<p>I've completed two years of college and then took a gap year for various reasons. I'm now looking into IT, but it seems like there is no clear path of what to do now to land a good job in the future. What major(s) would you recommend, which should I stay away from? What not-so-obvious set of skills would you say are necessary? Is it a good to complete a B.A. (B.S.) in one field and then just get the technical A.A.S.? What won't be outsourced and would be in the demand for the next decade? I'm living in a large city (NY), if that's of any help... I remember seeing way back a few people in this profession here, so I thought it might be a good place to ask.
P.S. I'm fine with the idea of staying a bit longer in school to get a degree (which most likely will be the case, since my previous major was in the humanities).</p>
<p>I cannot answer any of your questions but here is a link to a career planning site that might provide some answers:</p>
<p>[Sloan</a> Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Healthcare](<a href=“http://www.careercornerstone.org/index.htm]Sloan”>Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine)</p>
<p>What exactly do you foresee yourself doing? Just in case you don’t know, there’s a distinction between IT and software development. </p>
<p>IT generally involves determining, configuring, and supporting IT infrastructures. This includes the networks, the servers, and the applications used by businesses. They don’t create the applications but rather, determine what’s needed, what’s available, and then acquire ‘off the shelf’ applications that meet the need. IT would enable access to the network for the workers, install and configure the email (like MS Exchange) and database (like Oracle) systems along with accounting systems, HR systems, and many other business ‘infrastructure’ systems. They manage access to the systems by individual user and also take care of the routers, firewalls, hubs, cabling, etc.</p>
<p>Software development is quite different and refers to those who design and develop the operating systems, applications, and other systems that might end up being used by IT groups, and many different types of systems (like airplanes, missiles, ships, ovens, washers, cars, games, TVs, almost anything else that plugs in nowadays).</p>
<p>The above paragraphs are generalities.</p>
<p>Regarding outsourcing, anything can be outsourced in almost every industry (even some medical and education jobs are being outsourced) but some of the IT functions and some of the more basic software development functions are easier to outsource than others. Regardless, the software development jobs still seem to be quite available with a lot of grads getting multiple job offers at a relatively high salary. They have upward mobility paths into the more experienced technical side, technical management, and executive management.</p>
<p>As to which degree to get, think through what you’d really be most interested in doing and then pursue that. Some possibilities are Computer Science if you want to be a software developer/engineer, Information Systems if you want to do IT, something focusing on network engineering for IT, etc.</p>