05-27-2017, 12:49 PM
(05-26-2017, 08:14 PM)dweller94 Wrote: Making 55,000USD/year 10 years ago sounds real good man, how did that f*ck up, it should increase, not the other way around?
That is what you would think. Unfortunately, lots of bad things have happened since then. At least in the US it has become possible to import cheap labor from India and other places on "temporary" visas that get extended forever, so tons of jobs don't even get listed for native citizens. Even when they do, wages have been consistently going down for everything I can do (primarily Windows administration and training). Other laws have made it more expensive to hire people full time, so lots of jobs are either part time or temporary. I've seen wages fall a lot, especially in help desk. Why anyone would want the stress of a help desk job for similar pay to being a meathead in a warehouse with relatively little stress I can't say ("you, move those boxes" is like a day off compared to most of what I've encountered in IT).
I also opted to be a trainer when I had the opportunity, which gave me the responsibility for being the entire IT department for decent sized environment on top of being immersed in the technical details of everything I teach all day, and genius recruiters come to the conclusion that this somehow has a completely different skillset to everything else in IT. I figured that if I was getting offers of 55k with almost no experience I already have it made, and that sure didn't last. When I go through job ads today the jobs and the money just aren't there like they were 10 years ago. Then if you've been unemployed for more than a couple months under these ridiculous conditions they throw that back in your face like you're obviously useless if some other dumbass who doesn't understand your resume either doesn't hire you.
What really gets me is that I interviewed for a recruiter job once, thinking an agency might appreciate having someone who actually understands the resumes taking a look at them and matching them to work they can do. Before I got two sentences in the guy interviewing me cut me off and wanted to know what kind of experience I had in sales. And I suddenly understood why so many of these douchebags did nothing but waste my time. As for why sales experience would be beneficial to finding people who can do technical work, I did not got a satisfactory, or even comprehensible, answer to that.
I can't say you won't make it, I can't say the potential for having a good career if you actually find a stable job isn't there, but I can't tell you that you'll have it made as soon as you land your first job and get some experience on your resume either. I know training companies make it seem like being in IT is a land of milk and honey with endless prosperity for all. You can spin and warp enough statistics to make it appear that way, but it hasn't worked out like that for me or the vast majority of people I've known in IT. Most people I still talk with have changed careers.
