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By Manotee Cornett
I recently read an article (Link to article) about people in Wisconsin that are struggling to find jobs that pay well, compared to the traditional manufacturing jobs that made up 27 percent of the state’s total employment in the late 1970’s. Evidently, in just the last decade we’ve lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs. The article goes on to say that there are many positions that pay $8 an hour, but not a lot of jobs that pay in the middle or high end of wages.
The one thing about the article that struck me is that never once did it mention technology or computer related positions as jobs that will pay well. It’s alarming to me that the world we live in is running on technology, computers, the web, the cloud…. And there are fewer and fewer Americans choosing to go to school for technology related degrees or technical certifications. College enrollment is up, however, the number graduating with computer engineering degrees is going down. <more>
Prospects for future qualified IT professionals are excellent. Experts estimate that the fast-paced growth in the information technology field may yield up to 16 percent more jobs in this field within the next decade. The outlook for information system specialists remains strong, despite a downturn in the technology sector.
With a strong growth of electronic commerce and the Internet's capacity to create new relationships with customers, computer and information technology jobs will continue to evolve and grow.
For our company, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find good, quality IT talent in Wisconsin, and we have plenty of good paying positions for them. So, how do we get people interested in pursuing IT as a career, as an area of study in school? I don’t have the answer, I’m just asking. My guess would be that the interest needs to be instilled in a child somewhere during middle school years or earlier. When we are talking to our kids about becoming doctors, nurses, accountants or lawyers, why not talk to them about becoming a computer engineer of some sort.
The types of jobs currently available include work as a programmer, software engineer, architect, database administrator, systems administrator, networking, desktop support, help desk, support specialist, technology officer, systems analyst, security officer, tech services manager, technology manager, data modeler, project manager, business analyst, mobile application developer, report developer, etc. Really, the list goes on and on. Think about it, every business in Wisconsin likely has a computer sitting on a desk. How about the banks, insurance companies, state government and telecommunications companies? Loads of IT jobs!
The pay range for positions we have can go from anywhere between $17 an hour to $120 an hour and beyond! According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, computer science graduates received an average salary offer of $61,407 in 2009, compared to chemical engineering graduates earning $64,902 and English and psychology majors earning an average of $36,175 starting wage. The overall average new college graduate starting salary was $49,307. (Note: Not interested in going back to full time school? Check out technical colleges like MATC where you can earn IT related certificates -Â such as the IT-Java Professional Developer. Or something like this Bootcamp at New Horizons.)
We have at least 70 openings that we’re trying to fill with qualified folks. Local talent is in short supply. We recruit locally and nationally to find people. The U.S. government issues 65,000 work visas a year to foreign workers to allow companies to bring in skilled people from other countries to help develop our technology. Walk through a large company here in Madison and you’re likely to see many skilled people working who are from another country other than the U.S. Some of the largest employers in the nation have sponsored thousands of visas, for example IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Intel. See, IT talent is in demand!
All I’m saying here is that I would love to encourage people to take a look at IT as a potential area to find a job that pays well. There certainly is a lot of opportunity. Tonight, when you’re having dinner with the family, consider telling your kids they could grow up to be a computer technologist!
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608-204-9299
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Smart Solutions, Inc. | 200 River Place, Ste. 230, Madison, WI 53716 | Phone: 608-204-9299 | Fax: 608-204-9177
There are so many free opportunities to learn programming these days it's a shame more people don't take advantage.
If you want to give your kids a fun way to learn programming, may I suggest Ruby 4 Kids( http://ruby4kids.com/ruby4kids)? Ruby is a fun, wonderful language and they will be building video games right out of the gate. It's a great place to start!