The Dirty Truth About Tech Jobs

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I have always had superior reviews, too. Others I saw get axed were extraordinary workers. THe mindset of the previous poster is one who has not walked in these moccasins and is attempting to understand this experience of gross clear cutting from his or her own experience and maybe of naive common sense. ‘When you work hard and honestly, you don’t get snookered.’ As another poster said above, there is bigger stuff occurring above us that is bigger than what is seen and experienced of the mere hard worker underneath - apparently.</p>

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<p>Homer claimed that others were spouting lies. That his position was
correct. He would have to do an exhaustive proof to demonstrate that
they were spouting lies. His position is not “complete” truth as he
expects of others.</p>

<p>The workforce changes all the time. Back when I started, it was common
to have lots and lots of secretaries to do typing, book travel
arrangement, arrange meetings, etc. Computers and education have meant
that far fewer secretaries to do these tasks are no longer needed. We
used to have groups of keypunch operators that took code sheets and
turned them into punch cards. Those jobs are gone. We used to have
lots of people to do general ledger sheets and these jobs were killed
off by the spreadsheet. Where was the hue and cry over the loss of
these jobs?</p>

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<p>You can always hope for change.</p>

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<p>If you’re a construction worker in one part of the country and there
is a boom or emerging boom in another part of the country, what do you
do? 8 years ago, the middle-class in Argentian was wiped out by
mismanagement of the country. What did they do? Hang around? There was
considerable out-migration to Europe.</p>

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<p>Did you see the words: “larger salaries”?</p>

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But the automation of these tasks led to a new industry (computers) which brought new jobs to the US. But outsourcing, if seen as a type of automation, is different. It is the “automation” of nearly every job that Americans can do (and will be able to do in the future) for a fraction of the price. Now there is nothiing we can really do about it so complaining will naturally do nothing to the core issue, which is economics. Long-term: adjustment. Jobs will return as wages drop/currency drops but everybody will have less purchasing power and standard of living will drop. </p>

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<p>Over 5 or 6 years of experience isn’t really an asset. And companies are willing to train cheaper hires with the large code base. Some older employees know how the company works really well or have secured high management jobs or connections and are very unlikely to lose a job. Older employees cost more in health and salary. If they lose their job, it will likely be a very long time until they get another new one (44 weeks+ on average : <a href=“http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/07/long-term-unemployment-th_n_567684.html[/url]”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost). And older employees who can afford to retire are not retiring either due to economic uncertainty, leading to more layoffs and making very few openings for college grads.</p>

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<p>Sounds like Polaroid to me. Yes, all the talented engineers, chemists, physicists, and other scientists who worked there.</p>

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<p>The company that I work for is always looking for developers, and a live in a state with a high unemployment rate, but the unemployment rate for engineers/developer is low here.</p>

<p>One problem I have seen is people let their skills get outdated. I have a friend that only does programming in C#. Right he can not find a job, but there are jobs right down the road from him for C++, and Java developers. But he does not want to learn anything new.</p>

<p>To work as a developer you have to learn new things all the time. </p>

<p>I had to learn Objective-C to get a iphone project out, and had a short time to do it.</p>

<p>Check out companies that work with the DOD. For example Lockheed has posted 637 jobs between Oct-1-2010 and Oct-8-2010</p>

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<p>I’ve been through rounds of layoffs too (I said so in my last long post).</p>

<p>I grew up in the 60s and 70s. Take a look at the the long-term
unemployment chart. We had higher unemployment in the early 1980s than
we do now. There were rounds of layoffs, business that closed, crime
in the streets, etc. What you’re experiencing is nothing new. I’m just
amazed to see the level of moaning and groaning on college confidential
as opposed to the attitude of what adults do to find work that I see
on the parents forums.</p>

<p>Global megatrends have been with us for a long, long time. Try and
read them before they happen so that you can position yourself when
everyone around you is in panic mode.</p>

