Surviving in the new service economy

[willpeavy]

Yeah VB seems pretty easy so far and you can do a lot with it. I learned VBScript first, so transitioning over to VB and using Visual Studio is going fast. ... I've never even looked a line of Java code, but have been using JavaScript for a while.

[Odidnetne]

Yeah VB seems pretty easy so far and you can do a lot with it. I learned VBScript first, so transitioning over to VB and using Visual Studio is going fast. ... I've never even looked a line of Java code, but have been using JavaScript for a while.

 

The coding of Java (for the most part) is 90+% identical to C++, but it's so slow and made for internet stuff.

[Jay]

Last month I put my resume up on careerbuilder and monster looking for web developer jobs. Soon after I had the phone ringing off the hook with recruiters calling me trying to arrange interviews. I picked the three I liked best, and did the interviews. I got two offers and got my pick of jobs. ... As far as tech and IT goes --- if you've got solid code examples and can explain your methods to team leads in interviews, you can basically have your pick of jobs. But if you're writing sloppy code or using outdated technologies, and just expecting a job to be handed to you, then you'll be out of luck.

I agree that IT is not doing as bad as manufacturing.

 

I have a BS and MS in mechanical engineering. My GP was 3.15 and 3.7 for the two. I put my resume up on those two (monster, career builder, others) over a year ago and never got a single call. Part of my problem is that my experience is actually in Aerosol science which is a tiny field. For the more usual mechanical engineering jobs my experience is just all wrong.

 

Then you have this sort of thing:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1301062/posts

 

NOISH is bascially the only place in the state of WV that my experience is right for. But I think as an ethical vegan I'd fail their security background check the same as an Iranian. (Of course most of their work is in animal experiments anyway...) Well anyway I've applied for numerous jobs there and heard nothing. Also at my job at Los Alamos National Laboratory the way in which they got rid of me went a long way towards destroying my career.

 

So I've got a MS in mechanical engineering and I work as a hospital orderly. I only got that job because my sister was a nurse there. The whole thing makes me pretty angry and I just about lost it a year or so ago.

 

Anyway, all that aside the nationwide numbers are clear in that manufacturing jobs are being offshored. A net of 3 million have been lost since 2001. It's not so clear with computer type jobs.

 

I don't think our economy can survive like this. And I don't think it's fair to expect all these people who's jobs are gone to happily retrain in a new field while they still owe tens of thousands in college loans after already spending more than half a decade getting an education.