April 18, 2014 at 9:18 am
andycao (4/18/2014)
I *have* told young kids to stay away from technology jobs in the 21st century, including my 2 recent college graduated children. I tell them to do what you like......
I can't agree with Andy on this one - We let our kids, one boy - one girl, choose what studies they wanted - we even home schooled the two of them from about 3rd grade through high school... Both made poor choices (in my book) for college studies - but they choose what they love to do. As a father, I'm quietly concerned how they are going to make a living (she in theater; he in jazz music) because both require an artistic talent that I don't have and probably will never understand...but THEY do. {I would have loved to have seen them choose career paths that would be better suited to being able to provide for themselves in an "easier" fashion - getting started in either of these fields will be a challenge for them.}
They will make it, I hope. My eldest, the daughter, graduated with honors from Central Washington University two summers ago and, as I predicted, has had a bummer of a time getting her foot in the professional door of the local theater groups in our area. But she took on a part-time job that paid a pittance and TWO theater internships (non-paid) and has slowly been working on what she wants to do. My son will be graduating from college this fall and I wonder what he is going to do to "break into" the local jazz scene. I hope it isn't too rocky of an experience for him.
As for getting up in front of 12 year olds and talking about careers, I agree about networking with your peers, finding something that you love to do, and don't get stuck in a job you don't like. Several other bits in info I would pass along: If you ARE in a job you don't like, find a replacement job before you quit the lousy position. At least a lousy position will allow you to feed yourself! Don't chase the money. Just because you get the idea that some position pays a lot, doesn't mean it is something you will like, or even be able to comprehend. And don't expect to make $100 K as soon as you graduate. May not happen until you have at least three or four years experience in your chosen field. Working your way up is part of the post-schooling learning curve. Oh, and lastly, you will never be done learning at any point in your life. If you stop learning, you can get too complacent, lazy, stuck in ruts, etc. If your life does get boring, learn something else while you are working. Take up a hobby - stay busy with some volunteer work! The idea here is that besides working, there are other things to do that can give your life fufillment while you are "working" your way through life.
April 18, 2014 at 9:22 am
Back in the 90s I used to encourage kids to get into software development, but not anymore, but for a different reason than others listed.
I don't encourage folks to get into software development because IMO 'thanks' to the free software crusaders of the 90s, it is easier to make a living today putting up sheet rock than writing software.
If your ultimate career goal is to write software used internally in a corporation (which is an honorable and sometimes exciting career for many), then go for it, but if you want an opportunity to exercise your creativity by creating software solutions to various problems of our world, and be able to make enough money to be able to devote the best hours of your day to this work, then you might be better off buying lottery tickets, because your odds are probably about the same.
While many folks (especially younger folks who don't know any different) might think that getting software for free is a wonderful thing (which it is if you only view the world from the perspective of a consumer) and are big fans of crowd-everything, the other side of the crowd focus is that the only software that gets built is the software that 'the crowd' happens to fall in love with, and in a world where you are expected to give away software or charge a dollar for it, popularity becomes the prime directive, and so you end up with millions of porn sites and 5 folks who get lucky enough to have written the program that happens to become the 'thing' this year, or get bought by Facebook or Yahoo for a billion dollars, while everyone else ends up coding as a hobby or quitting altogether once they have real bills to pay.
In the 90s, I wrote a few shareware programs that I sold just a couple of thousand of for $20 per registered user, and was able to quit my first tech job form them. IMO if it was commonplace for folks to drop $10 or $20 (i.e. a few visits to Starbucks) on software products they liked, then I think that there would be enough incentive for there to be many independent software developers out there putting out a variety of products that would do things a whole lot more useful than to help you share pictures of your cats more easily.
April 18, 2014 at 9:28 am
When attempting to achieve a goal make decisions based on reasonable risks, expect to make mistakes along the way, make them, in fact make as many mistakes as fast as you can and share the knowledge gained with your associates so they don't have to make the same mistakes. Then, most importantly, never give up until you have succeeded in finding the right solution or proving that there is no solution within the given constraints. And tell that to a 12 year old, in just so many words, you will be surprised at how much they actually understand.
