The IBM 5150 released on August 12 1981, this is where we get the term PC from and much of the basic architecture still in use.

So a few days ago ‘The Age’ (our local rag) ran a story about High school student abandoning  IT as a field of study.

The article was good enough, but the comments were an absolute goldmine of insight into the problems in IT in Australia

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/expertise/it-crowd-shrinking-as-vce-enrolments-plummet-20140907-10dizx.html

• I have worked in the industry for nearly 20 years. The jobs are slowly disappearing to overseas cheap labour pools and imported 457 workers who claim to have the skills and are willing to work for far less than is reasonable.

  Why would anyone want to study a subject or career that clearly has a poor future in this country?

  Ask Telstra for example how many jobs they plan to send to “Asia” over the next year alone.

  Commenter

  Martin

  Location

  Sydney

  Date and time

  September 08, 2014, 7:37AM

  • Australian IT is a disaster, remember myki and hundreds of other projects paid for by taxpayers that are all over budget , late and don’t work well.

    Commenter

    preacher

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 8:09AM

  • Ive been in IT for 35 years and its never been this bad, and its all a result of failed Government policies

    Offshoring and 457 visas have decimated Programming, Testing, Business Analysis, etc. The last project I was on there was a team of 20 people on 457 visas.

    Abbott has relaxed 457 visas so its only getting worse.

    If your thinking about a career in IT, you’ve got bugs in your head

    Commenter

    IT DOES NOT COMPUTE

    Location

    Melb

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 8:23AM

  • Offshoring and 457 Visas are destroying/have destroyed the local IT industry. The hilarious thing is overseas workers come in on 457 Visas (weren’t they meant to be for positions where we don’t have the skills locally) and upon arrival they do not have a clue. They are shielded by the resident overseas workers to hide their incompetence. Projects are taking longer and have more bugs in them than ever before. And don’t get me started on their can’t say”no” issues.

    Commenter

    Gilly

    Location

    Melbourne

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 8:57AM

  • +1 Yep its going down hill faster and faster. To anyone thinking of a career in IT forget it.

    Commenter

    Tim

    Location

    Melbourne

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 9:20AM

  • Your right, overseas cheap labour, view source code and see note for example rajah said do it this way and that way etc, and upgrades to complex sites like TAB racing became worse and primate, upgrades to westpac BPAY atrocious enough for me to complain yesterday, but execs never check these upgrades nor are there customer complaint avenues. We see many script and hidden cache crashes via programmers not meeting updated flashplayer requirements and see new versions grow 10 times in size but do far less, excessive programming is excessive load. I think we need better quality training rather than worry about drop-out load

    Commenter

    Brian Woods

    Location

    Glenroy

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 9:57AM

  • Yep, and as Telstra is trumpeting Magda Szubanski in its ‘we love our customers’ advert, it continues to ship customer support functions to Manila and elsewhere, and 457 visas appear to have become the latest immigration portal. Google, “457 visa to permanent residency” to see how much effort is being put into this channel. IT as a career choice in Australia? Only if you are really passionate about it, and prepared to fight to get ahead.

    Commenter

    OpenWindow

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 9:57AM

  • The Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s most recent 457 quarterly report put the average salary for applications granted to 457 workers in the Information, Media & Telecommunications sponsor industry at $87,200 and for the Professional, Scientific and Technical sponsor industry at $96,500. I am unsure how those wages are unreasonable.

    Commenter

    teh krazy

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 10:13AM

  • I agree with all of the above. As an employer who is looking for client facing web developers. What a joke the so called ‘education revolution’ sausage factory has produced a whole lot of It paper graduates who will never get a real job in IT. More quality less quantity required. The reason is the ‘education revolution’ desperately needs new foreign paying students. Everybody knows most are going to be useless in the workplace. But the carrot is handing out visa’s and ultimately passports via this useless education. So tell your kids don’t even think about a career the government has sold them down the river.

    Commenter

    DifferentLens

    Location

    Melbourne

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 10:37AM

  • @teh krazy
    The point is not the salary per se. The point is a 457 Visa should NEVER be granted to an IT worker as we have a plethora of qualified people here in Australia. The salary point is a whole other issue. If you have ever had anything to do with the outsource industry in IT you would know what most posters here are talking about.

    Commenter

    Gilly

    Location

    Melbourne

    Date and time

    September 08, 2014, 10:46AM