Thread: IT as an occupation?

Just thought I'd chime in here ... if he can cope with the maths, and IT is of interest, then by all means go for the electrical engineering or computer engineering... engineers have a different mindset from scientists as such.

There are over 2,000 vacancies for well qualified electrical engineers in this country...from elec eng he can then venture into systems engineering, software engineering, mechatronics... in everything from telecommunications to aerospace, robotics... by the time he graduates there will be even more disruptive technologies requiring his problem solving capabilities.

Despite comments to the contrary about universities, most third and fourth year electrical engineering students (4 yr course) have jobs lined up for after they graduate (it's a bit like football recruiters targeting schoolboy athletes). I know of companies which have paid a good proportion of the accumulated HECS debt as a sign-on bonus in return for a 5 yr contract.

A good 4 yr degree grad in elect eng these days can command starting salaries in the high 70k-85k. Most university engineering departments in Australia have deep links with top firms and they therefore cannot afford to fall behind the "latest"...because their research and development is contingent on them being at the forefront.

I wish him well indeed

EDIT: one more thing: as a rule, university engineering schools are more often than not, full of students who are practical, smart and WANT to be there and do well...they have a passion and it's contagious. QUT and UQ engineering schools are excellent. I have had no experience with Griffith so can't comment.

I don't work in IT but currently have a couple of IT consultants doing a project for us and earning eye watering salaries.

But in the large company I work for there are many more guys doing some mind numbing work. And not getting paid all that much.

I think isuzurover summed it up well with the suggestion to get into the niche areas and then as someone else said be prepared to reinvent.

But the isn't that almost the same for all of us now!

I have been in IT for 13 years. All in health. We now out source the coding. Means I am moving into managing others instead of doing it myself. A lot of coding is done over seas but it can be satisfying to see you work grow over the years.
It's not as easy to get into these days.

I have a good friend now retired who started in computers in 1963 with NCR when mainframes were occupying several floors of a city building. First installing and commissioning, then repairing, then on to programming and eventually systems analysis and design. He reckons the golden era was finished in the mid-80's. Prior to then there was a severe shortage of virtually all skills in the business. If your boss gave you an unkind look or word one could tell the boss to shove his job up his cloaca and get another job that afternoon probably better paid. No degrees in computer sciences existed then. He says guys like him, company trained and learning on the job created the sciences. By the 90's he was having trouble competing against young turks with degrees so he took time off and went to uni full time to get a piece of paper to wave at the HR departments. He initially had problems at uni telling lecturers they were wrong and what they were teaching wouldn't work in practice and why. He bit his tongue and parroted teachings back to the lecturers and achieved his degree.

Originally Posted by RVR110

I've been in IT for a long time. I enjoy the technology and I enjoy the work. I would make the following comments:

• IT job opportunities shift as technology shifts. You need to be willing to "surf" within the IT industry. I have reinvented myself several times to stay relevant and to stay in the better paid jobs. As a school leaver he has about 40 years of work ahead of him. The job he will be doing in 20 years probably doesn't exist today and the job he will be doing when he retires may not exist for 30 years.
  
• IT seems to continually specialise. For example, at one time there were just "IT" project managers. These days it would be unusual to hire an applications project manager for an infrastructure project management role or vice-versa, even though the project management skills used by either are fairly similar.
  
• As the IT industry has matured, the skill sets have become standardised. A degree may not be enough, so it would be worthwhile planning (& budgeting) for some industry qualifications on top of the degree. Something like a MCSA or MCSE if you were going down the Microsoft route, or CCNA if you were going down the Cisco route etc.
  
• If he has the opportunity and the inclination, do a double degree. It can help in several ways... firstly, you bring a broader perspective to your role which makes you more attractive to a prospective employer. Secondly it gives you a greater variety of opportunities as a graduate. Passionate or not, ultimately you have to go where the job opportunities are, so you are better off having two possible fields of employment than one.

Another vote for the above that pretty much captures my career. I started out as a radio mechanic and changed to computing about 15-20 years ago. The surfing comment is particularly apt as I have had two major careers within IT over the last 10 years or so, the first being a storage specialist but moving to virtualisation as storage began to have less opportunities.
My head is still full of obsolete knowledge including how to fix manual typewriters so if you dont like having a new knowledge set every 2 years consider medicine or geology where the subject matter doesnt change as much.
One of the greatest recruitment challenges for federal departments in IT is to find graduates that are Australian citizens and are able to get a clearance. There are always opportunities in this sphere if you can meet these criteria.

Regards,
Tote

anything to do with medicine, money and food technology..

several guys that i helped get started over the years have done very well for themselves.

traveled the world and some now retired before me

you need to be able to specialise in something that they need and that tends to move over time as mentioned above...

Originally Posted by incisor

anything to do with medicine, money and food technology..

several guys that i helped get started over the years have done very well for themselves.

traveled the world and some now retired before me

you need to be able to specialise in something that they need and that tends to move over time as mentioned above...

You need to be careful specalising to much too. I'm a programmer that's worked in healthcare (Pathology systems) for 15years. If your after money ... forget it. Some may get high wages, but I don't see it. Trying to get pay rises out of the larger companies is almost impossible. The see IT as a cost they don't want, even if it's required.

My skill set is also highly specialised, so you can't jump ship after another job easily without having to re-learn a new product from scatch. Currently they have just hired quite a few new staff to re-write a new product. 90% are indian. We are located 500meters away from a univerity that specialises in IT degrees. they have hired NO-ONE from there to my knowledge.

My assumption is indians are happy to have *any* job and will work for minimum wage. Management likes that. The local UNI students/etc will enquire at the job interview about wages and walk out. Big HECs debts, and wage offers likely less than you would get working at your local supermarket.

I wouldn't be suprised if there 457 visa workers. I work near the IBM technology center and caught up with one of the guys I went through UNI with years ago. He was telling me what IBM is doing is bring in it's existing indian workforce on 457 visas to work here. No doubt at minimum wage.

If you want job security and decent wages, forget IT, whilst indians can be imported for little money, you will not have any job security. Certainly wages will fall through the floor with the cheaper labour avaiable.

The way I see it, the only "safe" industry to get into is aged health care. Eg: nursing etc... Something that requires local certification so 457 visa workers can't just be imported to take the jobs. If they could import nurses like there doing doctors ... you'd struggle too find an aussie in hospitals among all the fresh immigrants.

Please note: I have nothing at all against immigrants, there just trying to make a life for themselves like the rest of us. The side effect of this is wages are being dragged down and jobs are very scarce.

seeya,
Shane L.