Thinking of doing an IT diploma/degree? Read this first.
 

Degree in computer science but jobs hard to come by
By Mavis Toh

The Straits Times
January 04, 2009

For the eight years he has been in the workforce, Mr Jacky Leo has held a permanent job only once.

From 2003 to 2004, he was a helpdesk specialist at a telecommunications company. He enjoyed 14 days of annual leave, medical benefits, insurance coverage and a mobile phone subsidy.

'I even had about three months' bonus,' said Mr Leo, 31.

In 2004, he left to pursue a degree in computer science at Deakin University in Melbourne.

For years, before his only permanent job and after his graduation, he could only find contract work.

Each time, he worked as a merchandiser or a systems support engineer for periods of one to two years. He received no bonuses or medical benefits and at times even no contributions to his Central Provident Fund.

'It's unfair when you do the same job as others but get less because you're on contract,' he said. 'But I just couldn't find a permanent job.'

One reason, Mr Leo said, is that most jobs in the IT industry are contract-based.

IT jobs also require various certifications and each course can cost several thousand dollars. In 2007, he considered paying $16,000 for a three-month systems training course conducted by a private training school but backed out at the last minute. 'What if I paid so much and still didn't get the job?'

In March last year, he flew to Australia in the hope of securing a financial system support engineer position. He failed.

Now back in Singapore, he is jobless. He lives with his parents in a Jurong West flat and is getting by on his savings.

He doesn't have much in his CPF account and doesn't even dare think about marriage.

'I'm financially unstable and it'll continue if I keep getting contract jobs.'

He has registered for a taxi training course in February as a backup plan to his job search.

Meanwhile, he trawls the Web daily for job openings and is registered with five recruitment agencies.

'My next job will most probably still be a contract one, but to survive, I have no choice.'

I've been working for a month now in a project under an IT consulting mnc. OT every single day since 1st day. Everyday work from 10am to 12am or later, and it only seem to get worse. It's a vicious cycle and everyday is stay later and slowly come slightly later also. Somemore no OT pay.

Morning come in is do nothing and wait for bug fixes from other teams. Deployment and fixes are always done at 7pm but never 7pm but 1030pm. Usually after evening then got things to do. The working condition is so dam jialat and yet all people there are doing that. Wth man. Seriously wasting our time. Saturday also can get called back to work. Beginning to feel very numb and won't look at time, cos i "dunno" what time is knock off time. Anybody experience anything worse??

My contract only state 8:30 to 5:30pm but virtually i'm working 16 hrs per day or more but in time report must put 8 hrs. Dam cock. I felt i've tasted worst man.

from: Extreme Working Hrs? - Flowerpod Forums - Beauty, Makeup, Skincare, Health, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Love & Relationships

STRAITS TIMES Mar 7 2011: Yes, there are job enclaves

I CONCUR with Ms Laurelle Ho ("Employment enclaves"; last Tuesday) about ethnic enclaves of foreign nationals in multinational companies in Singapore.

About three years ago, my nephew, who had been working in an IT department in Citibank for a number of years, had his service terminated, together with all his Singaporean colleagues, due to restructuring.

But all his Indian national colleagues were retained. Incidentally, the senior officers in the department were Indian nationals.

The Government should consider introducing a quota for foreign nationals in companies based in Singapore.

Rohim Kalil

Read this thread:
Local IT Talents Dying ??? - MyCarForum

Sub-standard FTs in the IT sector are flooding Spore. This is happening in the Technology division of all investment banks - RBS, Barclays, ML, UBS, etc for IT support functions. The FTs are being recruited under the skilled manpower category and come in as EPs..then they convet to PRs. Investments banks, to cut cost, are recruiting vendor companies from India to supply the resources.

from: FTs flooding Singapore - in IT sector - AsiaOne Forum

The eye-opener came when I started my internship. I realized that most IT companies have already outsourced their programming to Tiongs or ABNNs. There are nearly no local programmers in me and my friend's company. That is where I started feeling down, as my GPA has been pulled down by programming subjects that were of 0% career prospect.

It is not that these foreigners are better at programming, in fact their application has more bugs. But because they were willing to accept a much lower pay, hence they were employed. So much for meritocracy. I think our local programmers are much better than them.

from: [WOT ADVICE] Be careful when deciding between JC or Poly - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

The eye-opener came when I started my internship. I realized that most IT companies have already outsourced their programming to Tiongs or ABNNs. There are nearly no local programmers in me and my friend's company. That is where I started feeling down, as my GPA has been pulled down by programming subjects that were of 0% career prospect.

