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There are plenty of jobs, but there's an enormous "tech gutter" that you can end up in if you aren't competitive enough to get hired as a real employee of a lucrative tech company like AMZN, GOOG, NFLX, MSFT, FB, etc.
If you do the following, then you can get hired at one of the lucrative tech companies:
Get a CS degree from a reputable program
Get a good GPA
Work 1 or 2 internships at one of the lucrative tech companies
Study the Crack the Coding Interview book and in general prepare to sell yourself as a young, bright, motivated individual who wants to do hands-on programming and knows how to throw around CS buzzwords like "Linked List" and "Hash Table" and knows how to throw around industry buzzwords/phrases like "Reinvent the wheel", "Quick and dirty solution", "Deploy", "Scale up", etc.
Apply at the lucrative companies during your senior year of college
It also helps if:
You're woman or racial minority
You're willing to work as a Program Manager
The tech gutter is when you don't have the qualifications necessary to get hired at one of those lucrative companies and so you take some 2nd-rate gig that then tarnishes your resume and burns you out. It's a self-perpetuating problem because the longer you don't work at a lucrative company, the less likely lucrative companies are to look at your resume in the future.
And yes, it's getting more competitive because there are over 1 billion people in India and almost all of them study IT-related fields and already have 10 years of experience when they come over here. Not just India, but also Russia and other Eastern European nations.
That's interesting. I didn't know that so much emphasis is placed on where you get your degree from. Question though...you mention lucrative companies a lot and I was wondering what it's like working in a small/medium sized company. Do you know anyone who has not worked in a lucrative company and enjoyed it? Maybe the lucrative companies offer a lot more benefits?
It's a scam because the IT management won't take a paycut but others have to so it's easier to just outsource workers from overseas. Most IT workers have stagnant wages but not for management. Their salaries are allowed to go up while others stagnant which tells you the real story right now.
Majority of firms that I visit as a consultant have an extensive outsourcing program for all work except management roles. Most of the IT management are so removed from the work these days, they have to hire consultants like myself to help guide them with setting expectations and overseeing the immigrant workers.
My recent IT security gig at a financial firm, I've uncovered large mismanagement of security practices. The reason it's been mismanaged because the people in charge that are Americans are not competant workers. They are simply friends and buddies of IT management workers and got the job over qualified people and now they needed contractors like myself to come in and assist them.
It's pretty common in most sites that I go to that either the US IT workers are incompetent or completely removed from doing the work.
It's both fun and disheartening experience when I learned the number of US workers that used to do the job and have left a legacy and the new non-American workers taking over are just doing repetitive work and have no clue nor care about how to ensure best practices are followed.
These are companies that are managing your money, mortgage, your sensitive healthcare records, credit card info, credit history, and the list goes on and on. As a Security Expert I'm pondering if holding cash is actually safer than keeping my money at these mismanaged institutions.
Very insightful. Yes, I've seen a lot of that where workers' wages stagnate and management's keep shooting up. It's one of the reasons I get upset when people say that it's about supply and demand and I'm thinking no, it's about the people at the top making over 400 times the amount of their average worker. It's scary to see human beings treat each other that way.
Its complete BS. H1B1 visas are not taking jobs away from graduates, they are just lowering salaries for experienced STEM workers. Remember there was 230K applications, only 85K got approved, and they can only apply once a year. That is too much hassle for a junior developer.
The reason they do it, is because sometimes they need someone with very specific experience, and Americans with that experience is very expensive. Hiring a new graduate won't work because it will take ages to train him, and then he might leave. Don't worry about H1B1 visas. The main reason some IT graduates can't get work, is because they don't have any internships/projects.
Those companies have an average age of below 30, even the ones who work there will eventually move to less lucrative companies.
Going to those big companies will give you a head start, but the ones who go to smaller companies will build themselves up too. Companies are always interested in people with a lot of skill, no matter what company they worked for.
