lol you crack me up sometimes.
I think you are incorrect about certifications. Although they don’t mean you know your stuff, many employers do look at them favorably because they show that I (or someone else) was at least willing to work to develop myself/themselves when it came to their IT career (or other career if applicable). Now I know you were referring to certifications for the most part, but the same applies to people with degrees. I know people who have masters degrees that are dumber than a bag of rocks. Them having a masters means they dedicated themselves (time, money) and worked at it (however, might not have learned exactly everything). It all comes down to work ethic. It is very desirable if you are looking for someone good to work for you (who isn’t a lazy POS and does just enough to get by in their career). In this industry, I think learning hands on is better than learning from a book anyway. However, that being said, my company pays for 100% of it (education). I’d be stupid not to get them done (certs). My brother is the associate director of IT at New York State Nurses Association near the airport (NYSNA). He has to get a bachelors (he only has an assoc. like me) in order to be promoted once his boss retires. That is another reason why education (degree/certs) is desirable. No company will want some Joe Shmoe with no education credentials running their divisions/departments no matter HOW much he knows. Education (be it degrees or certifications) is important. If it wasn’t important, most companies wouldn’t promote it via paying for some or all of it.
Also, how do you figure it’s harder to replace a skilled programmer than a skilled network admin? Once you get into the upper areas of ‘knowledge’ in those fields, both are equally as challenging. It’s easier to replace a skilled programmer because there are 10x (I’m obviously exaggerating but you get my point) more skilled programmers on the planet than skilled network people (I’m not talking about some basic network tech who knows how to do install Server 03 and that’s about it - more like an infrastructure mannaager (damn filter), network admin, etc who built a efficient network from scratch). Some guy in India could program stuff for you and just send it to you via secure connection. On the other hand, replacing someone who knows how to build a proper network is much tougher because you’re only able to, really, hire someone in your geographic area. You sure as hell can’t hire a network admin/mannaager from India to run your network in New York. And if you do, it won’t be as nearly as good for your company as hiring someone who’s local or can be there in a few hours (ex: we have offices all over the NE). Not to mention it’ll cost more money to transport him back and forth if need be.
I personally know this because we, as an IT department, paid a crap load of money to a firm to do some work in our field offices and it ended up being a disaster. This company was highly touted too. It’s better, in many cases, to just do it yourself.
Outsourcing is NOT the answer. It might save you money up front, but it also might cost you in the end (like it did in this example). People shouldn’t go into their career thinking of the chance that it might be outsourced. That’s what causes people to not work as hard, and probably started the trend of out sourcing.
For those of you who don’t have degrees, etc. Get them. They’ll help your career foundation. And they WILL make you more desirable and provide you with a better foundation for keeping a job/building your career on in these hard times.
For those that already have a degree…do anything else you can to set yourself apart. It’ll help.
More power to you folks.
This is very true. And outsourcing is a byproduct of this mentality.
I’m a good example. I have no certs and a 2 year degree. But I do have 5.5 years of experience.
I beat out a kid straight out of college with a bachelors degree and one cert (as far as I know).
But, that doesn’t mean I didn’t get lucky. I probably did.
This is a per company thing. You can’t say all companies in IT are cutting their staff. I think when we say job security, most of us are referring to the INDUSTRY.
Regarding IT, I could go anywhere and probably find a job. NY, FL, CA, WA, TX. I’d be able to get work somewhere. In other fields, people might not be so lucky.