I know a couple of our members have gotten their pink slips, but I'm wondering what everyone else is seeing in terms of slow downs in the development world. How are companies doing with their IT departments? Lots of new projects? Hiring new people? Or are you guys feeling the pressure?


Do you think certain industries are more stable for programmers? (i.e. government, medical, insurance, etc.)

Hmm, I'd say yeah as far as I see yearly salaries dropped a bit, the place where I work for it is minimum of 25 and Hour for anyone beginner no degree yet. However their IT dept is huge few projects are going on, some people who have been working there for about 3-5 years get around 60-75 USD and hour for 8 hour day, I however work remotely on their catalog and come down to the office twice a month, to fill in my hours, I work 6 hours. However I think that 25 would be a good wage for people without degree like me (ex students), Most of the companies I've seen hiring are either huge firms, and anything that is marketing/sales.

Great question! Looking forward to other responses as I'll be out of school in a year or so

I can't speak for other languages, but I see no shortage of Java jobs in my area. If you like contracting, you have 4+ years experience, and you don't suck, you can make boatloads of money right now. You just have to know what you are worth and what you want. There are also plenty of direct-hire jobs that pay very well, too, but they are not quite as plentiful as the contract jobs. However, he direct-hire positions tend to be a bit more stable. It's hard to say if there are any industries that are better. I see jobs popping up in the telecom sector, defense sector, media and entertainment, banking (yes, really), insurance, airlines, etc. I also see increased outsourcing to India, Mexico, and South America. Although many companies are now outsourcing only supplemental development, some of them are actually outsourcing entire teams. It's difficult to tell what types of jobs are easily outsourced, but generally the higher your rank, the more education you have and the more you use that education in your job, the less likely you are to be outsourced. But the are no guarantees.

Interesting. My parents are screaming at me that all computer scientists will be outsourced to India.

But I think it'll probably only be the lame ones.

Besides, I am really looking to do something like network / system administration. Being the go-to guy when something breaks. How's the market for that?

Many jobs with "administration" in the title can often be done remotely. If it can be done remotely, it can be done from India (or South America, etc). The computer scientists are not all going to be outsourced because there will always (well, for a long long time) be a need to people who can solve problems and write efficient algorithms.

Question:
I've been learning Java for over a year.
Does that count to the said "4+ years of experience"?
I don't get how you are *actually* supposed to start earning money with Java besides selling your own product.
I find it likely that nobody wants to hire somebody who has never actually *worked* with Java before.
Being almost 16 and going to College next year where I want to major in Computer Science and minor in Mathematics and Health Care, I want to know that Java *IS* going to get me 30+k a year after 2+ years of college, and how to go about getting a job with Java.

I'm talking about, for one example, what a web hosting company would need. To take it further, let's look at this job

Although I'm not banking my life on a job with DreamHost and this position, that looks like the kind of thing I'd like to do (In fact, they're having some system problems right now).

Is this the kind of thing you were referring to, or something else?

1 != 4 so no that does not count. Generally
when jobs are looking for experience it means
professional experience. Remember though that most companies
are looking for the "Best" candidate, some will settle for
college graduates.

However, 4 years of college in a CS program does not equal
4 years of professional experience. I don't think its a 1-1 correlation

As this relates to the economy, is this just in the US? Or does anybody know if the same is happening in the UK? I'm hoping to become a programmer / software engineer when I graduate university, so this is obviously a major concern for me

Except for the hardware support yeah. It could be that there will be a need for someone to physically be there to change a bad disk or to pull tapes for off-site storage. But much of the monitoring for these types of jobs can be done remotely (Big Brother, etc). I don't see these types of jobs existing too far into the future, but I cold be wrong.


The only experience that companies care about is professional (on the job) experience. Unless, of course, your non-profession experience involves a non-trivial project. Non-trivial means something that is beyond academic quality. If you have none, then I recommend that you look into paid, part time internships. They don't pay well ($12 - $16 per hour in this area), but it will give you the experience you need to grow into a less junior position that will pay more appropriately. Also, if you are aiming for a $30K per year job then I would say "aim higher." A good Java developer with 3+ years of experience in this area can make an $70K - $100K per year salary (or $40-$60 per hour if contract).

Also, Skaoth is right that a degree is not important to all companies, but it can open doors that would otherwise be closed to you.

This post has been edited by Programmist: 12 May, 2008 - 03:37 PM

So, I'm at a point where I have a lot of doors open to me. What would you suggest I look into?