I need career advice. Degree in Computer Enginerring?

[nitro]

Learning to program is, IMHO, as important a skill in today's world as basic mathemics or reading.

It is hard to say what you should get a degree in. The money is only half of the equation. Job satisfaction, continued employment opportunities and job security, upward mobility, etc, are all equally important.

I can tell you this, the people that do the work rarely get paid the most. If I were you, I would be thinking of how to become the BOSS in whatever you do.

Grinding it in front of a computer screen programming is a good job, but it is not for everybody.

nitro

 

[richtrader]

Quote from nitro:

I can tell you this, the people that do the work rarely get paid the most.

My theory is that in this society, you get paid in direct proportion to how hard you are to replace. That is why brain surgeons and pro athletes make a ton, while starbucks workers don't.

 

[swtrader]

Quote from omcate:



Yes. But I do know that the IT divison of the Invetsment Bank I worked at cut 50% of the London support staff in year 2000 and outsourced the work to India.

And as far as the stuff programmed on site goes, H1b visa holders are prefferred

In 1998, the annual cap was raised from 65,00 per year to 105,000 per year - at the top of the boom (Sept 2000) it was raised AGAIN to 195,000 per year.

A bill introduced by Tom Tancredo (R Colorado) to reduce the immigration during times of tech depression was flatly ignored. So IT workers are stuck with an IT depression, outsourcing to india, and a boom level immigration.

Get caught with skills a couple of years our of date, and out you go, training ouside of the job does not count, must be "on the job" Forget getting a job past 40, which everyone will someday be.

 

[okwon]

Quote from cheeks:

I would really appreciate some help.

Here is my situation. I'm 28. I graduated in 1998 with a Degree in Finance from a regional business school. When I left school I wanted to trade more than anything in this world. I tried to get a trading related job somewhere on Wall Street, but it did not work out. I was so determined to trade that I decided to wait tables at night so I put together a trading stake and trade during the day. Unfortunately, I was trying to pay off a lot of college debt at the same time.

Is there a reason why you didn't just join a prop. firm when the Wall Street thing didn't work out?

 

[omcate]

Quote from swtrader:



And as far as the stuff programmed on site goes, H1b visa holders are prefferred

In 1998, the annual cap was raised from 65,00 per year to 105,000 per year - at the top of the boom (Sept 2000) it was raised AGAIN to 195,000 per year.

A bill introduced by Tom Tancredo (R Colorado) to reduce the immigration during times of tech depression was flatly ignored. So IT workers are stuck with an IT depression, outsourcing to india, and a boom level immigration.

Get caught with skills a couple of years our of date, and out you go, training ouside of the job does not count, must be "on the job" Forget getting a job past 40, which everyone will someday be.

Yes. It was the boom time(1997 to June 2000).
Nowaday, only a few companies are willing to sponsor H-1B Visa for progarmming positions. It takes about 3 months for a H-1B Visa holder to switch job because of the paper work. Under the current tough environment, if you have a H-1B Visa in US and get laid off, it is almost certain that you have to leave. That is why some companies give out airline tickets, when they lay off H-1B Visa programmers.

 

[nitro]

Quote from richtrader:


My theory is that in this society, you get paid in direct proportion to how hard you are to replace. That is why brain surgeons and pro athletes make a ton, while starbucks workers don't.

That is a good theory - supply and demand.

nitro

 

[cheeks]

Wow! Thanks for all the responses so far.

I know IT is dead at the moment. It is just an area of interest, and something I would not mind doing. Plus I am one of those people that just loves to learn, so going back to school sounds fun to me.

Working for a commercial bank or as a stockbroker is just not an option I would even consider. I would love to work somewhere on the buy side on Wall Street. But for a number of reasons I don't see that happening.

I am a profitable trader. My problem is my account is so small that it would take Martin Schwartz 5 years to turn it into a real account. And my name ain't Martin.

Big thanks to everyone who has responded so far. I am going to go read through everything again.

Cheeks

 

[harrytrader]

Yes there is a big problem much more in fact in Europe than in United States since salary taxes are huge around 100% of the net salary. They tax salaries and declared at the same time they want to create employment this is non sense. It only make sense for communists. I'm fed up of paying engineers a fortune and they only perceive 50% of that because governement rackets the other part. I could pay 15 times less an EXPERIMENTED indian engineer than an UNEXPRIMENTED french engineer .

Quote from richtrader:


They've been talking about stuff like this for 10 years now. I think the difference is that now IT management is realizing that while foreign country help may be cheaper, you have no idea what you're going to get. Some of the quotes in the article you sent seem to attest to that.

 

[cheeks]

Quote from okwon:



Is there a reason why you didn't just join a prop. firm when the Wall Street thing didn't work out?

Yes. The first prop firms that I saw looked very shady. I thought they were just bucket shops born out of the late 90's and I stayed clear. Obviously, I was not entirely correct.

As it turns out I am much more comfortable swing trading than daytrading. So retail is really my only option.

 

[MondoTrader]

either stick with trading or go into the medical field in some capacity. IT is in a true depression with no help from the government and no end in sight. Unemployment rates among former IT workers is double digit at least and growing. January was supposed to be when firms would start hiring again and it didn't pan out at all. It can only get worse the rest of the year.