April 18, 2014 at 9:48 am
Today's young generation (not all of them but enough to matter) grow up with a sense of entitlement. Many get this message, perhaps inadvertently, from public schools that you get credit just for showing up. That's a bad message.
As parents, it's up to us to teach kids that the only successful career path, regardless of occupation, is to match our talents and desire with other people's wants and needs. That means occasionally upgrading our skills and reassessing our alignment with the opportunity that's out there.
Losers think the world was made for them and soon discover that the world doesn't give a damn, but winners think they were made for the world and soon disover they have a lot to offer the world and world has a lot to offer back in exchange.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
April 18, 2014 at 10:01 am
I would tell them to be nice to people. Recognize the small and big players you encounter everyday. Being helpful doesn't ever hurt you. Regardless of what you chose to work at, being nice is never a wrong choice.
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Livin' down on the cube farm. Left, left, then a right.
April 18, 2014 at 12:27 pm
I would add that nearly every profession now has a need for people with technical skills. One suggestion would be to pursue whatever interests them most, but also to add some technical skills or classes at the same time. Then they will gain exposure to different technologies and likely find themselves with more transferable skills than many others they graduate with. 🙂
April 19, 2014 at 2:57 am
Software development has become a trade, just like electricians, plumbers, builders, carpenters etc. You do not need to go to university to become a developer. Day release at college once a week in a small software house or IT dept within an larger organisation will get you the experience and qualifications you need to become a professional.
Every company needs IT but not every company needs an IT director. If you are interested in the technology and not the boardroom chair, then keep focused on the changes in technology.
April 19, 2014 at 12:58 pm
WOW, Steve, you know how to pick interesting topics. I didn't see this until today, and man has it got me to thinking. There's two audiences I'd like to address. One is the person whose serious about their future and is contemplating where to go. Like a freshman in college. To such a person I would add that a career in IT/programming requires constant learning. Get used to it. It's like being a doctor, without the state boards licensure; you have to continually learn. If you don't like learning, please consider something else. If you do like learning, then man have you found a great place!!
The second type of person is the ones you mentioned at the beginning, Steve, the 12 year olds your friend was doing a presentation to. WOW, are things different now then when I was 12!!! Here's a little, personal info on me; back then I as 12 I wanted to be an astronaut. I did what I could to get to make that happen. I studied mathematics (that's what I got my Bachelors in), science and technology. Ultimately it was my desire to be an astronaut that drove me into what's called STEM today. But the thing that killed me from reaching that goal was my eyesight. I'm near sighted, and have worn glasses since I was 12 years old. That put the kibosh on my ever becoming an astronaut. But the 12 year old today? WOW, compared to what I grew up with and what the typical 12 year old, at least in the US, is well it's like we're from different planets. Look at what's popular for them today. It's people like Miley Cyrus, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Selena Gomez, Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber. Yeah, some of these have fallen of the wagon, but if history in the last dozen years of so has shown me, people are forgiving of their celebrities. And look at what their lifestyles communicate to the young. Parties! Stay out and up all night long! Underage drinking! Yeah, you might be caught and have to do rehab, but at least what the celebrity press show of it, rehab looks like the vacation all of us deserve. Peace and quiet in a beautiful setting, for a month or more. (Which of us hard working IT and developers couldn't use that?) Also, take a look at these young celebrities; they're good looking. Who doesn't want to be good looking. And let's be honest about ourselves in IT/development; many of us are overweight, some seriously so. In a day and age in which image is everything, if you look at the overweight IT person vs. the hot celebrity debutants, it's no contest. And lastly the money these celebrities make, man is there any other more powerful incentive to the 12 year old today than that? The image conveyed in celebrity news media today is, all you have to do is put up a music video on YouTube, get enough followers, and man, you've got it made. I would say that for today's typical 12 year old, there isn't anything interesting in IT/software development that can compete with the celebrity lifestyle. It's over before the starting gun has gone off.
