WSmac wrote:I figure [computers are a] line of work where I may be able to dress in my skirts as long as they are professional?
You'll find that will be driven more by your employer and the company culture more than anything else. Open minded employers and companies won't give a hoot, especially if you're in a non-(external)-customer facing position; closed-minded ones, though, even a single narrow-minded boss, can kill the prospect dead.
I work in the computer field (UNIX sysadmin currently), and have for almost 30 years. In that period of time I've had bosses who would have been fine with the notion and have had ones that were so closed-minded that
any new notion scared the pudding out of them. Right now, a few of my co-workers know that I wear skirts when I'm "off the clock", but my immediate superiors are so narrow-minded that, to use the old saw, "they can see through a keyhole with both eyes" -- this in a company that doesn't have a dress code (if flip-flop sandals, Birkenstocks, tee-shirts, and "jean shorts" are passable there
can't be a dress code) that I'll not even contemplate giving it a go. Besides, I rather like the hard-and-fast border between being "on" and "off" the clock; my off-hours skirt-wearing reinforces that.
WSmac wrote:For the U.S. members, are the job predictions by the Dept. of Labor realistic as to the growth in jobs in the computer industry/field?
They say in pretty much all areas, there will be decent growth in jobs over the coming years.
I suspect that they're lying. Rampant abuse of the H-1B visa system drove the average salary of technical computer staff through the floor in the late '90s and early '00s so there's not a whole lot to look forward to if you want a decent lifestyle. This abuse still continues; you'll recognise it by reading the help-wanted ads and seeing the impossible list of requirements that a prospective employer wants -- since nobody "measures up" to the list (because the list is impossible (three years of MS Vista experience, anybody?) they conclude that no locals are available and grab an H-1B who'll work for half what a citizen will. "Outsourcing" (read "offshoring") is still rampant, although that seems to be slowing somewhat because of quality-control problems and the fact that as standards of living rise in the places where the jobs are "outsourced" to folks there expect a liveable wage.
Thirty years ago the computer field looked very bright indeed. Today, I'd steer away from it; had I known then what I know now, I probably would have chosen a different path. Think about it for a moment: this is a profession that you spend
years learning, it's a profession that demands that you stay current with (at your own expense, usually), and it's a profession that's increasingly being driven offshore by greedy companies. Making matters worse, the skill and talents required to excel in the field are not typically well understood by today's "McManagers" and are certainly not appreciated; in the past 25 years the quality of technical management has reached lows I never believed possible when I got into the field (most managers then had risen through the ranks and had a level of technical clue that today's McManager will never have). I'm not saying it's all "gloom and doom", but it lacks most of the luster it once had, and it only takes a
single well-placed idiot to make things unbearably bad.
