Wall Street Woes May Spell Opporunity For Tech

Wall Street Woes May Spell Opporunity For Tech

Sunday, September 28, 2008 - by Dave Altavilla
As the old saying goes, one man's ceiling is another man's floor.  And in every down market, somehow, somewhere, another sector of the market is flourishing.  Though many folks out there might not be tapping into that early retirement as early as they would like, troubles in the Financial sector spell opportunity for the geeks in Computer Sciences and IT.  Not to mention the fact that the internet is quickly running short of routing resources, so they'll need a few more smart kids real soon, to backfill things with new technology.  So if you were college-bound, where would you go?  With the flow of course.

Randal Bryant, dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said his school saw student applications drop to a low of 1,700 from a peak of 3,200 in 2001 at the end of the dot-com boom.

But the situation has been turning around in the past few years, with 2,300 applications coming in last year, he said.  Bryant said he expects that the troubles on Wall Street will likely influence some students to switch majors in the coming months from business to other fields, including computer science.

Check out the U.S. Department of Labor's list of the 30 fastest-growing occupations, with a projection from 2006 to 2016, for some interesting trends.  Network Systems and Data Communications Analyst tops the list with 53% growth.  Software Engineers are fourth on the list too.  Go figure, that internet running out of capacity issue seems to be causing a resurgence and that job watching the ticker-tape is looking less appealing.  From Bean Counters to Propeller Heads.  It's the ebb and flow.  Breathe in - breathe out.  Expand - contract.  You get the idea.  Now you just have to call the next trend and more importantly, make sure you like what you do.

Via: Computerworld | News Archive | Tags: Tech
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By bob_on_the_cob on Sep 28, 2008

News:

 

But the situation has been turning around in the past few years, with 2,300 applications coming in last year, he said. 

This is why I'm not in the tech field. My family doesn't understand why. Because all they see is that its one of the largest growing fields. I work with two guys that when to school to be network admins. I am there boss because I have been in the restaurant field longer. It might be growing at a fast pace, but we are not the only ones trying for the jobs. I am in the restaurant field because I can make $40k+ a year and I can always find a job. I have never job hunt. Not so in the tech fields. It's hard to get experience in the tech field. Even though I have been pulling apart computers for the last 5 year its hard to show that on a resume'.

By 3vi1 on Sep 29, 2008

>> Network Systems and Data Communications Analyst tops the list with 53% growth <<

Does their definition of "Fastest growwing occupation" mean "number of jobs available in the field", or "number of people competing for jobs in the field"? I need to know so that I can be happy or terrified.

Bonus game: Read the article title in the voice of Scooby Doo.

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