Are all IT jobs doomed for outsourcing ? Vanity

[MyOptic]

Sorry about the vanity, but I've been recently laid off in an occupation that, at least in this area, (Huntsville Al), is mostly non-existent. I was an industrial optician, very few of these jobs left in the states anymore. I am looking at going back to school , and have been surveying the options open to me. It seems that with so much talk of outsourcing and importing of foreign workers going on here at freerepublic, any talk of getting into this field is almost nonsensical. But what about Network Technician jobs? I am looking into network +, MCP, Cisco ect. Certification. Even though these jobs cant be shipped out of the country, are they rapidly being replaced with H1b visa holders? In short, would I be wasting my money getting into this field? I have been a lurker since the impeached one has been in office, but have only posted twice, so please keep the spelling police at bay. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Held_to_Ransom]

The most secure futures these days are in the medical industry.

I would worry about the long term prospects of IT. It will lilkely go the way of programming, where more and more is done with far less time and knowledge required. In all those happy adds on TV where the IT guys saved the company a lot of money, I bet some of the money saved came from downsizing IT along with downsizing the complexities and problems with the old system.

I would say it's probably still decent if you are in it and experienced, but it will get consistantly harder to find lucrative work in it in the future.

[Dark Knight]

Jobs prognostications in general have been done by the feds for years.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/

This is the homepage of what they think will happen between 2000 and 2010.

Good luck!
DK

[MyOptic]

As far as hands on experience, i worked at Compaq back in the late 80's, and have worked on my own computers ever since, but no formal working environment. All the jobs i see posted for this type of work seem to want at least a BS degree and 5 years experience. I am more than willing to work my way up from PC tech, so i am hoping that the school will at least get a door open.
Thanks guys, I think yall might have killed my posting phobia,
I have been lurking since Alamo Gal started getting curious, and i have always enjoyed the forum, but never wanted to post for fear of sounding like a total idiot. (Better to keep your mouth shut and be seen as a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt!)

[zchip]

This should interest you: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/oco/print/oco2003.htm). . .

"Professional and related occupations are projected to grow faster and add more jobs than any other major occupational group, with 7 million new jobs by 2010. Three-fourths of this job growth is expected among computer and mathematical occupations; healthcare practitioners and technical occupations; and education, training, and library occupations. With 5.2 million job openings due to replacement needs, professional and related occupations are the only major group projected to generate more openings from job growth than from replacement needs."

You can read the whole report at the URL listed above.

[Ramius]

Don't worry that your training isn't necessarily formal.

I have done a significant amount of hiring over the years for the IT department at my company. I rarely care very much about certs or formal training of any kind. Sure, sometimes it is interesting, but that's not even close to the whole story.

My favorite interview question when I'm interviewing somebody for a tech support job is: "Tell me about your home computer, and your home network". If I have the right candidate, I'll know it before they say a word. Their eyes will light up, and they'll take a deep breath, and they'll get really excited about telling me about this simply *wicked* multi-processor server they built from scratch as a game server for Unreal Tournament (or whatever) and the *simply insane* video card that they found for their system.

Then... I know I've found the right person.

I was hiring a fairly senior network engineer just recently. We were talking in the interview about network monitoring systems, when he pulled his linux-powered PDA from his pocket and showed me some scripts that he'd written (for a large unnamed ISP) that worked on his linux PDA. He pretty much had the job at that moment.

[delapaz]

I've had a CCNA for two years and it hasnt done me squat. my MCSE and Solaris were worth much more in landing a job.

[delapaz]

That's funny and true. your either a techhead or your not.

techsupport is like going through a brick wall by bashing your head against different spots until you find a door or the wall breaks. To most sane people, this is painful. But techheads like it :-)