Rod
April 21, 2014 at 7:56 am
Honest truth, if you want to know 'I wish somebody would have told me', I wish somebody would have told me Statistics would be 'the cool job' of the 2010s. I was actually quite good at Statistics in grad school and loved the assignments, but at the time wanted to go for 'the glory' of pure math. Kids..:)
Maybe the advice of 'be more realistic and find the 'sweet spot' where what you love to do and what there's a demand for overlap on that Venn diagram' is what I would have benefitted from (and, hopefully, kids today would benefit from).
Don't get me wrong, working with SQL Server is awesome especially with some of the 2014 features and Azure coming out. But if there were more data crunching and analyzing and less say Merge Replication in my life, that'd be extra awesome.
So kids: stay in school, drink your milk, and don't do drugs.
April 21, 2014 at 8:31 am
In addition to the general advice "never stop learning", another piece of advice is "never stop browsing the job posting sites". The career advice dispensed by your mom the school teacher and you dad the union mechanic simply doesn't carry over to Information Technology.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
April 21, 2014 at 8:46 am
Doctor Who 2 (4/19/2014)
WOW, Steve, you know how to pick interesting topics.
Thanks.
When I was 12, I still wanted to be in law enforcement of some sort, though I had glasses and realized that would cause an issue for me in some positions.
However I also discovered computers around then, and I think there are some kids that may consider that these days. We use computers so often and there are always those kids that want to bend the computer (or car, or hair, or canvas, or instrument, or whatever) to their will. Those are the kids I'd like to get excited and let them know that IT is still a good field.
April 21, 2014 at 8:52 am
Eric M Russell (4/21/2014)
In addition to the general advice "never stop learning", another piece of advice is "never stop browsing the job posting sites". The career advice dispensed by your mom the school teacher and you dad the union mechanic simply doesn't carry over to Information Technology.
True for IT, and probably becoming more and more true for many other industries as well.
April 21, 2014 at 8:43 pm
Eric M Russell (4/18/2014)
IMHO (4/18/2014)
I agree, but it's the fantasy of becoming the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg that gets kids fired up and fills the ranks of the next generation of IT people. The truth is always the best approach, but it's not lying to accentuate the positive. Of course, dissuading the power seekers from IT might be just what humanity will need in the future.The IT industry needs a handful of people like Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg.
However, regular Joes at the cubicle level seeking power and prestige are less useful... and also kind of annoying.
It's actually kind of sad that we idolize those three. They're like the "Robber baron" bootleggers of the IT era, pulling a lot of under-handed maneuvers to get to the top.There are lots of other ways to leave you mark in IT, without aspiring to be as crooked as those three.
I'd said that the honeymoon is over and that we're in a buckle down and put in the hard work phase, but still when you stack it all up - it is a promising career with lots of opportunities (and more coming). With demand for IT still on the rise and fewer people entering the field, our value to organizations will go up.
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
April 22, 2014 at 4:49 am
I would suggest to them that learning how to teach and help others is invaluable for any career - the act of learning and then presenting the information helps you thoroughly understand an idea, whilst also helping those around you.
I believe that strong analytical skills and clear communication are the fundamental requirements for being good at IT and teaching is a great way* to hone these two skills.
*Trying to pen a brief response in a forum, is also one!
April 22, 2014 at 5:34 am
I agree with the comment on "celebrities" but it isn't confined to 12 year olds - speaking from the UK persepctive it looks like we have embraced a "mayfly" culture - the Mayfly spends its life as an ugly larva that for a few days becomes this pretty flying insect that only exists to reporduce its kind - it doesn't even have a stomach - how much does that sum up the "icons" that are now publicly fawned over for no other reason that they are famous.
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