It is not that these foreigners are better at programming, in fact their application has more bugs. But because they were willing to accept a much lower pay, hence they were employed. So much for meritocracy. I think our local programmers are much better than them.

from: [WOT ADVICE] Be careful when deciding between JC or Poly

But that's a 2009 article.?

well, a lot of my friends in computer science nus, comp engin (software) ntu has received job offers in excess of 3k. So perhaps these are more stories that come from only one end of the pond?

Almost all of my friends who graduated are employed and as the percentages from the local uni/polys show, the large majority is employed with decent starting pay not pay along the lines of the foreign workers but 3k+ for uni grads.

Globalisation has reared its ugly head in Singapore for the past few years and many PMETs increasingly find themselves being replaced by cheaper workers from abroad.

I am just an ordinary true blue Singaporean who started work in the private sector in 1998 after having completed my Navy contract of six and a half years.

I wished to share my painful experience of globalization in the financial sector – an industry that I have worked in for the past ten years.

I started as a contract IT engineer working in the local bank for almost 5 years since year 2000. They name this contract job as “Fixed Time Hirer” meaning that the contract would only be renewed yearly based on your service and performance. Talked about a lack of job security here…

I have given my utmost best to the clients I served and also taken a lot of projects from time to time to allow the employers to know that I am a good employee.

During this period, I was hoping to join them as a permanent staff after working with them for so many years but regardless of how much effort I have put into my work, they would not consider me for a permanent role.

After 2 years, another IT company bade for the contract and was successfully awarded the IT servicing agreement. We have to transit to this new company after negotiating the hiring agreement.

It has been a rough transition as there were many parties involved in amending the changes and processes eg IT policies , risks, services and charges.

After a while, I resigned from the company as I knew that the vicious cycle of politicking will never end even though I love the job scope over there.

Fortunately, I have already found an permanent IT job in one of the Swiss Investment Bank. It was fine during the first and second year and due to the career “mobility program” that the company has implemented across all departments and also based on my good performance – eventually I moved over to a permanent role called London Trade Support which required night shift duties.

Everything went smooth sailing until the year 2009 when Lehman went down which led to Asian financial crisis but there is minimal impact on my firm as they do not need any bailout from the government.

Surprisingly, they made an announcement in May 2009 that the whole operation department - which consisted of 200 plus mostly-local headcount – will be deployed by departmental level to India,

By Oct 2009, many cheaper faster Indian foreigners were sitting side by side with us for hands-on training conducted by soon-to-be-jobless local Singaporeans. The feeling is sickening to say the least.

Next, the management informed us to do a mobility interview so that we could be re deployed to India.

Many of us were also unsure how the mobility interview will turn out as it is perceived as a political game played to smoothen the attrition process. Ultimately, I believe, that most of us will be retrenched in due time.

There is another minority group of people who really struggled to stay afloat by going through the rounds of mobility interviews due to family commitments as they did not want to be jobless during this tough economic period.

Eventually, they also got depressed during this period as they faced competition from fellow colleagues fighting for the few roles which might eventually be also deployed to India. Friends sadly became enemies and I saw the ugly side of humanity here.

As for me, after going through 12 rounds of interviews for 6 different roles and was not eventually selected for even one though I have been working with the firm for 5 years – I felt totally lost and disappointed.

In fact, I am really ashamed of myself for not being able to hold on to a job all this while or tell anyone about my plight – I have totally lost confidence in whatever I do now.

I have been trying to understand the problem in a fair, rational and objective way but nothing could make me feel that anyone here in Singapore has benefited from such an open-door globalization system.

I agreed that we should not be closed up and that globalization is the necessary by product to an increased GDP but our government should not over look the basic needs of local Singaporeans from gaining access to equal employment rights.

I have tactfully raised the issue on the hiring of the Indian foreigners during the deployment exercise and asked the management whether are they really cheaper, faster and better?

Do they work more productively in the workplace or are they simply just cheaper?

Do they really possessed special skill sets and creativity that local home-grown Singaporeans lack?

The only lone answer we got from the management was: “They are cheaper.”

The Indian foreigners have nothing better to offer as they started with zero knowledge in the financial sector – I have to train them from scratch literally.

Not only do they displace our local Singaporeans from basic livelihood but we are also offered little protection from such massive re deployment exercise from our government. It was like you were been sent to the slaughter houses as sheep waiting to be axed and your guard dogs were not anywhere in sight.

