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Globalization and the American IT Worker
Norman Matloff wrote a solid paper called Globalization and the American IT Worker, published in the latest issue (Nov. 2004) of Communications of the ACM. Here’s a rather bleak quote:
University computer science departments must be
honest with students regarding career opportunities
in the field. The reduction in programming jobs
open to U.S. citizens and green card holders is per-
manent, not just a dip in the business cycle. Students
who want technological work must have less of a
mindset on programming and put more effort into
understanding computer systems in preparation for
jobs not easily offshored (such as system and data-
base administrators). For instance, how many gradu-
ates can give a cogent explanation of how an OS
boots up?