To think that computing/IT is a poor career choice?

[iamarobot]

Hi,

In terms of earning potential and barrier to entry, is IT as a career path really a bad one in 2011? I see the news report that there is a shortage, and then there is a story about Indians being shipped in by foreign companies. It's a shame really, as I quite like computers. Maybe I should take a look at the green energy careers leaflet i have around here somewhere....:s

CaptainNancy "exactly what barriers to entry are there?"

I would say, lack of (the required) skills; lack of experience; lack of ability; lack of mobility.

And age.

It's certainly not our passion, but DH and I have both had reasonably successful careers in IT.

Actually Piglet that's one thing I'd emphasize too - lack of mobility

IT, as in other niche industries, has little pockets. I know that if DH moved to the outer hebrides he wouldn't be able to get the work (and salary) he does, for example!

Also his work involves a lot of travel. If you're the type of person to say "oh no I can't go on that training course / do that skills workship / do that overnight stay at a client office" regularly, you ain't going far.

Luckily my job has always fitting in quite well with this but if I wanted a similar career to DH (not that i have the ability!) I would need my own wife to support me, if you see what I mean!

it's not easy and can be quite stressful. even living in a city in the north of England DH has faced huge pressure to permanently locate to the south of England. we will probably end up doing it in a few years to be honest.

but these "pockets" of industry are nothing special to IT, again, I would stress

My husband works in IT.

I wish he earned loads but he doesn't, he does ok though!

He works in management information systems. I don't actually understand what that means tbh.

He loves his job, he has a degree in Computer science but does not enjoy programming so that limited him somewhat!

I think there is a misconception that IT = rich and also that IT = fixing computers when they crash!

Nocake - the programming is what DH really enjoys. He doesn't want to lose touch with that (and in his late 30s, he is keeping up quite easily). His big skill is in fixing stuff. Something could be 90% working, but thanks to a memory leak or just plain inefficient coding it can't take the volume of data it needs to be capable of. DH has a talent for going in and finding the problem and eliminating it. It makes him tick. I guess that's why he does what he does and you're a business analyst. People have their niches.

Bestiswest - that's the thing, isn't it. DH isn't in the higher tax bracket, but apart from working 8-4, 5 days a week, unless overtime is sanctioned (which is then paid for, rather than just expected for free) which is pretty great in itself when it comes to the kids, our mortgage is tiny. Our council tax and fuel bills combined come to more than our mortgage. If we moved to the Southeast, he might get paid half as much again, but we'd have to pay 3 times as much for the same sized house with half the land.

Cheryl - not London, sorry. Having said that, Cambridgeshire is "silicon fen", so probably one of the more lucrative places to work if you're a computery programmery type. DH could barely move for appropriate job adverts when he graduated (degree in maths, like so many others here - although his job probably involves more maths than the average software engineering job).

I think the OP has probably got the message that IT is a damn good career choice though, eh?!

PigletJohn- age? really? I haven't found that IME, depends on the scarcity of your skill. My brother was doing paid IT work at 15, and my father into his 70s.

lack of skill, ability and experience apply to any career- as the OP is talking about IT as a career choice, I make the assumption that it begins by training/a degree first.

I have to laugh at the suggestion of green energy careers as a money-maker though.

evilgiraffe, I actually don't understand why the OP had a question like this anyway, I'm another one thinking that maybe it's a journo.

I mean, it's such a daft question to ask.

Sorry OP if you're not a journo!

your father might (I am guessing) have had some skills which were scarce because they were old.

For example in the run-up to Y2K, COBOL programmers made a fortune.

Lots of large companies have huge legacy systems that no-one under 40 dares to touch.

Or he might have built up a valuable portfolio of skills and contacts. I saw huge demand for anyone who could spell "Pensions" in 1994, or "Electricity" in 1998, for example.

Disagree with you, nocake. I'm still a developer after 12years, and while I'm the oldest dev in my team (my manager is younger than me!) I can keep up with the youngins ;-)

I have NO desire to be a manager at ALL. I have no people skills, hate meetings, should never be put in front of clients (too blunt and tactless!), have chronic phone fear etc etc. I'm happy to be a developer - will probably be one for my whole career.

I wish I'd paid my mortgage off, like some of you ladies, though - no chance of that for a while

Hahaha @ COBOL! nor any other legacy systems, just simple UNIX.

DH is an IT consultant. He earns well, but has to do a lot of travelling.

A lot of the work he is doing at the moment seems to involve transitioning work to India, so he has a pretty bleak opinion about the future of his career in the UK.

In fact he wrote to his MP to complain about government IT work being outsourced to India as he thought taxpayers money should be creating jobs in this country.

Awful choice. Dreadful. DHs mate earnes 400per hour (yes thats not a typo) as a contract systems manager. He's been on the same contract for 8 years now with a large bank.

Awful, awful career choice. Shame on him!