The ones who really fail, are the people who are unable to get a relevant job after graduation. For instance they might get stuck in some dead end tech support job.
Almost every post I see mentions getting an internship. I will definitely have to remember that! But is hiring an experienced U.S. worker/a new graduate really so expensive that one would rather pay for an H1B1 visa? I would think that they don't come cheap; somehow these workers must be getting paid much much less than their U.S. counterpart for so many companies to be willing to spend money for all the costs that come with this visa.
That's interesting. I didn't know that so much emphasis is placed on where you get your degree from. Question though...you mention lucrative companies a lot and I was wondering what it's like working in a small/medium sized company. Do you know anyone who has not worked in a lucrative company and enjoyed it? Maybe the lucrative companies offer a lot more benefits?
Very few people are going to end up working for marquee names like Google, Apple, and Facebook. For the rest of us, there are plenty of companies doing routine business that need IT staff. A lot of those folks like their jobs. In fact, I wouldn't want to be at the prestigious companies because pressure is going to be that much greater.
H1B1 visas are definately taking jobs away from STEM graduates in the US.
Apple, Microsoft, Facepuke all lobby the US gov't hard to increase the
H1B1 visa counts. There are plenty of unemployed, qualified graduates with CS and Engineering degrees from the US that are purposely overlooked.
By the way, these three wealthy companies could afford to hire less qualified graduates if they wanted to, but the US government isn't asking them to. These three companies are part of the problem in the US.
I'm more inclined to agree with this post because I've heard about so many people in this field struggling to find work. And on the topic of training, once upon a time we did this in the U.S. I don't understand the mindset around companies not wanting to train workers. Companies used to actually pay for their workers to get higher credentials.
Almost every post I see mentions getting an internship. I will definitely have to remember that! But is hiring an experienced U.S. worker/a new graduate really so expensive that one would rather pay for an H1B1 visa? I would think that they don't come cheap; somehow these workers must be getting paid much much less than their U.S. counterpart for so many companies to be willing to spend money for all the costs that come with this visa.
The fact is most american IT workers suck. Thus an employer might as well get an H1B. They will suck too, but be much cheaper. It only costs a company about $3500 do do the visa paperwork. No big deal when the yearly savings per employee are $50,000.
The problem is when employers expect someone to come in with 5 years of experience doing the exact same job in order to get hired, instead of offering, you know, training (assuming they have heard of that)...
Very few people are going to end up working for marquee names like Google, Apple, and Facebook. For the rest of us, there are plenty of companies doing routine business that need IT staff. A lot of those folks like their jobs. In fact, I wouldn't want to be at the prestigious companies because pressure is going to be that much greater.
Agree, I see quite a few entry level IT positions come up regularly. The pay isn't always stellar, but it will build skills and build your resume. A good entry level position is a school district, the pay is close to corporate tech support level but the benefits are usually really good.
That's interesting. I didn't know that so much emphasis is placed on where you get your degree from. Question though...you mention lucrative companies a lot and I was wondering what it's like working in a small/medium sized company. Do you know anyone who has not worked in a lucrative company and enjoyed it? Maybe the lucrative companies offer a lot more benefits?
I've done all of it. Poor companies, rich companies, small and large.
Some of the lucrative companies pay poorly, or expect 60-70 hr work weeks. Lucrative companies can suck to work for because while lucrative....that doesn't mean lucrative for you. And everyone wants that big company name on their resume.
Currently....small company not incredibly lucrative, but doing well seems to be the best work life balance for me, with mind boggling benefits. The work is enjoyable, and management seems to have a clue.
Note that this doesn't apply to medical doctors. They are technically STEM, and will always do well, but it's mainly because they are always needed, and have what amounts to a strong labor guild in the ACA.
Besides doctors, the only other STEM career that has any sort of long term career stability is actuarial work... which also is basically controlled by a guild.
I've thought about this too (careers that are likely to last and aren't easy to replace).
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