want to start the new year feeling very fresh and with positive attitude all pumped up but there are just too many bad stories and sad truths about the future of IT Job Market around here that keeps me down. You know what I mean? Although I totally understand that there is no such thing as a guarantee in life, at least I want to have some kind of feeling or assurance that if I do well and work diligently, I will get "somewhere" and become "somebody" but I'm not getting that.

I've been doing a lot of research about IT Job Market and its forecast and most of the findings are not good. There is news that the American Economy is slowly picking up right now and the layoffs of High Tech workers has been cut little bit but they say if the jobs are available for IT workers, they will most likely go to the ones with many years of experience. Techs with 2 years or less experience will have to suffer at least a year. The offshoring outsourcing will never let the "late 1990's" kind of situation happen ever again. I also read that because of increasing number of companies offshoring, they are discouraging American young students "not to study science and tech". How bad can it get?

I don't know how it is there in England but here...I've been told many times that MCSE/CCNA certifications "in addition" to the degree in CS or IS are bare minimum requirements and of course work experience and work experience and work experience.
Getting MCSE and/or CCNA is not piece of cake. It requires investment of much time and money if you decide to go to training center. This time around...I don't know if they are worth it anyways since there are just too many of them.(MCSEs and CCNAs)

You didn't address this issue separately but health concern is serious as well.(It may start to sound like I'm whining now but trust me I'm not.) The unhealthy radiation, rays, electromagnetic waves coming out from the computers and all the electronic devices....I know that IT Professionals are in it because they love working with computers and electronics and they have passion.
But are they really aware of all these unhealthy hazards? Or they don't care?

As I have mentioned in the beginning, I have about 15 more courses to go and if I change my major it will still be 15. The time is now for me to make a decision. Some told me that a degree is just a degree so it wouldn't really matter whether I get out of college with a degree in computers or something else(as long as it's not Physical Education or something...) as far as employment is concerned. Well...that kind of made sense to me and made me just want to stick with CIS major but I disagree now because the core major courses...I want to learn really well and degree is just not a degree to me. If my major is Accounting or Finance, I want to master the core fundamentals of investing, stocks, etc etc. and actively look for employment related to Accounting/Finance. If I will stick with my current major, I want to master the database analysis and design, applications development, systems analysis, java programming, web, etc etc and actively look for employment related to IT. You know what I mean? So degree is just not a degree for me.

I will not mention name but some told me to just relax and that nobody will want to work with such a serious person like me. He even makes fun of Accountants.(when I didn't even mention that I will change my major to Accounting; maybe he didn't appreciate the fact that people are moving to different field.) lol He can relax because he has already established himself in the IT field and has big house, nice car, etc. For people like me and millions of other IT beginners/students, the story is quite different. And believe me...I know what it means to be uptight and give discomfort to other people around me. I know that being uptight and so serious do not really help me get any job either. But these kind of things are irrelevant as to what I'm saying.

Of course I have already set up an appt. with my career counselor next Monday. She already sent me an e-mail saying that she understands my concerns while she does not believe that there will not be IT jobs in the future. Well...I agree. If there are, they would go to the ones with many yrs of experience and not us.


"It's not how hard you push along the way. It's having something in you in finish"

Michael Jordan