Programming jobs

Originally posted by Sherlock
Well actually that’s the opposite of the truth, that’s what the IT industry lobbies want the government to think but actually US universities are producing TOO MUCH programmers.

I did mention in my last post there is currently a glut in the CS field.

BTW, that “Flight control software?” thread is really wild and woolly isnt it? I hope you found the actual 300+ long thread rather than one of its little update offshoots. I took small part in that thread under the name arquebus257WeaMag.

My brother just graduated with his masters in CIS and has been on the job hunt in the US for quite awhile. Jobs aren’t nearly as plentiful as they were about 3 years ago. The good jobs are even harder to come by if not impossible.

US universitys are no longer producing enough people in these fields.

Well actually that’s the opposite of the truth, that’s what the IT industry lobbies want the government to think but actually US universities are producing TOO MUCH programmers. I read an article about this recently, and while I can’t remember the exxact details, I think it said something along that lines of only about 65% of recent comp-sci grads in the US find jobs as programmers. The thing is, these H1B workers from places like India are willing to work for far less and that’s why they are hired first.

I made a mistake on the title of that thread, its actually called “Flight control software?” and its currently on the second page of rec.aviation.military at google groups, so you dont have to so a search. As for me knowing about foreign tech labor in Canada, I dont know. Arent you Canadian? I can tell you the reason that the US imports so many people in the science and engineering fields is simply because US universitys are no longer producing enough people in these fields. I have heard there is currently a glut in the CS field in the US BTW.

I will look up that google groups, thanks for the info about that. I have heard a lot about foreigners taking over programming jobs in the US on H-1B visas, mostly from India and China and they are always hired over American programmers because they are willing to work cheaper. Would you know if Canada has any such problem? To my knowledge it doesn’t but I am not that familiar with the field yet. My job is just really boring despite the fact that I enjoy programming, I thought I would look into something a bit more interesting.

sherlock- I dont think programing in the aerospace industry is as glamorous and cutting edge as you might think. First of all there has been a huge downturn in defence work since the fall of communism 14 years ago. Second, they use alot of embedded hardware and software using languages like assembly, C and Ada. Also your dealing with time critical issues which means you almost have to be an electronic engineer rather than just a CS major. There are alot of other more cutting edge programming jobs nowadays especially in graphics. Infact Canada is in the lead in this area and In my opinion you would be crazy to leave that country. There was a thread a short while ago on rec.aviation.military called “military software” where a bunch of guys in that field talked shop. You might want to do a search of that thread at google groups and email some of these guys.