I'm amazed how little prestige there is in IT these days as-well.

I got into computers since being fascinated by them when I grew up in the 1980's and couldn't wait to pursue a career doing what I loved.

I had high-hopes at college when I graduated in computing in 1996 -- however, all my jobs since graduation have been little more than being a code monkey -- I've found no real professionalism, prestige, or respect from professions outside IT.

Efforts to advance my career by gaining an MCSD certification were a waste of time and money -- it isn't highly regarded and jobs don't pay any premium for having it. Microsoft released .net and my VB6 mcsd cert then became worth even less within a year -- the turnover of skills in IT makes the whole concept of skills temporary in our industry.

In 10 years I've never had a training budget for when I have to constantly learn new languages -- the typical training material I get is a ?25 "Teach Yourself in 21 days" book. Very few other professions make such demands on their workforce by making languages obselete every 5 years.

The software industry has also been damaged and cheapened by the progress of open-source. Business leaders now expect software to be free, and giving software away damages the cause of traditional software houses that charge $$ for selling their intellectual property. Whoever thought that giving away valuable IP for free would be good for the industry?

My advice to anyone considering IT would be - don't bother. Look at what the jobs market is demanding and learn whatever you need to make yourself valuable. Keeping looking and adapting when things go stale and you'll never have to worry about getting stuck in a rut.

(With a degree in computing and 10 years development experience -- I'm now retraining in england as a plumber)