[aklug] Re: Jobs

Just remember that you are not alone.
I have family members who have been out of work for over a year. Its a tough
envrionment right now regardless of what field you want to enter or are in.
Sympathies are nice and I guess bitterness is showing from a lot of us in
similiar situations.

As a backup you could substitute teach if you are done with your degree. If
you decide to go back for a teaching certificate (another 1 - 2 years) you
can teach math, computer programming, or elementary school for our school
districts. Its up to the district to say if you are highly qualified to
teach a particular subject (no child left behind bla) but you can get a
masters in education. 1.5 years is all it takes if you want to work hard for
the masters. Some schools will pay 25% of your student loans and you get
weeks of vacation every year! 3 weeks for christmas and spring break alone
not to mention a whole summer. Also you can leave work by 4:00.

I am highly contemplating this route. I have student loans due and I an
struggling to get by. I would like to be a successful business leader and
make more money than a teacher, but I will say you will start at $45,000 a
year which is better than programming. 10 years down the road though I.T.
will probably pay off more though.

I personally think we are dinosaurs. I.T. is not valued and is looked upon
as a cost center to accountants (something that is bad) and not an
investment anymore. After all we do not make money for the company.

 I.T. work is done overseas for the cheapest bidder and our wages have
suffered. Here in Anchorage bidding is done for I.T. contracts and this
squeezes some employers pocketbooks to offer low salaries. Worse clouds and
ERPs like www.salesforce.com is making I.T. obsolete all together. Companies
would love to not have any I.T. at all and just log into www.salesforce.comor
www.myERPcloudapp.com and do their work. The cost savings are huge! Like I
said I do not want to sound discouraging. But just realize America in
general is going through a radical economic change and many are hurting.
This was why I changed my major to business. I figured if I.T. slowly began
to dwindle I could be involved with other business processes.

There was a student in my class who graduated with a computer science degree
and was unemployed for 2 years as employers were not interested in hiring
Americans. He eventually found a job ... this was in California.

On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 2:03 AM, Christopher Howard <choward@indicium.us>wrote:

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> James Tweet wrote:
> > You may be able to get your foot in the door if you get a bunch of
> Microsoft certifications. If you want to move up then you will need a
> degree. My advice to you is to suck-it-up, take it like a man and finish
> your degree.
> >
> > Secondly when a job description states "BS in Computer Science or
> equivalent experience." It means you need a BS in Computer Science. The HR
> people have no clue what equivalent experience to a BS in Computer Science
> would be. So any resume without a BSCS is either filed in the trash or put
> on the bottom of the pile.
> >
> >
> > Third, business people believe anyone who has a BSCS must be a computer
> genius. It's like a golden ticket or something.
> >
> > Finally, every semester more and more people are graduating from college
> with a BSCS. You will be competing with them for jobs and they will get
> first pick.
> >
> > I am 38 years old and I'm going to UAA to finish my degree.
> >
> > James
> >
>
> Judging by a few of the responses I received, I just want to make
> something clear: My original e-mail was not meant as some kind of call
> for sympathy, or as a complaint about the difficulties I finding work
> after college. Whether I spend the rest of my life working as a Burger
> King fry cook, or as a vice president at Google, God will take care of
> my needs. I simply wanted to let you guys know that I'm out job hunting,
> in case you should happen to run across anything you think I might be
> interested in. And let me express my appreciation to those of you who
> have thrown me some good tips.
>
> James, thanks for the advice, and I can see how having a BS in Computer
> Science would definitely brighten up a résumé. Rest assured, however,
> that my educational decisions are based on more than a simple
> calculation of personal manhood. I have been a college student for seven
> years now, and if I thought it was in my best interested to make it
> eight, or nine, or ten years, I'd have more than enough of the resolve
> needed to make it happen.
>
> - --
> Christopher Howard
> http://linuxprogrammingforums.com
> http://indicium.us
> http://theologia.indicium.us
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Received on Wed Apr 7 10:21:23 2010