What are you going into now?
For a while I was contemplating going into tech based on one or two SDN users who frequently and strongly praise the IT industry (I won’t name names LOL), however, ultimately I decided against it. I think all of the positive praise you get from people regarding the tech industry can be attributed to the fact that most people suffer from the “grass is greener syndrome.” They hear one or two success stories and buy into the fact that everything is dandy on the other side.
The truth of the matter is there is a success story to be found in EVERY profession. I know a successful lawyer, a successful physical therapist, a successful pharmacists even…etc. If you name a profession I’m sure I can give you ONE success story. I think the key in drawing an accurate conclusion however should be to focused on where the majority of practitioners of that profession fall and ignore the onesie-twosie stories people cite as the basis of their conclusion.
So, in a nutshell this is why I chose against pursuing a career in CS/Ttechnology:
1- The MAJORITY of IT workers DO NOT make anywhere near pharmacist salaries of $100k+. The majority of IT workers don’t make $100K+, period. IT salaries in average cities range between 50K to maybe the high 80s with extensive years (7+) of experience. The minority higher paying jobs in excess of 90K+ are definitely the minority (e.g. software engineering) and are offered in bigger cities (SanFran, NY, BayArea) where the cost of living is 2-3x more than your average city, making your salary very dismal. To put it in perspective, it costs approximately $1,100/sqft in SanFran making an average home size of just 1500sqft cost $1,650,000.
2- IT jobs are outsourced and if not outsourced they will 100% be. This is a no brainer…the product or service is deliverable online through secure file transfers and it saves the company millions. So make this realization, you’re no longer competing in a domestically saturated market (like the pharmacy profession currently), you’re essentially have to compete with someone on the other side of the globe who will do it for less and perhaps better because their educational path didn’t require them to take a myriad of electives (e.g. humanities, social sciences, etc.).
3- If the jobs are currently not outsourced then there’s the financial incentive for corporations to consider outsourcing in the future, using consultant companies that hire H1Bs, or just hiring TONS of H1bs directly… ALL OF WHICH AGAIN SAVE THEM TONS OF MONEY as opposed to just hiring domestic Full-Time employees.
4- Don’t look at the top companies like Facebook, Google, Apple who hire directly from ivy league schools. It’s a well known fact that these companies have their pick at the litter and they regularly just employ from neighboring ivy league schools.
I have three cousins in the IT industry all of whom unanimously say look the other way. Each of them swears to the fact that H1Bs outnumber FTEs by 9 to 1 in their respective offices. I don’t have it all figured, but like everyone else I try to apply common logic and have come to the realization that the IT/CS path isn’t all cheerios…far from it in fact. In picking a successful career, I think it’s important to look at what you enjoy first and foremost and second to that determine the durability of the career (i.e. can the career withstand the current trends of the time such as automation, outsourcing, etc.)
I personally passed up on Pharmacy and am now looking into becoming a Nurse Practitioner. Salaries easily start at 90K+ (where I would like to be to have the lifestyle I want), and you have the autonomy to diagnose and prescribe. You can also operate your own practice and work under a physician’s license. I don’t see the profession being squashed by automation or outsourcing. There is a lot of versatility with the degree. If you’re not into direct patient contact, as I know from my experience in my prereq classes many pre-pharmers are not, you can become a case manager or office manager where you have no direct contact with bodily fluids (i.e. Blood, urine, etc.) and spend majority of your time in an office setting in a supervisory role. All of my pre-pharm courses are applicable as well and it speedies up my academic journey. Hope this post helped. Good Luck!