I feel that the slew of work permits easily available to employers have effectively enslave Singapore to foreign investors. Its like selling our country away to foreigners out here to make a quick buck from our business-friendly environment.

More can be done to ensure that the basic needs of local Singaporeans are well taken care of first before we open up the flood gates of jobs to foreigners.

If we have to fight with our foreign friends for basic survival rights in our own country, how can I really conscientiously defend my own country when there is a war-like situation?

I don’t even feel belonged in my own country anymore…

Painful experience of a local PMET working in financial sector Life Stories Opinion TEMASEK REVIEW EMERITUS

IT recruiters are all non-singaporeans:
This is home: Fake Talents in Singapore?

It's really how things goes. You'll have to start from scratch then slowly reach up high. It's worth the wait.

Here's the light to job security conundrums in most industries:

Why do local folks procrastinate about dreary working motion, miserable remuneration, etc?
It's true indeed, that many faced retrenchment and had to relinquish their places to foreign workers. I too, for one, agree that there's a degree of affliction to our job security due to the colossal influx of foreign talents per se.

However, why don't we cast a critical eye on ourselves? Thus far, many posts that I've seen or came across stowed away individuals who have average to poor grades at school, holding a private degree or only a diploma. There are many other blatant factors but I believe this is by far the greatest infirmity that most locals have yet they choose to blame it solely on extrinsic factors.

I shan't begin any discourse on the effects of globalization or its effectual extent on Singapore as a capitalist society. The victims were right in this sense: Organizations cry "CHEAPER LABOUR engagement is in effect!" toward lower tier job positions as compared to unique or highly skilled positions. It's a fight between lowly rats. So why must they take your citizenship or dire straits into consideration LEST you are a SKILLED worker? Think about that.

To conclude, in lay portrayal, be exceptional or be extinguished. Either that or be extremely hardworking and determined. Irrespective of descent or government, one's success largely falls on one's work and credit. This begets employability, my friends.

With that, I humbly plead my case in acknowledging and concurring that most local varsity graduates don't have to deal with such conundrums disregarding inevitable crises, period.

Straits Times: Foreigners offer to 'pay' for employment passes
They will 'return' part of salary for pass allowing dependants in
By Melissa Kok & Amanda Tan

EMPLOY us and we will 'pay' you.

That offer was made to Mr Henn Tan, owner of a local technology firm, when he interviewed two men - a Myanmarese and a Filipino in their 20s. They had applied to work as a webmaster and a software engineer respectively.

The jobs, which pay at least $3,500 a month, would have earned them Employment Passes (EPs) here.

When told they were not qualified for the positions, they offered Mr Tan, 54, a deal: they would 'return' half their salaries to him each month, as long as he hired them on EPs.

Some foreigners are allegedly offering to return part of their salaries to prospective bosses if they are hired on the coveted EP, which now requires applicants to earn more in order to qualify.

EP holders - often graduates working in professional, managerial or specialist jobs - are allowed to bring their spouses and children to Singapore on Dependant's Passes.

Recounting the incident, which took place in April, Mr Tan, chief executive of Trek 2000 International, said: 'They told me if I allowed them to be hired on EP, they would 'kick back' the balance to me.' He rejected the offer.

But not all have stood firm. In the first three months of this year, five employers of EP and S Pass holders - usually mid-skilled workers - were taken to task for making false declarations in their work pass applications, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

False declarations could include inflated salaries and forged qualifications.

One employer was fined $5,000, while the rest were jailed between one and six months. Several others are currently being investigated.

In the first nine months of last year, 141 foreigners were convicted for lying in their work pass applications, up from 137 in the whole of 2009. MOM did not provide updated figures.

Seven out of 10 recruitment firms interviewed by The Straits Times said they had heard of such under-the-table deals.

In some cases, employers had artificially 'inflated' salaries so they could hire more foreigners. There is no cap on the number of EP holders a firm can hire - unlike lower-tier S Pass or work permit holders, who are subject to quotas...

Poor work-life balance causing IT shortfall?
by Tan Weizhen
04:46 AM Sep 13, 2011

SINGAPORE - As the IT industry in Singapore grapples with a shortfall in professionals, a survey has found that half of the IT professionals polled reported that they face more problems with work-life balance in their profession, compared to those in other occupations.