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<p>There is something that we can do about it and we are doing something
about it: </p>

<p>[USdollar.PNG</a> (image)](<a href=“USdollar.PNG]USdollar.PNG (image)”>USdollar.PNG (image))</p>

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<p>Fine with me. A good chunk of the rest of the world has lived with this
for decades.</p>

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<p>It wasn’t Polaroid but the actual company really doesn’t matter as I’m
sure that there are lots of similar examples. I am reminded of the
Polaroid story when I drive on 128 in Waltham.</p>

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<p>Which state is this?</p>

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<p>It’s so easy to pick up other languages when you are employed. There
are online course videos that you can download for free. The
development tools are free. You can pick up a book and go through the
exercises. And there are forums where you can ask questions if you
need help.</p>

<p>You can learn MySQL, Perl, Python, PHP, Javascript, etc. if you wish.
If you have a CS degree, then you should be capable of learning this
stuff on your own. Back in the day, if you wanted to learn something,
you’d have to take a course at a university or otherwise get access to
the hardware and software. Back then, you had to buy compilers, tools
and interpreters to learn on your own PC.</p>

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<p>Correct.</p>

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<p>I started playing around with XCode this past weekend. I’m more used
to command-line development at work. I’ve spent a lot of time in
Developer Studio (even bought a license) playing with open source
code as a hobby.</p>

<p>There are lots of people where I work that do open source projects
as a hobby.</p>

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<p>BCEagle91, The state that I am in has many opening for EE(have to have PE) and mining engineers(have to have PE). I did work at one of these engineering companies as a developer, but know I work for a casual video game company on a remote bases.</p>

<p>I think it’s easy to learn new languages and API. I see the programming languages as tools. The real skills is solving problems and design the software.</p>

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<p>Working on open source project is also great for students. It’s like a free internship.</p>

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<p>“The only alternatives to layoffs is to either reduce the minimum wage (increase the supply of labor) or to reduce the wages of engineers.”</p>

<p>Well then I guess engineers will see their pay decline because no politican in their right mind would ever cut the minimum wage. And why should they? A family of 4 who makes minimum wage lives below the poverty level. Advocatig a cut in the minimum wage is absurd.</p>

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<p>“A full 16% of the graduating class of my above-average engineering school was unemployed upon a year after graduation. This is reality.”</p>

<p>That’s very common in the current recession. And unfortunately, the unemployed number is likely higher than that since those who take low level jobs like flipping burgers are counted as “employed.” And those who go to grad school because there is no work are often left out of the data. When a school says that 84% of their graduating engineers are employed, they mean “employed” in general, not employed in engienering jobs. Universities try desperately to inflate their career statistics as much as possible.</p>

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<p>“The unemployment rate in my state is 5.7%.”</p>

<p>Well, good for you. The unemployment rate in my state is close to double that, and climbing. In fact, just this week our lovely governor CANCELLED the largest infastructure project in the country, killing 6,000 jobs. Places like Nevada and Michigan are even worse, with unemployment rates close to 15%. </p>

<p>“You’ve never heard of medical tourism?”</p>

<p>Why do you keep bringing that up? Most peopel are not going to go abraod and risk getting butchered by some pseudo doctor. </p>

<p>And if your going to talk about medical tourism, why no mention of people who come to the US to get treated? You think that medical tourism is only a 1 way business?</p>

<p>[Medical</a> Tourism is Dangerous | The Dr. Oz Show](<a href=“http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/arthur-w-perry-md-facs/medical-tourism-dangerous-0]Medical”>http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/arthur-w-perry-md-facs/medical-tourism-dangerous-0)</p>

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This sounds very ignorant and condescending and is voiced probably by a US surgeon who wishes to preserve his income and the US medical system (biased source). Doctors in India and Singapore are selected from a much more competitive procedure and are provided training roughly equivalent to doctors here. My cousin got her M.B.B.S. in India, did here residency here and works at Cleveland Clinic one of the best US hospital.</p>

