IT Careers will grow!!!

[OODeveloper1]

"That's what I thought when I first joined a consulting firm. Now I feel like a jack of all - master of none."

You really struck a nerve with me. This is exactly the way I feel - a jack of all trades but master of none - and it is very frustrating.

Project #1: C++, PowerBuilder, Oracle, CORBA, Windows NT
Project #2: C, Informix, HPUX
Project #3: Visual Basic, T-SQL/SQL Server, MTS, MSMQ, a little Java, Windows 2000
Project #4: C++, Vignette, ASP
Project #5: ASP, PL/SQL/Oracle, Crystal Reports
Project #6: ASP, PL/SQL/Oracle
Project #7: Visual Basic, ASP, T-SQL/SQL Server, EJB

I'm so tired of bouncing around like this. In my experience, another drawback to consulting is, when I start on a project, for the most part I've not been given time to understand the business - they expect me to hit the ground running.

I feel like I'm riding by the seat of my pants all the time and it's stressful.

[MasterWannaBe]

Sometimes, it's good to be 'jack of all - master of none'.

When I graduated from college. Almost every entry level job requires you to have 2+ years of experience with X, Y, Z and A (it can be a pretty long list). Come on, I mean you advertise it as an 'entry level' job, and you are looking for all these skills and experience. At that time, I tried to pick up as many programming languages as I could, so that I could apply for the jobs.

What now? I've touched all these languages and never got a chance to dig deeper to master a language. And the worse thing is that there's always new programming languages coming out.

[workhorse]

There is nothing bad about IT or any other legal career. It's just that the simple law of economics, supply and demand, has put its foot down. There are just too many IT people out there. If only IT brains thyinks about cretaing new jobs rather than getting that work, maybe the difficulties in finding and holding jobs could ease down a bit.

[heavery]

Information Technology jobs are growing and thriving. We are in the IT age and will stay on it for quite some time. But it's future is still not guaranteed. Nobody can really say what the future for IT holds.