Conducted among 1,024 IT professionals and 692 students by the Singapore Computer Society (SCS), respondents said they have less time for their families and face stress that affects their ability to perform other roles in their lives.

This could be a major reason for the shortage of IT professionals here as well as why 23 per cent of respondents indicated they would leave the industry, said Mr Robert Chew, an SCS executive council member, who presented the survey findings at a media briefing yesterday.

Other factors include perceived lower salaries in the industry.

The survey also found that the most preferred industry for IT professionals and students was the financial sector but the sector only employs only 8 per cent of all the professionals surveyed.

TODAYonline | Singapore | Poor work-life balance causing IT shortfall?

The lower salaries are not perceived. They are factually lower.

Everybody should just quit and work in a bank.

All universities should only offer banking and finance degree courses. Close down all the other faculties.

copied from: Cannot Blame Singapore Companies - Flowerpod Forums - Beauty, Makeup, Skincare, Health, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Love & Relationships

Hmm... we should be more competitive and get out of our comfort zone... we must be ready to face global competition for our jobs! Keep on upgrading yourself.... I been retrencted 2 times in my career and found a job in 2 weeks with higher salary... Look at it at more positive way rather then all doom and gloom...

I'm think of actually doing a Phd after completing my masters... keep upgrading yourself and never give up!

I agree the IT industry is a death trap for many Singaporeans. Those still interested should look into the future and try to figure out how many IT engineers and programmers (plus managers) will come from China, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, etc.

Start a company and hire them.

Already there are "headcount provider" firms springing up in Singapore providing lots of headcounts to big banks in Singapore. They may call themselves "solutions and services" provider, but they effectively just bring in people from those countries and put them on contracts / projects with the big companies here. It's win-win, cos the banks may not have the permanent headcount but still need people to work on projects on contract basis.

It's a big business and very profitable too. An indian programmer contracted to a bank may be paid $5k, while the firm collects $2k EVERY SINGLE MONTH just to be the middleman. And such firms typically provide thousands of headcount.

During my tenure at Hewlett Packard, I was on several government IT projects. Over 90% of my 100+ person team were foreigners. Like many other companies, how HP cleverly circumvented being “obvious” was to use “contractors”. Our contract was with the employment agencies who, in turn hire almost only foreigners. Hence, the headcount was never really seen. Of the 100+ person who was staffed on this one particular government IT engagement, less than 10% were full-time employees hired directly by HP.

In addition to my own personal experience, I know with absolute certainty that many of my close non-Singaporean friends who head up IT divisions within the banking sector have similar preferences of hiring foreigners over Singaporeans. While I cannot condone such practices, the system makes it far too easy for this to happen. They claim that it is better to hire foreigners because these foreign workers are more than likely to stay as almost all of them want to ultimately obtain Singapore citizenship. Rather than formulating workable incentives to keep Singaporeans at their jobs, management takes the easy way out....

The vicious cycle is well engrained in every level of employment. Senior Management positions are given to foreign nationals. They then are inclined to hire their own kind, cutting people like myself completely out in the cold with no options but to seek higher-salaried employment elsewhere.

System makes it easy to hire foreigners at expense of locals | The Online Citizen

u idiot ! do u know who are the mangers in the bank ? of course, mangers hire from abnn cos !

too many IT recruiters are non-Singaporeans
• This is home •: Fake Talents in Singapore?

This is a good investigative article. Will Sandra Davie of Straits Times pick this up? I doubt so, given our government's pro-foreigner stance and self-censorship culture of our mainstream media. (Sandra is the one who exposed the degree mill doctorates, like "Doctor" Clemen Chiang.)

But why did google warn me that the link above contains adult content?

maybe google singapore is guilty of the stuff written in the blog too? ;)

APAC Recruiter at Google
Education
Sikkhim Manipal University
Visvesvaraya Technological University
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=11185769

Recruiter, APAC at Google, Singapore
Education
RV College of Engineering
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=3257738

Sales Sourcer/Recruiter at Google
Education
University of Wales
University of Madras
PS Senior
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=15013639

Job Openings in Singapore IBM - Only Filipino candidates need apply!
Immdte Openings fr 1Yr contrct wth Singapore IBM, 1.Windows System Administrator + any of the Middleware- only Filipino profiles 2.Data Center Specialist / Data Center Infrastructure- Any nationality | LinkedIn

1. Windows System Administrator + any of the Middleware working experience ( IBM MQ Series, IBM WebSphere Application server, Connect Direct, SSH, Veritas Cluster Server).

