Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

newsweek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 130 posts

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#101

Post by dingnuts »

throw0101b wrote: post #53
ghaff wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's definitely this disconnect between programming and computer science. For better or worse, a lot of top schools don't even really teach programming in their computer science programs. It's something you just pick up on your own. But not sure that using Python as the specific tool is so bad--based on the MOOC that's what MIT uses in Intro to Algorithms. May be better than spending a lot of time on the vagaries…

> […] a lot of top schools don't even really teach programming in their computer science programs. It's something you just pick up on your own. "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes, biology is about microscopes or chemistry is about beakers and test tubes. Science is not about tools. It is about how we use them, and what we find out when we do." * https://quoteinvestigator.c…

Being able to understand computer science and apply it is called software ENGINEERING for a reason, and it's a lot more complicated than 'just programming'.

You sound like a physicist who thinks mechanical engineers are unnecessary because we have physicists and car mechanics.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#102

Post by ponector »

glimshe wrote: post #87

If we're around in 2000 and 2009, you've seen this before. Our field has ups and downs and every time we hit the bottom people say it won't come back. It will. We had some cleaning up to do. I was a hiring manager during COVID and the resumes I saw were unbelievable. People with "web" boot camps being considered for 6 figure salaries. People who had absolutely no business being in this field were being hired. It was…

It's not the AI, it's outsourcing who really killing IT jobs. Even from relatively cheap East Europe projects are being moved to India, Vietnam and Philippines.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#103

Post by glimshe »

ponector wrote: post #102
glimshe wrote: post #87

If we're around in 2000 and 2009, you've seen this before. Our field has ups and downs and every time we hit the bottom people say it won't come back. It will. We had some cleaning up to do. I was a hiring manager during COVID and the resumes I saw were unbelievable. People with "web" boot camps being considered for 6 figure salaries. People who had absolutely no business being in this field were being hired. It was…

It's not the AI, it's outsourcing who really killing IT jobs. Even from relatively cheap East Europe projects are being moved to India, Vietnam and Philippines.

I've also been hearing this for 25 years now... Outsourcing also happens in waves.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#104

Post by dingnuts »

ramesh31 wrote: post #99
Borealid wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently heard someone say "I've never had a job that didn't involve at least some Python". I think that's true of almost all computer science jobs in the current market. Python is the primary language for scientific computing and the secondary language for a good number of other tasks.

>I recently heard someone say "I've never had a job that didn't involve at least some Python". Tell me you've been in the field for less than 10 years without telling me. Python is a joke language with a joke name. The only reason it ever caught on for AI is that someone wrote a few good math libraries for it in the 2000s, and its' rise is entirely incidental to that.

I was taught Python in class twenty years ago. I use/used it for systems roles. I don't use it as much anymore but your comment is complete nonsense.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#105

Post by paxys »

dagw wrote: post #100
paxys wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When education becomes a business students become your customers. And the last thing you want to do is piss off your customers by failing them.

But if you can sell those customers a better product at the same price, then perhaps everybody will be happier. As it is now no one is happy. CS staff are annoyed that the students don't want to learn CS, and the students are annoyed since most of the CS they are forced to learning isn't relevant for the web developer job they want to apply after graduation.

Well according to the linked data 94%+ of CS graduates have well paying jobs in the industry, so not sure if "no one is happy" is accurate.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#106

Post by Izkata »

throw0101b wrote: post #53
ghaff wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's definitely this disconnect between programming and computer science. For better or worse, a lot of top schools don't even really teach programming in their computer science programs. It's something you just pick up on your own. But not sure that using Python as the specific tool is so bad--based on the MOOC that's what MIT uses in Intro to Algorithms. May be better than spending a lot of time on the vagaries…

> […] a lot of top schools don't even really teach programming in their computer science programs. It's something you just pick up on your own. "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes, biology is about microscopes or chemistry is about beakers and test tubes. Science is not about tools. It is about how we use them, and what we find out when we do." * https://quoteinvestigator.c…

I think completely separating it like that goes too far in the other direction. The absolute best undergrad classes I had were the two where the lectures were entirely on the theory side, then the projects were practical implementations of the theory.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#107

Post by spacemadness »

msgodel wrote: post #77
throwaway290 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of big tech (cough tesla cough) was ripe for shorting for many years now but market will be irrational longer than you stay solvent;)

Tesla, both the company and the stock, is pretty complicated. I certainly wouldn't short it right now. The problem with many of these tech companies is that they've been so successful abusing their users out that they've quit putting energy into developing their products. HP and Sonos are two good recent examples of how this ends. Tesla doesn't seem to be doing that right now. The big thing you'd be be betting on (lo…

There isn’t even a rational argument regarding Tesla stock. Trying to do so is folly. It’s a meme/cult stock.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#109

Post by AnimalMuppet »

ghaff wrote: post #25
zettapwn wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Anecdotally, but talking to a lot of people who really have their ears to the ground, the junior roles thing seems to be very real. It probably isn't just AI--with more senior folks probably more available, why hire juniors--but seems to be pretty pronounced (with probably the corollary that bootcamps are probably a bad idea these days). Which isn't a great trend if real.

Five years ago, maybe even two years ago, we were hearing a lot about "age discrimination" and how seniors couldn't get hired.

Maybe it's just a phase?

Or maybe today's juniors are different than the juniors were five years ago. And maybe that's because of AI.

Re: Computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates

#110

Post by disqard »

Maro wrote: post #35
rvz wrote: post #9

This is nothing (it will get worse) compared to what will happen in 2030. Just look at what is happening in just the last 5 to 6 months since this prediction was made [0]. The definition of "AGI" was hijacked to mean all sorts of things to the companies that operate the AI systems, even conflicting with each other on timeframes and goals. But what really is the true definition of "AGI" is the blueprint inside the WEF…

> with all those savings going to the AI companies I'm not even sure those savings will "go" anywhere, they will just stay with the companies. Right now, if I use my $20/mo ChatGPT subscription to automate away my secretary's job ($3,000/mo or whatever), it's not like those $3,000/mo is going to OpenAI. And I don't think in the future they will be able to jack up prices, because foundational LLM models have become a…

Great point! And also an uncomfortable truth: this sort of use (to replace human jobs) will be a net negative on GDP. That secretary will now have to make do with a lot less money, so they'll make fewer/cheaper purchases, etc.

However, the "number go up" crowd doesn't give a fuck about the secretaries -- so they will chant "AI! AI! AI!" to juice the stock and make out like bandits, while they still can.

Post reply on HN