Skills Needed For a Future In IT 258
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:Skills needed in IT? (Score:3, Informative)
Three words: fake virus attack.
Re:Five years behind? (Score:5, Informative)
There is always this interesting push between what I like to term the Computer Science Vs. Software Engineering people, in which the former always wants to play with new interesting toys, write code, and generally act like an impulsive teenager, while the latter wants to be an old man, being safe, writing plans, timetables, and those middle management bits that drive CS people up the wall.
I think when we're young (mentally) we're CS, and as we age we gradually turn into Software Engineers.
Agreed - except for the terminology. The group you call CS are just 'software hackers' (in the good sense of the word).
CS is a completely separate item...its actual computer science (algorithms, complexity theory, logic, network topology, relational calculus, etc...).
Hackers and engineers both benefit from CS... but it really has no bearing on whether you hack a ruby on rails (lanuage selected as place holder for 'trendy new language you also learned while doing the project') project together in an afternoon based on the 'specs in your head' or take a month to architect it in java (language selected as place holder for older language developer has lots of experience with) with defined project milestones, spec's documentation, interface documentation, etc.
CS is orthoganal to project management.
Re:Mis-use of college, if you ask me (Score:3, Informative)
Sometimes someone who has the background to eventually learn how to do a job well is good enough -- but if you're competing with people who are ready to do it on day one because they do have the specific experience, don't be surprised if you don't get the offer.
"specific experience". The primary goal should be to find the field you want to work in (telecom? medical? whats left of industry?) and get a minor in that area. The original poster should have been able to tell the HR guy he is an IT solutions provider with a minor and experience in biomedical electronics or whatever the company did. No one wants a PHP coder as an end result, they want a specific business goal achieved. Show some expertise in the business.
The other thing that kills me about this is new hires must be a perfect match, but anyone here longer than six months has already gone thru three complete reorgs to totally new platforms. So ... the entire current staff has to do OJT but new hires cannot? Anyone who's actually held an IT job longer than six months can back me up on this.
Re:Skill #1 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mis-use of college, if you ask me (Score:5, Informative)
With enough time, it will undoubtedly become a pseudo religion of it's own.... as demonstrated by it's dedicated clerics such as yourself.
The irony is that the back when universities were created (in Western culture at least), the students were actually considered clerics. They were run by monks, and used to train the children of nobility. The church was actually a bit of a vocational education system as well, as almost all the serious "educated" work of the day was actually performed by clergy. The guy figuring out tax rates was probably a bishop, fully employed by the local lord. That is why kings exercised the right to approve the appointment of bishops at the time - the bishops performed many administrative functions. No wonder, since the clergy were about the only ones who could read at the time...
Re:One essential skill that never changes (Score:2, Informative)
Mobile, Virtualiz ...... bullshit bullshit bull . (Score:3, Informative)
what you need for a future in i.t. in 'future', is to know to LEARN. adapt. know to seek and FIND.
learning tools a plenty now. you may not know something, but, if you know how to search and find it, you will see that someone else before you solved the exact problem and posted it on the web. you will be able to implement an elaborate expertise requiring solution even if you are relatively green in that area. because, the recipe is right out there, in the common 'mind' of the society, in internet.
so, the assets for future is knowing how to learn, and knowing how to find.