Stay Out Of IT

I’ve recently been pondering why university numbers in IT related courses, at least in Australia, have been dwindling.

On the surface the industry is promising, plenty of prospects and above average wages sends a message of a healthy market.

But, in my opinion, under the surface the water is fairly murky.

Job satisfaction is always at risk. Projects are more likely to be canned in IT than any other industry. It’s a strange feeling to have your creation (or at least something you’ve helped create) discarded, never to see the light of day. Looking at it deeply, it can easily effect your notion of self-worth.
IT has little room for attachment to one’s work. Your work can and does change to the point where it is unrecognizable at the whim of another. The artifacts of good projects are usually recognized as works of a team and not individuals. All this mounts up to, in the first few years of your career, learning to become detached from your work. I see it as about accepting that emotion takes a back seat to evolution, and the individual takes a back seat to the team collective.

Individualism does, of course, has a place. Some people are more influential than others and every workplace has personalities.

But the water is clouded most by the growing trend of offshore development. IT has been - and continues to - follow the trend of goods manufacturers, moving production to countries with staggering cheap labor. Simply put, developers in other countries are dated or their salaries are bound to fall. How long it takes before offshore hits critical mass and becomes the norm (like in manufacture) is anyone’s guess, but I certainly am not hedging my bets on a long term career in IT.

When I consider the thoughts of my father early on in his career as a refrigeration mechanic, an industry he has served for 50 odd years, to mine now where I see gray clouds forming around IT in first world countries – our thoughts must be miles apart.

That said, I continue to enjoy my profession – most significantly as it nurtures continual learning and improvement, something that appeals to the core of my being.

Update: Todays The Age has an article encouraging Australian organizations to move IT jobs offshore. While it makes economic sense, it is an uneasy feeling to have your government encourage organizations to diminish your job prospects.