Nowt wrong with a bit of COBOL, Unix (vi anyone?) or a lovely mainframe. I work with point clicky bollocks these days. It's not the same. Sigh.

I don't like those displays with too many colours on them.

I've always worked in IT. Whilst I don't quite earn £400 an hour, I do alright. Enough to have to be well in the 40% tax band that is.

Years ago i was an IT contractor and was earning about £8k a month for pretty much a 9-5 job. I was about 27 at the time. Alas, those days are long behind me since after two kids & a mortgage I opted for the relative safety of a permanent job.

I get to work from home and have travelled to more countries than I can remember all on expenses. Some companies even flew my OH out for a weekend to join me since it was cheaper to do that than pay for me to come home.

A guy I work with sometimes in another office, whom is relatively junior but is a nice enough lad has just been offered £35k job. It's not even difficult and like I said he's a nice lad but on a geek scale of 1-10, he's probably a 4 if I am generous.

Experienced IT project managers are usually on £40k+ at least. More if you are down south. Programme managers can command six figures. Most probably couldn't turn a computer on, such is their level of knowledge.

As for barriers to entry then it is like most industries, hard to get that first break. Once you do though, really the sky is the limit. What I'd say though is unless you have a passion for all things gadgety, don't be a techie. You will hate it. Go be a project manager, service manager, whatever. You can still earn good money. If you love tinkering with computers, like me who is currently spending his spare time typing on MN whilst setting up a couple of servers just to learn then a technical route is still a good bet.

Just avoid working in a call centre unless you can see a route out.

YABU. Provided you stay up to date with technology and developments and are committed to high standards in your specialism its a great field to work in.

I don't like those displays with too many colours on them

Luxury!

When I started programmers hand punched their own cards, and assembled them into batches which travelled in a box to another site where they were fed into a reader - and a printout returned to you 2 days later.

On screen editors were unknown. Anyone remember T23, R/perfurm/perform/ type instructions? Then they introduced terminals with orange or green blinkiking cursors on dark screens......

But the progarms we wrote are still in use today.

Lots of large companies have huge legacy systems that no-one under 40 dares to touch

So very, very true

DD20 is bright but decided not to go to uni. She didn't know what she wanted to do, but through a Modern Apprenticeship she is now working in IT support, and enjoying the work - it has become a proper job (always was, really) but not very well paid. We are in an area of (even higher) unemployment, and I think she is lucky to be in work. Don't tell her I asked, but I am wondering what you would advise in terms of career development, just for my own benefit really IYSWIM.

head is she motivated enough to do self-directed learning? If so, then she could do some Khan Academy lectures - the Algebra, pre-calculus and computer science ones are probably about the right level.

She should seriously consider putting Linux (Ubuntu or fedora for example) on her computer at home as it comes with a large number of development tools for free and there is a very active user and support community. She can join online communities and local Linux User Groups to meet up like minded people.

Not having a degree is not a barrier to entry - I had a couple of very good consultants who did not do degrees but had excellent skills. One is now a senior architect at an investment bank and earning squillions, the other set up his own business and is doing very well.

Head, it depends on if she wants to stay technical or not.

I agree with Mali that a degree is no barrier to entry and in fact I have to say now practically a waste of money. I'm a passionate believer in education yet if my kids told me they wanted to do IT, I'd recommend they not get a degree. I've interviewed a lot of people and not once have I said "Oh look, a degree...."

If she wants to stay in the IT support field then she's better off getting industry recognised qualifications like Microsoft Certified or if she wants to enter networking a Cisco Certification

Most decent companies will usually pay for the exams although mine has cut right back in recent times. Those qualifications will be much easier to get and worth a damn site more than a degree.

I disagree though that Linux is a good thing to learn. Right now she's just starting out so it's important she gets relevant qualifications. Microsoft is everywhere, Cisco powers the Internet. Having those qualifications under your belt will stand her in good stead in practically every organisation. Linux is just some niche operating system which has been "the next big thing" for over a decade. Some companies use it. Every company uses Microsoft products. Perhaps with more experience it's something worth looking into but I wouldn't rush to it right now.

Hope that helps

My dh is a developer and loves his job, he recently started his own business (well about two years ago now) which was hard at first but has been fantastic.
There is competition from foreign firms (mostly india) BUT most of dhs work is actually people coming to him after these very cheap firms have screwed up - some of the mistakes and failures are awful so he actually gains business and clients through that.

I've worked in IT for the last 12 years, as a consultant, and I make extremely good money. I work from home, on a self employed basis, and have been contracted to a global company for almost all of those 12 years.

It is a very male dominated industry - I head up a very large team, and there are only 2 other women in that team, both of whom are in support functions. It just doesn't seem to attract women.

errr you are very wrong. i earnt just under £200k last year. i have has complete idiots coming for jobs paying £30k-k35.