Skills Needed For a Future In IT

Lucas123 writes "An increase in the pace of change in IT has created new dynamics for jobs involving the Web, mobile computing and virtualization. For those looking to enter the marketplace in years to come, 30-somethings hoping to upgrade their skills, or those who'll be winding their careers down by 2020, skill sets are drastically changing. For example, graphics chips are doubling in capacity every six months. That translates into a thousandfold increase in capacity over a five-year period — the average shelf life of most game platforms. 'We've never seen anything like it in any industry.' Colleges are in continual catch-up mode and have only recently added project management and soft skills training to computer science programs. According to one expert, 'They're about five years behind where they need to be.'"

Re:Mis-use of college, if you ask me

[roman_mir]

Academia vs Business, it's all explained here [xkcd.com].

Re:Mis-use of college, if you ask me

[Midnight's Shadow]

I was once told 'college is a great place to learn as long as you don't let classes get in the way.' It is a shame that they told me that AFTER college...

I LOL'd

[toxonix]

"Keeping up with change can be as simple as experimenting with the latest consumer devices. Druby carries an iPad, and Sims uses three different smartphones and recently ordered an Android-based tablet. Chesnais says that at a recent meeting, half the people in the room had iPads."

Let me summarize. If you want to stay Relevant and Make More Money at work:
- Buy new gadgets and put them through their paces vigorously. Devices without touch screens == irrelevant.
- The cool people at work have iPads and bring them to meetings. Being cool == relevant.
- Technical skills are for kids. You should move into project management or some kind of leadership position now that you're ~30.
- Know how to navigate through the company. Don't do work, Navigate.


The real Take Aways here are:
- you should be thinking "Who do I have to fuck to get a management position around here?"
- iPads, Androids, smart phones are the future and graphics are so goddamn fast!. Programmers aren't.

Re:One essential skill that never changes

[StikyPad]

Sounds like the makings of the best Successories poster ever.

Re:Most companies

[toxonix]

Correct. Headhunters. If you talk to them the don't know what any of those things are. But they can bullshit pretty good and before you know it you're drunk and shanghai'd into a platform X integration death march!!