<p>The top hospitals (which are where foreigners go) in India also have similar facilities as average US hospital. For costly elective (non-emergency) treatment including hip replacement and heart bypass surgery, many (esp. those without insurance - a growing group) opt to be treated in India. And who can blame them for spending $6,000 instead of $60,000. Even insurance companies endorse medical tourism to save costs. There are some disadvantages (such as limited follow-up care, potential infections, unfamiliar territory etc) but for many, it is the the most viable option.</p>

<p>Sure, some people go to get treated in the US. But this is declining as medical science in other nations catches up with US care. My relative in India who are relatively well off can certainly not afford to come to the US for medical care. Also, these are mainly for the rich who want highly complex procedures which top US researchers are only familiar with, not normal surgery.</p>

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<p>But not all countires are safe for medical tourists. Sure Indian doctors are good. But in many other countries, you dont’ want to go within 100 yards of a hospital:</p>

<p>Plastic surgery ‘disasters’ await medical tourists </p>

<p>AUSTRALIAN plastic surgeons are having to repair botched operations and shattered lives because of the boom in cut-price Asian cosmetic surgery. </p>

<p>Melbourne plastic surgeons this week told the Herald Sun of 57 bungled boob jobs, facelifts, liposuction and other overseas procedures they have fixed for unhappy medical tourists in the past three years.</p>

<p>[Plastic</a> surgery ‘disasters’ await medical tourists | News.com.au](<a href=“http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/plastic-surgery-disasters-await-medical-tourists/story-e6frfqg0-1111114308747#ixzz11tDndD8b]Plastic”>http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/plastic-surgery-disasters-await-medical-tourists/story-e6frfqg0-1111114308747#ixzz11tDndD8b)</p>

<p>“Stacey Cavaliere’s story starts off pleasantly enough. After two years of diet and exercise she lost 135 pounds, and as a reward she was planning a Costa Rica vacation, where a nice relaxing trip awaited her. Or that’s what the tourist Web site promised her. It also promised that Caveliere, 35, would come back lifted, tucked and toned in places where her extreme weight loss yielded excess hanging skin. But upon returning to the U.S., Cavaliere wasn’t showing off her new body – she was rushed to the emergency room where her abdomen had to be completely reconstructed after a botched body lift. Only after eight surgeries did she end up with the body she wanted.”</p>

<p>[Plastic</a> Surgery Disaster Abroad - AOL Health](<a href=“http://www.aolhealth.com/condition-center/plastic-cosmetic-surgery/medical-tourism?feeddeeplinkNum=0]Plastic”>http://www.aolhealth.com/condition-center/plastic-cosmetic-surgery/medical-tourism?feeddeeplinkNum=0)</p>

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<p>Not to mention, if someone has health insurance, why should they go to another country for surgery? To improve the bottom line of a multi billion dollar insurance company?</p>

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<p>Look at what’s happening in the stock market. Retail money is leaving
the market in droves yet the market is going higher. What do you think
is causing that?</p>

<p>The Federal poverty level for a family of 4 in 2009 is $22,050.</p>

<p>The minimum wage in Massachusetts, California is $8/hour. That’s $16K
per year. For one worker with one job. If you have two earners with
one job each, that’s $32K. You’re supposed to be an accountant, right?
Can’t you add?</p>

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<p>Move.</p>

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<p>Why do you keep making the ridiculous assertion that medical workers
in the US cannot be outsourced?</p>

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<p>Given the pricing policies here, you have to have a fair chunk of
change to come to the US for surgery as you have to subsidize those
without coverage. But that’s really irrelevant to your argument which
is wrong.</p>

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<p>You do know that people in the US die because of botched procedures
too, right?</p>

<p>But that’s irrelevant. You stated that medical professionals in the
US could not have their jobs outsourced. And that’s just wrong.</p>