• Location: Singapore
• Duration: 12 months (extendable)
• Experience: 3 to 5 yrs
• Nationality: Only Filipino candidates
• Duration: 12 months (extendable)
• PM needs administrator, no technical support
• No of positions: 3

up for a-level grads applying for uni

Up for o level grads

Diploma in Technopreneurship
 

You may also want to consider Lithan Hall's Diploma in Technopreneurship program. Wanted: Entrepreneurial Talents

It couples 12 months full-time work experience at a startup with entrepreneurship courses to develop you into a sales and marketing/product management professional.

Can i ask if this applies to Information Systems (SMU/NUS)?

From my understanding, IS seems to be in their own world compared to CE/CS. How do Singaporeans fare in jobs catered for IS?

Employment surveys noted a high average salary for IS fresh graduates (3.4k for NUS). Have heard of stories that many IS graduates end up doing two-year contract jobs for the rest of their life. Again, I can't confirm, and wish that someone in that field can answer my queries.

from my personal exp and looking at my friends, i say the IS buzz is dying (dead very soon) and the demand is much much lower than the 100% employment few years back. firstly, IS curriculum hardly prepares you for the working hard if you just go thru motion.

for most IT entry roles, they demand good technical knowledge which most (or rather average) IS students lack of. IS students, it seems to me, are trained for mid-level IT roles (IT manager, proj mgt, IT consultant, etc), which is pretty dumb as these roles require you to have years of IT exp. except for IT consultants, which only a handful of top students can have a go at it. for those who can and dont mind doing coding, they can easily find a job as software developer, but how long they will last nobody knows. for the rest, majority will work as system analyst/IT executive. these are in fact general entry-level titles, it's just all the saikang passed down from the seniors. it's really luck as some companies u will learn a lot of stuff, while at others, you just do mundane work everyday.

in short, avoid IS if you've not taken a step into it. the job market is too saturated now. the demand u read in the news years ago is gone. the glamorous fat cheque IT jobs are already filled years ago by the pioneer students. IS degree is becoming as useful as life science degree..

Why a career in computer programming sucks
Finally, the highly anticipated essay on why computer programming sucks.

Temporary nature of knowledge capital

Let’s being by reviewing what I previously wrote about the four types of human capital. Computer programming is a job that’s heavily dependent on temporary knowledge capital. It’s temporary because the powers that be keep changing the languages and tools that programmers need to do their jobs. In nearly all other professions, knowledge capital increases as you grow older because you keep learning more about your field. But in computer programming, the old knowledge becomes completely obsolete and useless. No one cares if you know how to program in COBOL for example. It’s completely useless knowledge.

Even though I haven’t been working in computer programming all that long, I have already seen most of the technologies that I first began working with become relegated to the garbage pile. Visual Basic 3.0-6.0? Useless knowledge. I haven’t seen any vintage Visual Basic since 2002. And don’t confuse Visual Basic.NET with the classic Visual Basic. They are really completely different technologies.

So what advantage does a 60-year-old .NET programmer have over a 27-year-old .NET programmer when they both have, at most, 5 years of experience doing .NET programming? Absolutely none. I’d make the case that it’s better to hire the 27-year-old because he is still at the stage of his career where he enjoys the stuff and is therefore more motivated to learn and work harder, while the 60-year-old is surely bitter about the fact that he’s getting paid less than the younger programmers. No one wants a bitter employee.

This assumes that the 60-year-old programmer has even learned .NET programming. Every time a new language or technology comes out, the programmer faces a fork. In one direction he gets to work with the new technology, and in the other direction he continues working with the old technology for too long and therefore falls too far behind to catch up. The older you get, the easier it is to wind up going the wrong way when you reach one of these forks. Because as hard as it may be for a 22-year-old to imagine, as you get older your desire to completely relearn everything decreases, so you are likely to succumb to the temptation of staying with the familiar technology for too long.

Because of the temporary nature of the knowledge capital, computer programmers quickly reach a stage in their career when their old knowledge capital becomes worthless at the same rate as they acquire knew knowledge capital. Their total knowledge capital is no longer increasing, so neither does their salary increase. They have reached the dead end plateau of their career, and it happens after less than ten years in the field.

Other professional fields are not like this. I remember reading the classic 1933 edition of Securities Analysis by Benjamin Graham, and as I read it I was amazed by how useful and relevant the material was even though it was more than 65 years old.

