Software Engineers Will Work One Day for English Majors

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...ers-will-work-one-day-for-english-majors.html

To summarize the article: Although entry level software engineering jobs are extremely attractive for young graduating college students, their employability often starts to decline at age 35. There are two main reasons for this: 1. older employees may no longer be up-to-date with the latest technologies 2. they're too expensive. Statistics show that most software developers are out of the field by age 40. Moving into management roles can allay this problem, but these jobs are limited.

Something to think about if you're considering a career in software development
 
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
 
Saurab said:
Is this really true? Makes me nervous since I just planned on going to Grad School at SFU, Canada for Masters in Computing Science focused on Programming Languages and Software Engineering.
http://www.cs.sfu.ca/graduateprogram/academic-programs.html
Click to expand...
Any job that can be outsourced (or in-sourced) to India, China, Philippines will have a looming and terrible future in the West, how can you compete with a developer in India working at 1/10 your salary and can do the same job? Nowadays, most jobs are done online, there is no need to be physically in office, meetings are done through webcast, with high-speed connection and advanced image technology, online meetings are even more efficient than onsite meetings. The software engineering, IT jobs have been destroyed by the outsourcing and in-sourcing process (company such as Tata or IBM bringing thousands of IT workers from India to US each year) and greediness of corporate executives. I am not sure if in the near future, the same fate will be with Quant too.
 
mfe_candidate said:
Any job that can be outsourced (or in-sourced) to India, China, Philippines will have a looming and terrible future in the West, how can you compete with a developer in India working at 1/10 your salary and can do the same job? Nowadays, most jobs are done online, there is no need to be physically in office, meetings are done through webcast, with high-speed connection and advanced image technology, online meetings are even more efficient than onsite meetings. The software engineering, IT jobs have been destroyed by the outsourcing and in-sourcing process (company such as Tata or IBM bringing thousands of IT workers from India to US each year) and greediness of corporate executives. I am not sure if in the near future, the same fate will be with Quant too.
Click to expand...

Next thing you know, the world is going to end up like WALL E.
 
The fact that there is one English major at the top, however, does not make majoring in English a priori a better decision than studying a technical field for most people.

The average English major will have a much lower life-time earning than the average person who studies technical fields in undergraduate.

At least that has been my experience / observation of the prospects of English majors in the market from studying English myself and going on the market with a BA.

That there are limited positions in management applies to English majors as does ageism in hiring to old English majors. However, their prospects at the entry level aren't that great either.
 
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