FeelGood:
Hey Nick you're still living at home, right? Or are you actually juggling a career and going to school and paying bills? Did you start working full time right out of high school? Did you know ANYTHING at the time or did you just sort of pick stuff up on the way? And how much are you making?
Interesting thread. During high school I wanted to "make games" for a living so I applied to a University declaring Computer Science as my intended major. I was accepted under my alternate so CS was out of the picture for the time being (thank God) and I was actually quite relieved. After talking with career councelors and the like regarding my intended major I was disgusted at the work conditions and basically said "fuck that" when I graduated high school.
The funny part is all I heard growing up (all the way through high school) was "know computers and people will be beating down your door" and "you can't go wrong with computers" and "CS majors are in such high demand right now it isn't even funny".
Yeah, they are in such high demand because they can hire a dozen for 50K a year and work them like slaves. Funny how that works out.
I'll take a bigger paycheck for less work for $1000, Alex.
Nope, I moved out on my own right after I graduated High School. It was scary at first, since when I moved out I was working at Camelot music in the mall part time... Basically I ate nothing but Roman, pasta, mac and cheese... and those little rice a roni rice dinners for the longest time, but I made it work... hehe.
It was complete luck that got me into IBM, nothing more. I actually had left Camelot (well they closed) and went to Block Buster Music, I had started school as a Comp Sci major at the University of South Florida, and I really wanted to find a tech job. At Blockbuster we rented movies too, but you needed to have a Blockbuster Music card, the video one didn't work their cause we had a crappy computer system. This girl came in one day with a few CDs and a few tapes to rent... she handed me her Blockbuster Video card and I went threw my speal about it not working here. I said I could get her another card for the store, it only took about 2 mins... She said nahhh... and just wanted the music. Then she said, you know what... I'll take that card.
She filled out the form and put IBM as her employeer. I said... cool, IBM, I didn't know they were around here... She said they were right down the street. I told her about myself and that I wanted to find a tech job, she gave me her card and said to call her in the morning. I did and she got me in touch with HR... it was all history from there... TOTALLY CHANCE.
My experience was not really all that great. I had been tinkering with computers forever, old Tandy's DOS before the Windows days... but never really knew to much about PCs since I was a big Mac person. I always had Macs and I had written a few Mac games and a few GB games that played on an emulator... (The GB has a similar processor as an old Mac 68K machine). I also had some mad Macintosh network hacking skills I developed in highschool to get around their computers security... childish stuff, hehe, but I guess it paid off. I learned the ins and outs of Resources, another big plus in my book...
When IBM saw I was a little Mac guru they freaked, they really needed me. I started off at tech support making $18 an hour... Which was quite the upgrade from my $6.50 an hour at BB. Later, when I was in test at IBM I was making $52,000 a year... not to bad at all. As for learning stuff on the way... oh yeah, so much. Really I have learned so much more on the job then in all of my classes combined, it has deffinetly turned me into a much better programer and focused developer.
I have always worked, since I have been in college. I have always had to juggle school, work, paying bills... etc, etc. It was tough at first, but I really am glad I just jumped right in. I also consider myself incredibly lucky, and I know that it may have never happened had that girl never walked into Blockbuster that day, or decided not to rent those movies.
One other thing I will say to you, you are 100% right about this industry. I have said the same thing you said about a million times to my friends. When I was growing up, I was painted the picture that if you work in the computer industry you will have so much money, and jobs everywhere... and you will retire by 35... etc, etc. Maybe 10 years ago, but that is far from the truth now. The economy sucks, people are being laid off everywhere. A lot of people blame Sept 11th, but the truth was the industry peaked in 2000 and has been declining since... you see it all over. I really think the day will come, and probably soon, where computer workers will be back down to the lower salary blue collar type drone workers... and I don't think it is too far off. I like to relate it to the automotive industry. In the 40s and 50s, being on the production line of an automotive company was a huge technical engineering job. You were well paid and respected, and were desiging the future... but, now machines have come into play and the jobs are now usually more blue collar low pay type jobs.
I see the same happening in this industry. Already starting pay has droped from $65K or so out here a few years ago to around $50... People being hired to do the same job as me today are making atleast $15K less a year... It is also getting harder and harder to find a job. When Symantec recruited me in 2000 I had offers from almost 75 companies. OK, most were shitty, but some big guns were competing for me. I was flown all over the country, given nice hotel rooms and spending money... etc. Symantec offered me all moving expenses, plus $5000 to put in my pocket to get setup out here, tons of stock, good pay, rent for a month (which I took at a hotel since I had a dog and was having trouble finding a place.. ended up being about $4000 for two weeks), etc... Now a days even here when people are hired, we don't even pay the moving expenses anymore!
Things are changing, and I know that... I too have been looking outside of this industry for my next job move, but the question is to where.
Anyway, if I had to do it all over again I would do it in a second. It has been a great ride and I have learned so much along the way.
-Nick
<small>[ February 05, 2003, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: nruva ]</small>
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