Computer science went from a sure bet to an industry in turmoil almost overnight

[zosralph]

Long ago a computer science degree focused on PL/I, assembler, COBOL, Fortran, LISP.
Knuth (Theory of Automata, and other Knuth texts were the backbone of developing programming expertise)
Graduates with the above degree were hired as programmers - not developers, not engineers.
They were / are employees of brick and mortar companies. The likes of State Farm, UHC, John Deere etc. The exception being firmware development - perhaps "engineer" is then appropriate.

They aspired to or have aspired to be subject matter experts, IT management, systems programmers.

Game programming obviously did not exist then. Yet I think many a recent CS graduate dreams of being a billionaire - creating a widely accept game.
That thinking is akin to my dreams as a young adult of starring in the NFL.

I guess the new dream is to be that of an AI entrepreneur - in my opinion - another fantasy.

Back to the brick and mortar companies.
Presumably the recruitment of programmers skilled in business programming suffers from lack of qualified candidates. The Brick and Mortar companies resort to off shore consulting to meet the needs of their business.

Given the glitter of game development and AI, it is indeed difficult to staff an on going sales order entry system, an inventory control system, material requirements planning , shop floor control, claims processing system, etc. that major companies rely upon to manage their businesses.

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

It was supply & demand...but everyone was getting a "four year degree" and there were more degrees than jobs available.
Now, "AI" is taking some of those jobs.

Let "AI" take the jobs. Don't fight it. When the companies doing this realize that the "AI" in front of them doesn't work like the marketing departments claim, you'll be in a golden position.

 

[BobHome]

With the tech industry changing so fast, I still believe Tech Colleges are a much better bet. 2 years and one can get into the job before it evaporates or is AI'd away.

I went to a leading leading university and learned... COBOL and... Pascal (anyone remember Pascal?). C++ was not a course back then, just C.

The thing I learned the most from university was: how to research most anything I needed info on. And after 8 years, I went back to what I enjoyed more: Computer Technician.

 

[WaphleStomp]

The pendulum is swinging, lagging changes by a few years. When the internet became mainstream websites was the point, when websites became mainstream internet businesses became the goal, ...
All the while in the background programming slowly followed, at a distance until computer science became mainstream.
Couple that free online learning, silicon valley's big-tech creation, rapid ramping of computer science courses in educational institutions, and you have an expected delayed reactional glut of wide-eyed dreamers taking similar education, competing for jobs while big-tech moves on to a more efficient method than 1,000 coders per square meter.
Educational institutions almost always have a 5-10 year delay to what's needed in business/tech. By the time they figure out something's worth teaching and create a curriculum for it, it's really already on the downswing and the window of opportunity is closing. They should never be relied on to determine direction for one's life.
Some will survive the current tech cull, some sadly won't, some will start related businesses, some will end up homeless, some will go off-grid and grow cucumbers and chickens, some will rent-share with 8 bodies per bedroom, some will start a cult, some will go postal, some will go back to school and get a 2nd degree and end up waiting tables, others will never move out of mommy's basement and forever torment forums with conspiracy theories fueled by pot, hotpockets, doritos, and energy-drinks.
This is this generation's issue.
What's necessary for each person is to discover either what works to earn sufficient income to buy what's required or learn to live without 'it', whatever 'it' is. Be responsible for oneself, be willing to get your hands dirty, be willing to work for it, don't get stuck waiting for a handout, stop relying on what's latest-and-greatest to determine your life's direction. Oh!, and get a hobby other than staring at your phone waiting for someone else to make you relevant.

 

[Revolution 11]

Let "AI" take the jobs. Don't fight it. When the companies doing this realize that the "AI" in front of them doesn't work like the marketing departments claim, you'll be in a golden position.

What John Maynard Keynes said applies here as well.

"The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent".

 

[GrayDragon]

The court says lawyers who use AI have the power to put themselves out of business if the citations are incorrect.

When one enters a career in computer tech, they must remember that the closer to the top of the stack they are, the more volitile their prospects will be.

Until the robots are building themselves without us, they'll always need someone to install and patch.

You have to know enough in your field to detect or monitor AI for BS, but it can still speed up your process to make you better than those who don't use it at all. Educated users will win, non-educated users will be shown as losers.

 

[Mark Fuller]

About the only sure fire thing in CS now is tech support changing parts in the field for pc's under warranty, or as a customer support representative diagnosing the problems, if all those jobs haven't been outsourced overseas. But you have to be able to take the headache from the ones who break the pc's in the first place.

 

[gamerk2]

Really? I’ve changed industries multiple times, programming languages five times, and my comp sci lessons still help me today.

Meh, I've *learned* about 15 languages at this point, mainly due to inheriting other peoples stuff over the years. If you know how to structure code, a few minutes googling will get you where you need to be the majority of the time. This is why I firmly believe Software Engineers need to learn both C and modern (post-C++11) C++, because if you learn that you can code in basically everything.

But what I'm seeing is it's the junior positions that are getting squeezed, and the loss won't be felt for a few decades. But when the bubble pops (and it will), people like me will make a killing cleaning it up.