Lawyers are still citing Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England which was completed in 1769. Now there’s an example of a profession where knowledge capital deteriorates at a very slow rate.

Low prestige

Computer programming is a low prestige profession. This is evidenced by the fact that people from affluent families rarely go into computer programming but instead will seek out the more prestigious professions such as law, finance, and medicine. Of course there are some exceptions. There was a programmer who worked for me whose father was a doctor. But more typical was another programmer who never finished college and whose favorite hobby was hunting.

And that brings us to the issue of education. Students at Ivy League universities are not majoring in computer programming. There is a prestigious school, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, devoted to science and engineering, and while I’m sure that there are some students there who are majoring in “computer science,” the science that’s taught isn’t related to the dirty low-prestige job of creating e-commerce websites using ASP.NET. On the other hand, practical computer programming is a popular major at bogus for-profit schools like Devry “University” and the “University” of Phoenix.

Now some may ask, “Who cares if the prestige is low, as long as we’re getting paid good money?” This is a fair question. First of all, there are some practical social benefits to having others perceive your profession as being prestigious. As a Chinese immigrant at the University of Virginia wrote, “whatever your position is, as a CS person, you are socially classified as a geek. At my school, University of Virginia, being a rich frat boy and having a future in investment banking or law gets you a lot further status-wise even though you may not necessarily be paid more.”

But the prestige of the profession affects both the work environment and the future economic viability of the profession, as will be discussed below.

The foreignization of computer programming

I’m sorry about using a word that doesn’t exist in the dictionary, but foreignization best explains what’s happening in the computer programming industry.

First of all, there is the familiar outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries, mostly India. Because of this, the computer programming industry within the United States is an industry with a shrinking number of jobs, although as a worldwide phenomenon I’m sure computer programming will grow at a brisk rate. Would outsourcing of computer programming and other IT jobs be such a big trend if the industry were more prestigious? I think not. You don’t see lawyers being outsourced. In fact, by law, only members of the bar are allowed to practice law, so it would be illegal for foreigners to do American legal work.

The other half of foreignization is the near abandonment of the domestic IT market to foreigners. This is a trend that is accelerated by the issuance of special H1-B visas that allow extra computer programmers to come here and take jobs away from American programmers. Computer programming (along with nursing) has been specially targeted by our government for foreignization.

Foreignization creates a vicious circle effect with the low prestige of the profession. Because the profession has low prestige, employers balk at the idea of having to pay high salaries (while it seems perfectly appropriate if a lawyer or investment banker is making a lot of money). Thus the demand for more H1-B visas so that salaries can be decreased. In turn, Americans see an industry full of brown people speaking barely intelligible English, and this further lowers the industry’s prestige. Computer programming and IT in general is now seen as the foreigner’s industry and not a proper profession for upwardly mobile white Americans. [The Indian and Asian people I've known in the IT industry are nice people, and normally I don't pay attention to their different appearance, so this should not be taken as a racist dislike of non-white people. I am only accurately describing the fact that the typical white American thinks negatively of a profession that's predominately non-white. And I stand by my belief that people born in this country have more rights to the money being created here than foreigners. Asian countries feel the same way about foreigners. Asian countries are, typically, a lot less open to foreign worker immigrants than is the U.S.]

Because there is no reason to think that the trend of foreignization will reverse, this will ensure that the future of the industry will be lower salaries.

Project management sucks too

In order to escape a job where the future is bleak for older programmers due to the rapid depreciation of computer programming knowledge capital, computer programmers face the need to move up to management or likely wind up as underemployed fifty-year-olds, only suitable for lower paying IT jobs like “QA” because they no longer know how to use the latest and supposedly greatest programming tools.

It is often suggested that the most natural next move “up” is into project management. But the first problem with this situation is that project management sucks too. It doesn’t even deserve to have the word “management” in the title, because project management is akin to management as Naugahyde leather is to leather. Project planner and status reporter is the more correct title for this job. Once you take the word “manager” out of title, it loses a lot of its luster, doesn’t it? Everyone wants to be a manager, but few would want to be a project planner and I daresay no one would want to be a status reporter. Status reporting is generally the most hated activity of anyone who endeavors to do real work.

One can’t write about project management without mentioning the worst piece of software every written, Microsoft Project. Somehow, an entire project management industry has developed around this crappy program which no one can figure out how to use. (See my previous post about Microsoft Project Server and Battlestar Galactica.)

