[FRIAM] !RE: A million tech jobs unfilled

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Cross-pollinating threads, as a >50 year old somewhat technical person, I and my clique have trouble getting and keeping these "tech jobs" because they are too focused on short-term objectives and tightly pigeon-holed skill sets.  I can almost universally get many of these jobs (or at least land multiple interviews) simply because I'm slightly literate in ~10 to 15 programming languages.  Most of my clique isn't quite as lucky, being rooted in (brain damaged by!) one or 2 of them in the same paradigm.  But even if I take one of these jobs, it quickly becomes mind-numbing; I get bored and move on.

So from my (anecdotal) perspective, all 4 of the perspectives (Michio, CMU, the private sector companies doing the poaching, and anyone who succumbs to "the myth of the objective") are all suboptimal. Pamela seems to have identified a critical element, at least for people in my ¡category!  One person barely inside my clique, though ~5 years younger, took a job at SRI.  I interviewed one of his mentors there and, although the model *seems* good, they're similarly plagued with the grant-writing burden Eric(S) and Pamela mention.  The same seems similar at a company, here called Galois.

It looks to me like people are promoted *out* of R&D and into business.  If you have even the slightest ability to land funding, that becomes your job, to the detriment of any actual R&D you may have done if you hadn't had your head crushed in an avalanche of budgeting documents.

So, to me, the problem seems less about education and more about the lack of societal infrastructure that supports actual *work*, in contrast to fiefdom building and busyness.  And if that sounds socialist, I'm OK with the label.  My transformation from libertarian to socialist is complete. 8^)

On 1/11/19 2:54 AM, Edward Angel wrote:
> One consequence of the present situation that will have long term consequences is even though the amount of research funding in CS is high, universities are having trouble attracting high quality graduate students, the next generation of educators. Although this situation has little to do with trumpism, there have been serious consequences of foreign students and researchers being denied visas. As the universities in other countries such as China and Singapore continue to improve, the future does not look good for technology education here.
> [...]
> 
>> On Jan 11, 2019, at 7:26 AM, Jacqueline Kazil <jackiekazil at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> The numbers for tech jobs are all over the place. The one that I have heard most is 1.5 million, but I have also seen everywhere from 500k to 3 million. 
>>
>> Most of the theories of why this is not because of Trump, but because of issues with education.
>>
>> There are not enough people in education teaching people technology, because people can easily go and get 1.5x to 3x their salary in the private sector. For example -- Uber gutting Carnegie Melon's Researchers: https://www.theverge.com/transportation/2015/5/19/8622831/uber-self-driving-cars-carnegie-mellon-poached <https://www.theverge.com/transportation/2015/5/19/8622831/uber-self-driving-cars-carnegie-mellon-poached> 
>>
>> I sit on the board of the Python Software Foundation. I am putting together an RFP with others to fund educational initiatives in Python. It will be coming out later this month or next month. 
>>
>> -Jackie
>>
>> P.S. Side note about education and python... In Guido's (creator of Python) proposal to Darpa to fund the development of Python for educational purposes, he references Logo as a great tool, but limited. That was 2001. The same year that Netlogo was created (if I have my years right). 
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 4:47 PM Alfredo Covaleda Vélez <alfredo at covaleda.co <mailto:alfredo at covaleda.co>> wrote:
>> And will remain un-filled for years while "trumpism exists":
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgsVE2RBto8 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgsVE2RBto8>
>>
>>[..]
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 4, 2017 at 3:04 PM, Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net <mailto:nickthompson at earthlink.net>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Friammers,
>>
>>  
>>
>> There are apparently a MILLION tech jobs going un-filled in the US – hence the panic in the tech industry concerning the immigration purge. Would this be a time for members of this list to consider seeking a better job?  Or, at least, to ask for a job?
>>
>> Or demand that your boss let you work remotely and move here to Santa Fe where the coffee is good, the air (usually) clean and where you are never more than ten minutes from the head of a hiking trail?
>>


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