Turning our backs on tech

[Deja Q]

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100135598/index.htm

"As a nation we need scientists and engineers if we're going to be successful," says Microsoft research chief Rick Rashid. "All the new businesses are built around that." The trouble is that U.S. companies haven't developed nearly enough qualified chief information officers. And at the talent pipeline's beginning, America's kids have concluded that infotech is a dead-end field for nerd losers, and they're avoiding it like last month's ringtone.

When I was in high school (late 80s), my peers thought it was a dead-end field for "nerd losers". Of course, I was a nerd... loser too. :D

The more worrisome problem is what's happening with the kids. Moving herdlike, as usual, they've decided that IT is excruciatingly uncool. Of course it was the coolest thing on the planet just seven years ago, when interest in computer science as an undergraduate major hit a 20-year high. But then a lot of things happened. The dot-com boom went bust at just the time companies stopped hiring staff to fix Y2K problems. More important, the pop culture image of infotech workers flipped from dot-com billionaires in Gulfstreams to Dilbertesque drones writing code in cubicles and Third World masses working for pennies an hour.

Ditto for offshoring. Money being an influence, an incentive, once offshoring began people started to wonder if spending all that money into a field that may no longer be around is worth it.

But is it really a problem? After all, if Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, and others can do our infotech work for less, why shouldn't they? The answer is "Yes, it's a problem," because most people don't understand the reality of today's infotech work. "A lot of IT jobs in the future will deal with face-to-face interaction," says Stephen Pickett, CIO of Penske Corp. and past president of SIM. "You can't do a process analysis over the phone. You can't understand the inner workings of a corporation over the phone. You have to understand how a user wants to use software. Those are face-to-face jobs, feeling the good times and bad times, knowing enough about the company."

Face-to-face interaction? That isn't exactly technology.

And process analysis for users, many of whom don't know how to log into a computer without help?! Maybe teaching them to understand what a username is and why not hiding their password under the keyboard would be a start...

It isn't coding in cubicles anymore. Those jobs really are going offshore, and they should be. The jobs that remain are more demanding, higher paying, and multiplying fast - if only there were people to fill them.

Why should they all be offshore?

I see, and somewhat agree, to the article, but I remain skeptical America has a place in the future world. So who is turning their backs, I'm not sure.

What say you?

[whistle]

1. So, not only do Americans not want to do the menial jobs like picking lettuce

...and cleaning bathrooms, but Americans are not willing to prepare themselves to be qualified to do the high paying jobs in the technology and engineering fields either. Could it be that young people in America are just too fucking lazy to work at all? These young people just want to be rock stars and TV anchors I suppose. I say bullshit to that!

I really believe the blame goes much deeper and higher up with politicians, civic leaders, corporate CEOs and educational administrators who lack the vision and foresight to properly plan out what our society needs have been and these needs will be for the next several generations. The wrong people have been given the power to determine the destiny of America and god damn it is now time to change this!:kick:

[Deja Q]

2. Those who run are a society usually have a say in what goes on.

:shrug:

I've tried getting "menial" jobs as well.

The response?

"You are overqualified".

Maybe there is no future? :(

[AndyTiedye]

3. Microsoft, hmmmmmm

"As a nation we need scientists and engineers if we're going to be successful," says Microsoft research chief Rick Rashid. "All the new businesses are built around that." The trouble is that U.S. companies haven't developed nearly enough qualified chief information officers.

Chief information officer sounds more like upper management to me. The level of management that signs contracts with Microsoft. No wonder they're concerned.
This has nothing to do with science or engineering though. Microsoft is quite happy to lobby for more H-1 visas for their engineers.

It is also likely that the demographic that reads "Money" magazine is mostly management or marketing.

And at the talent pipeline's beginning, America's kids have concluded that infotech is a dead-end field for nerd losers, and they're avoiding it like last month's ringtone.

What could have possibly led them to that conclusion? Could it be that companies like Microsoft seem only interested in hiring foriegners?

When I was in high school (late 80s), my peers thought it was a dead-end field for "nerd losers". Of course, I was a nerd... loser too.

Me too (but it was the late '60s).

[HughMoran]

4. It's not just IT

Why would anyone want to go into a field (engineering - electrical/mechanical/computer/industrial) that is shrinking at such an alarming rate due to folks who will work for a fraction of the salary in India or China or the Philippines?

[IDemo]

5. High school graduates should listen to the CEO of a major tech firm

Steve Appleton of Micron Technology: "I don't have to hire one more person in the U.S. I don't have to invest one more dollar here - and we'll be just fine," Appleton said. (BusinessWeek magazine)

That was just a couple of months ago. The first 875 layoffs have just happened last week, with a second round expected shortly.

[AndyTiedye]

7. We Don't Have to Buy Your Computers, Either Mr. Appleton

[AndyTiedye]

6. Seems Like the Sort of Things Money Magazine Would Say

But is it really a problem? After all, if Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, and others can do our infotech work for less, why shouldn't they?

Seems like the sort of thing Money magazine would say. Though you think Money magazine would pay more attention to the declining value of our money. At the rate the dollar is dropping and Indian IT salaries are rising, offshoring may not be an economic proposition for very much longer anyway.

The answer is "Yes, it's a problem," because most people don't understand the reality of today's infotech work. "A lot of IT jobs in the future will deal with face-to-face interaction," says Stephen Pickett, CIO of Penske Corp. and past president of SIM. "You can't do a process analysis over the phone. You can't understand the inner workings of a corporation over the phone. You have to understand how a user wants to use software. Those are face-to-face jobs, feeling the good times and bad times, knowing enough about the company."

Face-to-face interaction? That isn't exactly technology.

There will always be consulting jobs for those with good enough BSing skills. (Something most of us nerdy/geeky types aren't very good at).

It isn't coding in cubicles anymore.

I do it at home, mostly.

Those jobs really are going offshore,

Not for very much longer.

and they should be.

The people who gave us sh!t in HS grew up to write articles like this one.
:grr:
Perish the thought that us nerdy/geeky types should have good jobs.

[Skidmore]

8. "It isn't coding in cubicles anymore. Those jobs really are going offshore, and they should be. ...

...The jobs that remain are more demanding, higher paying, and multiplying fast - if only there were people to fill them."

And what might those jobs be? Who will be educated enough to fill them? Where are the retraining programs?

America does not have a place in the future world because it has rendered itself unable to be self-sufficient.