Formal project management is more of a pseudo-science than a real profession, because despite the increasing use of formal project management methods approved by the Project Management Institute (yes they have their own institute), there is no evidence that software is getting better or that fewer software projects fail today than did ten years ago when formal project management was in its infancy.

The growing popularity of project management has nothing to do with better software. It’s really more designed to please senior management (the real managers who control the purse strings). Real managers, who usually don’t understand anything about computer programming but who don’t like the idea that they have to pay high salaries to a bunch of people from foreign countries, love the reports presented by project managers, because the reports create the illusion that progress is happening and that the money being spent on the IT project is not being wasted.

Even if the computer programmer wishes to sell his soul and enter the pseudo-scientific field of project planning and status reporting, the transition is becoming more difficult. The trend is that project management is branching off into its own discipline with its own educational requirements and certification process. Thus the experienced computer programmer will usually find that employers aren’t interested in having an ex-computer programmer “manage” a project, but rather they seek someone with PMI certification and years of experience in project management.

This trend, in which people without computer programming experience manage computer programming projects, is a result of the low prestige of computer programming. People with high prestige jobs, like surgeons, would never allow themselves to be managed by non-surgeons. In a complicated medical procedure there will be a head surgeon overseeing the surgery, and not a project manager without any medical training. Lawyers have Model Rule 5.4 which makes it unethical for non-lawyers to manage lawyers.

Obviously, the problem with the computer programming industry is that it lacks a central organization to create barriers to entry and to lobby state and local legislatures.

The working conditions suck

This relates to the prestige thing again. When a company I worked for wanted to save money on rent, guess what department they decided to move to the low rent satellite office? You guessed it, the IT department.

If you look forward to one day having your own private office, then computer programming sure isn’t the way to go. At a law firm, each lawyer has his own private office. Computer programmers are cubicle employees, not considered important enough to be given nice workspaces.

Employers are even too cheap to invest in proper tools for the computer programmers. Take monitors, for example. Every computer programmer knows that modern development tools are easiest to use if you have a really big monitor, because you can see more lines of code at the same time, and because there are a bunch of ancillary windows which steal screen space from the main code window. My home monitor is a 21” 1600 x 1200 Samsung SyncMaster 214T, and it sure was worth the $900 or so that I paid for it. An employer interested in getting the most productivity out of its software developers would supply them with proper high quality monitors, but they don’t. In every job I ever worked, the computer programmers never had the best monitors.

If you walk over to the graphic arts department, you will see really big monitors. The graphics people could surely make do with smaller monitors, but even though they make less money than computer programmers, they have been able to convince higher level management that their work requires better hardware. When computer programmers request better hardware, they are often seen as whining geeks who just want to waste the company’s money on unnecessary high-tech toys.

Other professionals get proper tools to do their job. For example, lawyers are given access to Westlaw or Lexis, and a library of books. The amount of money per year per lawyer spent on research materials most surely exceeds the money per computer programmer per year spent on computer hardware. If lawyers were treated with the same disrespect as computer programmers, they would be told to stop whining about the lack of research materials and to go use the public law library.

So what's a good profession?

After spending so much effort explaning why computer programming sucks, I think it's only fair to suggest some better professions for any young people who might be reading this. Unfortunately, that's hard to do. The best professions, because they are so good to work in, have more people trying to enter than there is room for them. Thus you can graduate with a law degree and find that no one wants to admit you to any of the good legal career tracks.

I think that, if you can't get into a Top 14 law school or a top graduate business schol, then public accounting probably provides a better career path than computer programming. You need to start out as an auditor at a Big Four accounting firm, and the salary in the early part of your career won't be as high as in computer programming, but at least older accountants are valued for their experience and knowledge. It's a career where you can still be employed at forty or fifty.

If you are technically oriented, then you should consider a career in patent law. This requires you to get an engineering degree and then go to law school. Because such a tiny percentage of law school graduates are qualified to take the patent bar, you will be able to get jobs in intellectual property law which the other law school graduates are unqualified for.

The Most Effective Vape Juice Wholesale Distributors in the UNITED STATES
 

With many individuals opting to vape, there are many vaping industries. They have a collection of various vape juices marketed in wholesale. This way, you can delight in vaping the yummy flavors. The companies are online hence you have to spend for some delivery costs. They provide in good time without any hold-ups experienced. Some are shipped the day you make the order. For other companies, you have to wait till the next day.s://.worldvaping.com/best-dab-pens/


The vaping business is competitive thus the suppliers strive to thrill their clients. Their solutions ought to be excellent to bring in clients as well as maintain them. The e-liquids should be of premium quality as well as authentic. Without the two attributes, they can not offer. The following are the vape juice wholesale representatives that you can rely on with their items.

