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Also, I worked for companies where everyone was a top performer. You had to be in order to survive. About 3 years ago the last company that I worked for decided to get rid of ALL their top performers (everyone) with cheap employees earning about a third. This resulted in a brain drain and a loss of the company's knowledge base over the last three years. The company now is in big trouble, losing clients right and left, and even has trouble keeping its cheap employees. My, my, what an interesting situation.
It sure was true in the '80s and '90s as the IT industry was taking off. People had all kinds of backgrounds. A lot of the developers learned programming in the military and didn't even have degrees, or had taught themselves. Most of us tech pubs people had liberal arts backgrounds but good technical aptitude.
Back then the goal was to produce well-rounded graduates with an ability to think, write, and learn. Sadly, colleges are now becoming expensive trade schools.
There was no such thing as “IT” in 1980. It was data processing. Most jobs were low paying computer operator positions doing repetitive tasks. It wasn’t like later times when you needed an army of people to tend personal computers
The early 80s had hyperinflation and the unemployment rate was higher than at the peak of the recent Great Recession. If you had an engineering or computer science degree, you were fine. Liberal Arts majors pumped gas unless they were out of top schools with good grades.
There was no such thing as “IT” in 1980. It was data processing. Most jobs were low paying computer operator positions doing repetitive tasks. It wasn’t like later times when you needed an army of people to tend personal computers
The early 80s had hyperinflation and the unemployment rate was higher than at the peak of the recent Great Recession. If you had an engineering or computer science degree, you were fine. Liberal Arts majors pumped gas unless they were out of top schools with good grades.
Yes, it was called "data processing" in 1980. That was the year that I started my data processing, oh sorry MIS, oh wait, IS, wait, no, IT career. The name of this field kept changing, I wish it had stayed IS rather than IT.
But at any rate I was a "programmer" where in 1980 that was considered to be an exalted job where a person could "make the computer do stuff". I do remember the job market being awful at that time, so I was very fortunate in landing a programming job with just a liberal arts degree from a state university. The company that I first worked for was very small and the owner decided to hire me and train me as a programmer because I was a college graduate, so I must be smart, right? Then I moved on to bigger companies and ended my career working for a large multibillion dollar corporation. It was an "interesting" career in more ways than one.
Whats the point of blowing 10s of thousands of dollars on higher education then? Just for the fun of it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginge McFantaPants
I will never understand this new mindset of education being “useless” or “a waste” just because it doesn’t put you on a linear path to a career.
Ginge McFantaPants is right. No one goes to school just for their health, for example. Unfortunately, we're not already rich & can just go to school SOELY to heighten our minds, expand our emotional horizons, be life learners, etc.
Something needs to be the result out of all that hard work. We can't pay our rent/mortgage, have cars, & other life necessities by not having a job yet we're as smart as a whip, unfortunately.
Last edited by Forever Blue; 05-12-2019 at 08:46 AM..
When exactly was that time? You keep saying the same song and dance but never, ever, tell us when that Golden Age was. I know you won't answer, by the way.
My parents graduated in the 1970s both with liberal arts degrees. My dad actually made close to 200k/yr for many years.
My parents graduated in the 1970s both with liberal arts degrees. My dad actually made close to 200k/yr for many years.
Did you happen to read the statement I was questioning? Your parents' success, or lack of it had that happened, has no bearing on what or why I asked the one poster to give solid examples of his continued fantasy world.
Whats the point of blowing 10s of thousands of dollars on higher education then? Just for the fun of it?
Enrichment?
Expanding your horizons?
Learning how to question and research?
IDK, I ended up in a completely different field than my degree, but I’ve never viewed what I studied as “a waste”. Hell, I’ve gone back gone back for another degree in a tangentially-related field, because I value education that much.
And no, I am not from the privileged class. I came from a long line of blue collar tradesmen with “useless” degrees in fine arts.
There was no such thing as “IT” in 1980. It was data processing. Most jobs were low paying computer operator positions doing repetitive tasks. It wasn’t like later times when you needed an army of people to tend personal computers
I am defining "IT" as software and hardware development, and there was plenty in 1980. If you're defining IT as desktop support, then it's true - there wasn't as much back then.
I don't ever remember programming = data processing.
I am defining "IT" as software and hardware development, and there was plenty in 1980. If you're defining IT as desktop support, then it's true - there wasn't as much back then.
I don't ever remember programming = data processing.
"Data processing" was more of a 1960s and 1970s name. I remember when I took the FORTRAN programming language in high school in 1973, we referred to the field as Data Processing. However, we were doing programming work in the Data Processing department. By 1980, when I entered this profession, it was being gradually replaced by MIS (Management Information Systems), and then later as just IS, then IT. So whatever the field is called, you can be a programmer, analyst, programmer/analyst, tech support, or computer operator, or whatever in it. Of course, there are new functions and names such as full stack developer, architect, etc.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by YorktownGal
Yes. True for graduates with high GPA and/or family connections. English majors were in high demand.
Not sure where you get your data but, based on personal experience with several friends and a wife that were high GPA English majors, that degree is most definitely not one that results in qualifications for a high demand and high compensation job. Not as bad as Art History, nor even History, but it is a dime a dozen and often results in a career as a barista.
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