We wrote a story earlier this week about
IT being a boring career and a real turn off for graduates. It has been picked up on "news for nerds"
site Slashdot and has got over 680 comments, with the thread asking the question?
"Despite good job prospects, graduates think that a
job in IT would be boring. Is this because of the fact that Bill
Gates has made the whole industry look nerdy?
There's been quite a long running theory that IT has an image problem and hence its problem recruiting the right calibre of graduates into the industry.
I met up with the BCS earlier this week and this issue was a big concern for them. They made the point that children need to be excited about a career in IT before they reach secondary school and the fact that many primary schools didn't have qualified maths teachers wasn't helping attract pupils into the sciences. So perhaps its not solely an image problem and surely as more kids grow up with computers a career in IT will seem more within their reach.
A few mischevious comments on Slashdot have agreed that the unattractiveness of IT as a career is all to do with poor old Bill Gates, who retires next week and has been single-handedly blamed for giving the industry a geeky, nerdy image. A touch harsh and affair, I think. My position is backed up by this comment, which makes a lot of the point that being successful is an attractive quality that people generally try to emulate.
Are you really trying to blame this on Bill Gates?
"I mean really? The man is the poster child for why
you SHOULD get into IT... I don't think anyone looks at Bill Gates, with his
billions of dollars, happy family, and from an outsider's point of view "good
life," and says "Nope... don't want to be a nerd like that!"
People
think it's boring because, generally speaking, it can get VERY monotonous. If
you don't like programming (regardless of how you define the word), you won't
like IT. If you don't like long hours trying to figure out why something isn't
working on 1 out of 1000 machines, you probably won't like IT either. I'm not
going to get into a "You might be a redneck if..." stream here, but I think you
get my point.
If the corporate world is honestly having problems finding
IT people, they should either (A) Outsource to a reliable partner, or (B) offer
more money. Long story short, IT is like any other job on the planet, if you
offer people enough money, they'll gladly do it.
Continue reading "IT is boring - so say graduates " »
Recent Comments
James Garner on IT is boring - so say gra... : Yours is an excellent point. I believe that the in...
Neil McBride on IT is boring - so say gra... : A major problem with IT being seen as boring is an...
Rebecca Frol on Friday feeling: iPhone 3G... : Just come across a post with a useful scoring spre...
Adam on Friday feeling: iPhone 3G... : I've only had my original iPhone for about 7 month...
Peter Dunkle on Friday feeling: iPhone 3G... : I've just registered my interest with O2 - I reall...
Rebecca Frol on Friday video fun: Interne... : Mea culpa. And I should know better, given I lived...
Nicholas on Friday video fun: Interne... : "But Weezer weren't the first US nerd rock band to...
Ian White on Well done Ian for putting... : I like the 'stars in', that might be a bit over-pl...
Valérie on Caption competition and I... : 1 : After eating all that gingerbread, Hansel and ...