What wholesale methods

Wholesale is when you get items in large quantities at a lower rate. The price is budget-friendly because you are acquiring more than one product. You get to conserve loan while you have products that will certainly last you for a while. It is the best deal for e-liquids due to the several types that you can obtain wholesale.

Aspects that need to be taken into consideration when searching for vape juice wholesale representatives
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In the United States there are several e-liquid wholesale representatives. You might obtain puzzled regarding which is the ideal one. To obtain the most effective deal, you can watch out for the adhering to facets.

- Minimum orders

At the back of your mind, you need the item in quantities. Hence, you ought to ask the minimal number to order. You can for that reason obtain worth for cash. Buying them in plenty will certainly mean that you get to pay much less.

- Flexible Prices

The cost each should be versatile. It should reflect on the number of products that you are purchasing. The cost for less products ought to be various. You shouldn't buy at the exact same expense as those wholesale. For example, if you plan to buy 200 vape juices the device cost can be $1. Yet if you purchase 400 items, the price per unit need to be $0.50 to match the cash worth.

- Delivering Cost

Various firms will certainly bill a cost for the items to get to you. This depends mostly on the location. The costs will, as a result, vary with the company. Fortunately is that there are business that offer totally free delivery when you acquire items worth a good quantity.

Five Superb firms to obtain wholesale vape juice

Vape juice distributors ought to offer you only the most effective. This ranges from valuing to the orders that you require. The companies below will absolutely provide you adequate services.

1. Straight Vapor

The firm has a great deal to provide. Here you can anticipate performance as well as ease. When you require minimum orders you can get them at a sensible cost. You can get as numerous products as you require. Shipping fee is average, and also you won't be charged unfairly. There is also a totally free residential shipping with the business. Brand names right here are a large choice to select from treat flavors, chocolate or coffee.

The distribution period is from 1 to 5 days depending on your location. This consists of a 15-day return policy if you didn't like the vape juice. 60 days warranty is supplied in instance of any type of defection or replacement require develops. The distinct component about Straight Vapor is their consumer assistance solutions. They likewise reward their consumers for getting more than once.
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2. Wholesale Vapor

This is the second best vape juice wholesale supplier in the US. All the vape stores can rely on the business for their products. They have matchless brand names that just match their clients. They likewise use reduced wholesale costs for vape juices. Free shipping is ensured to clients that get items from $450 price. Delivery ranges from 2 to 5 days.

3. Vapor Monster

The solutions at Vapor Beast are phenomenal. When you buy vape juices completing to $1,000 you secure free delivery. Within one to 5 days, it will be provided at your front door. You first require to use as a wholesale consumer so regarding strike a business deal. Then you can get to sample the scrumptious e-liquids they provide. You can additionally choose the pure nicotine toughness with a scale of 0 mg to 55 mg. The dimensions will certainly likewise depend on what you require. They are from 1.5 ml to 125 ml.

4. MigVapor

It is prominent to vapers throughout the globe. The vape juices are of great tastes. They additionally come in lots of range to pick from. You obtain blended vape juices from the 89 tastes. Shipping is done from 1 to 5 days of getting the item. The shipping prices are common. If you are not pleased with the vape juice, there is thirty days money back warranty.

5. Vivo Wholesale

The company has a large range of vape juice items. They are distinct kinds of juices. With Vivo Wholesale, you can place bulk orders and likewise the single orders. They deal with both large firms and also people. By opening a Vivo account, you will be ready to start putting orders. The vape juice is meticulously secured and delivered to you the 2nd day. This will take 2 to five days to receive the things.

Final thought

Vape Juice dealers have various plans. Some have minimum orders while others lack them. As a consumer, you now understand which one will certainly suit you. If you need the vape juice to market on a large scale several of them will partner will you. For those who desire the e-liquid for individual use, you can identify the best one for you. After bearing in mind the shipping problems, you recognize where to order from. With some purchase, you obtain absolutely totally free delivery.
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Buying from other nations equates to high tax obligations as well as too much shipping expenses. This can be frustrating due to the costs that you will sustain.

The five representatives have pocket-friendly prices thus; you don't need to spend a lot. You reach delight in the different charming flavors with an excellent budget. Shipment time is additionally reputable which takes at many five days.