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Re: [LUG] UK digital skills report

 

On 18 Feb 2015, at 18:06, Simon Waters <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> On 2015-02-18 16:07, Jay Bennie wrote:
>> interesting reading, i wonder when people at the top will realise just because 
>> you have a qualification, wont mean your any good at it. Software development is 
>> as much an art form as it is a trained skill. All this will do is flood the 
>> market with crap programmers.
> 
> There is more to the Digital skills gap than software engineering, and coding 
> skills.
> 
> The security market is bemoaning the loss of the hacker/cracker ethos, where 
> younger people aren't interested in breaking things (most of them break easily 
> enough). Probably also that it is a skill which is useful for defending (somewhat 
> - it is over-egged), but illegal to practice, bit like lock breaking except a lot 
> more varied, and the important locks are replaced every time someone publishes a 
> way to break them.
> 
> Testing too has always struggled to gain a foothold, with many software 
> organizations not even having professional testing people. Imagine that in any 
> other engineering discipline.
> 
> "We built you a car, nice engine, cool decals. Tested? We just drove it around the 
> track a few times, and one of our mechanics took it home for the weekend."
> 
> I can't really recommend general IT as a career either, as it is hugely uncertain, 
> medicine and Undertaking are probably more reliable fields. There is always room 
> for specialist expertise, but people who can build you a general server, are 
> largely fungible. There will always be room at the top, but the skills needed are 
> changing fast, and when the dust settles who knows where things will be.
> 
> If the problem is real enough market forces will solve it, sometimes I think there 
> is a "recruiting well is hard work, therefore there is a shortage" mentality.
> 
> But current leading job in Exeter for IT, want Linux, Windows, switches and 
> networking, databases, vmware, Chef/Puppet, and they want to pay you what you'd 
> get for 5 years of teaching, or about the same as a junior policeman or junior 
> fireman. Not to do down those roles, but you'll need an IQ in the top percent or 
> two and 5 to 10 years experience to even be anywhere near that.
> 

+1 on most of this.
 
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