Look again. The BLS projections to 2016, when looked at in conjunction with NCES figures on degrees earned and enrollments, suggest that there will continue to be a dearth of employment opportunities for able and willing US citizens in IT.

How does that figure of "three-quarters" of IT professionals recommending the field to their children compare to other skilled occupations, say, physicians, engineers, lawyers etc.? It seems to me that's kind of an obvious question to ask here.

I won't recommend IT as a good career choice for my children.

I would not recommend it at all. We work the hours of doctors and get less respect than the trash man.

I find it amusing that the first advertisement link beneath this story was for outsourcing services.

Lets see, long hours, deferred or interuppted vacations, on-call 24x7 with neither overtime nor comp time.

Add to that
Constant competition with fresh young kids with the flavor of the month skill set, and business management that must cut costs and sees no shareholder value added by experience and big-picture business knowledge.

All things considered, I should have listened to my uncle and become a plumber.

It depends what you mean by IT.

Fifteen years ago, I started working as desktop/server support, later managing projects and staff, but those types of jobs have been dumbed-down and cannibalized. I would not recommend working in the infrastructure aspect of IT, unless you were involved in the higher-end design aspects, or with designing security.

While managing a small IT group, supporting financial programmers and some portfolio managers, I started doing more work with VBA, a subset of VB, and specifically for Office applications. Over time it has evolved into the only work that I do, in conjunction with DB servers. I am also proficient with some web programming (HTML/PHP/MySQL), as well as having familiarity with C# and DotNet.

The programming field has kept me busy for the past 5 years, and it pays fairly well. For a college student, with an interest in IT, it can certainly be worthwhile, but this would include being smart about what the IT job market entails, e.g., risk of outsourcing, and well as what type of work is well paid, i.e., finance, and appreciated by business management.

I would and do recommend a career in IT to my kids and many other younger individuals. I do qualify it by saying that there are segments in the industry that are not as reliable as others and I strongly suggest they do consulting. But IT in general is one of the fewer industries, when you have the right skill sets, in which there is relative employment security. Note I didn't say job security. There is no such thing. And if all a person knows or does is Windows administration or desktop support, they will likely not make as much money and probably wouldn't recommend IT.

I have 20 years in the industry and I make $125,000 per year as a Unix Systems Engineer and virtualization specialist (VMware/Xen). That's not bad when you consider I do not have a degree (yet, currently back in school to get one for my own sense of accomplishment-not because anyone has required it) and I'm not a manager or director. I know of individuals with Masters degrees in other industries who make half that amount of money. Few other industries offer the same opportunities and pay, nursing comes to mind as one.

I point those I recommend to the industry to more reliable segments and to Unix and Linux rather than simple Windows administration. I don't really recommend programming as a choice since that is subject to sourcing overseas more than systems engineering or administration but if there is an interest in programming, I recommend learning what is in demand and also so-called legacy like mainframe assembler. I point out that as with everything, supply and demand will dictate how well you are paid and how much you are in demand. So I recommend what I have done: find the "next big thing" and learn it and become an expert in it and also, look at what is legacy and learn it as well. Right now my phone is ringing constantly because of two main things: virtualization, which I pegged right on as a hot item, and Linux-but I also get calls for NetWare since there are many government agency that still use that. Most of my peers are just now coming up to speed with virtualization.

I also make sure that my kids (and anyone that will listen) understand that they are responsible for their education, not their company and that the job belongs to the company, not them so make yourself valuable but don't get tied down to one company if an opportunity presents itself or you create an opportunity.

It a field which has experienced 9 years of continous job losses and wage stagnation/devaluation for US citizens.

NOT A CHANCE...

I too have been doing IT sys admin on various platforms for 20+ years and have seen it all. Been there done that victim of outsourcing, cut backs, mergers, been on call more than not, and have had various important personal life events interuppted. Likely will have more...Now I own my own company make well over $100K and wouldnt change a thing. I am also a pretty good carpenter and plumber, and come from a family of truck drivers. So certainly life was full of choices. I have and will continue to recommend to people to go into the IT field. In my opinion where I have lost employees to competitors for enormous salaries ($90K w 1 year out of college), we need a bigger and better talent pool for this field to continue to prosper.

When I was young I didnt know the questions to ask of a perspective employer...that had nothing to do with the industry... These days of course I would. I also dont have a degree and coming from a blue collar family I know I make more annually than they do and have what I think is a better quality of life and certainly a nicer car.. he he..Maybe Im wrong... I guess it depends on what you enjoy.

Speaking to groups of college age kids each semester (ironic isnt it) on how to get the most of your IT career is something I still do. So I say help all that you can. Dont just shut the door on them, share the valuable knowledge that we have all gained over OUR IT careers with others to help them avoid the pitfalls.. Now thats where its at!

Interestingly enough.. I own one of those "outsourcing companies", we tend to refer to as a consulting company. Diffrentiating factor is that we're "pro-American".

We hire people, therefore, it is not as though these jobs are elminiated completely. Outsourced jobs are still jobs, however, we tend to hire people that are skilled and effective to accomplish the task. This provides a very efficient and cost effective solution for the client.

The IT employee mentality is often "union like". For some reason it is often thought that the company "owes me something". The company should "send me to school". Companies stay in business by managing their costs.

If there is a choice to be made between two candidates.. an individual that took the initiative to become educated, or an individual that chooses to ask the employee for compensated education, the choice is obvious. The same principles apply to outsourcing...

This might sound like an overly cynical comment, but I would wholeheartedly recommend to my kids to persue a career in IT. I hope that they would believe, as I do, that IT (along with other technological, scientific, and health related professions) represents the future of humanity. HOWEVER, I (as a third generation American) would not recommend that they necessarily remain in the US to persue their future. The real question, IMHO, isn't regarding the future of IT; it is regarding the future of a nation where tech knowledge and scientific capabilities seem to be declining relative to the rest of the developed world. Emigration may be a better bet than a career change, over the long haul...

You've gotta be joking - if my daughter was interested in IT (thank God she's not) I would shift heaven and earth to convince her to ditch it.

I'm hoping she becomes a doctor or lawyer.

Regarding Joe C.'s Comments:

Pfeffer, a Stanford B-School chair, in The Human Equation, lists his Seven Practices of Successful Organizations:

- Employment Security
- Selective hiring of new personnel
- Self-managed teams and decentralized decision making
- Relatively high compensation contingent on organizational performance
- Extensive training
- Reduced status distinctions
- Extensive sharing of financial and performance information throughout the organization

You'll notice that one is security, another is paying above the average wage, and a third is training.

Most IT people I've know, developers and a broad range of support staff, self-train, but most employees want a life with some security, and don't feel like being a commodity that is bought and sold.

Yeah right!! Long hours, 24x7 on call, tethered to the office all the time, high burn-out rates, constant interruptions, no job security, and on and on. I tell my kids constantly that they're not allowed to even consider going into IT. Kudos to anyone that still enjoys this field, but I've found very little personal reward. The paycheck is better than average, but I still go home feeling that I've offered society very little for my presence. No, my kids are going to be steered clear of this field.