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<p>My company self-insures. It only uses an insurance company as an
administrator. When my coworkers use health services, it affects my
premiums. Health insurance doesn’t mean that healthcare is free.</p>

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<p>[Medical</a> malpractice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_malpractice]Medical”>Medical malpractice - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>A 2006 follow-up to the 1999 Institute of Medicine study found that medication errors are among the most common medical mistakes, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. According to the study, 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year in hospitals, 800,000 in long-term care settings, and roughly 530,000 among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics. The report stated that these are likely to be conservative estimates. In 2000 alone, the extra medical costs incurred by preventable drug related injuries approximated $887 million – and the study looked only at injuries sustained by Medicare recipients, a subset of clinic visitors. None of these figures take into account lost wages and productivity or other costs.[9]</p>

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<p>“The minimum wage in Massachusetts, California is $8/hour. That’s $16K
per year. For one worker with one job. If you have two earners with
one job each, that’s $32K. You’re supposed to be an accountant, right?
Can’t you add?”</p>

<p>A large number of minimum wage earners are single mothers, many of whom have never been married. A single mother making minimum wage lives in poverty. We’ve all heard the stories: the girl got pregnant in high school, the father left, the father got thrown in prison, etc. I grew up in a community where this occurred, so it happens and we can’t deny it. </p>

<p>Taxpayers also have to subsidize employers who pay minimum wage because it is the TAXPAYER who must pay for the worker’s Medicaid, Section 8, food stamps, etc. By advocating a cut in the minium wage, you are also advocating that we should increase government subsidies to mega corporations like Wal Mart and McDonalds. </p>

<p>“Another consideration, which we do not address in this report, are the hidden taxpayer
costs associated with food stamps, Medicaid, the earned income tax credit and other
social safety-net programs that Wal-Mart retail workers (and their families) may be
eligible for because of the low wages and limited health insurance coverage they
receive. A hint of the extent of these costs, which amount to another form of public
subsidies for Wal-Mart, recently came to light in Georgia. A state survey found that
10,261 of the 166,000 participants in the PeachCare program, which provides health
care coverage for youngsters in low-income uninsured families, were children of Wal-
Mart employees. This was more than 10 times the number for any other employer.”</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf[/url]”>http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>“My company self-insures. It only uses an insurance company as an
administrator. When my coworkers use health services, it affects my
premiums.”</p>

<p>Well, at most companies, the policy is bought from an insurance carrier. Not to mention that emergency medical procedures will always have to be done in the U.S. whe time is of the essence.</p>

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<p>I grew up in a single-parent family and my mother worked two jobs to
support the family.</p>

<p>Why did you use the term: family of four to represent a single-parent
family? This is an unusual connotation.</p>

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<p>Strawman.</p>

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<p>Rubbish.</p>

<p>We were in Singapore and my son had an emergency. I called my
provider. They said go to the doctor there and submit the bill
for reimbursement. We did that but the bill was $10 which I didn’t
bother submitting. That’s when I realized that they had a far better
healthcare system than we do in the US.</p>

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<p>"> Taxpayers also have to subsidize employers who pay minimum wage</p>

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<p>Strawman."</p>

<p>NO, that is not a stawman argument. You made a case in favor of lowering the minimum wage (completely absurd and outrageous in my opinion) and the fact that the govt. subsidiizes minimum wage employers with billiions is something you cannot simply dismiss. </p>

<p>In fact, cutting the minimum wage would have virtualy no impact on job prospects for engineers:</p>

<p>[Would</a> cutting the minimum wage raise employment? - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/would-cutting-the-minimum-wage-raise-employment/]Would”>Would cutting the minimum wage raise employment? - The New York Times)</p>

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<p>Yes it is.</p>

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<p>Then you should be able to easily quote where I made this case.</p>

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<p>Running a country is complex. You have to be naive to not understand
the relationship between business and politics. We have the best
government money can buy.</p>