General discussion
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Topic
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Tech Worker Shortage Versus Sanity – You Decide!
LockedI look all around and see people like Bill Gates talk about not having enough people to fill positions in Information Technology, then I remember the experience working for a contracting company, and then I see in the news that almost no college students are taking Information Technology as a major. I wonder why they are saying such incorrect things when, if they looked around, I am sure they can find the people.
My opinion is that first, companies like Microsoft and Oracle imported people to perform the jobs in the dot com craze stating that there is large need and not enough skills, so the rush of college students was on in order to fill those positions. Then when the bubble burst, IT positions were cut and slashed, and nearly all IT professionals pay was cut in order to keep companies alive. The funny thing is that while the people who made sure that the companies infastructure and employees were able to work, the CEO’s who were coming down with the slashes were getting multi-million dollar raises. So the idea that Technology or Techknowlogy as a romantic and prosperous career went out the window with nearly (as I estimate) 60% of those laid off because of the actions of the company filing bankrupcy in the United States.
And it continues. IT professionals are being outsourced, the rate in which they are getting paid here in the US (not inches but foots) lower toward general laborer wages. At one point in time my son-in-law who is an apartment complex maintenance man, was making more than I was. When wages fall to a point where people can have better careers like that, then why should they even bother with the bureaucracy of working on information systems?
If Gates and other CEO’s want to have more people to hire in their corporate offices, they have to show that they are serious about hiring people in the United States and paying them, rather then saying “We need more from the education arena” then turn around and say “Outsource more.” What signals are companies sending saying one thing and doing another?
Now you have the mass migrations from IT to other careers, and those who set this page are now whining. They claim it is because they can’t find people, and I think it is because they have learned that IT work is backstabbing and learned their tricks and don’t want their intelligence insulted.