Not so long ago, it was a common notion that certain specialty majors, such as computer science and computer-aided engineering, would always provide a graduated student job security and comfort. Those times have changed, largely in part to the growing, cost-efficient, trend of outsourcing jobs to oversea locations.
University of Wisconsin senior Dan Achtor, a computer science and computer engineering major who plans on graduating this spring, said the fear of the eventual possibility of outsourcing pushed him away from a career in the field.
“When I was a freshman, I enjoyed [computer science and engineering], but the fact that there was job security was probably the biggest single factor in choosing [the majors],” Achtor said.
However, Achtor will soon start a job after graduation in sales and marketing. He said he decided to take a sales and marketing job because there “will always [be a] need for sales people.”
“I think I will enjoy sales and marketing, because it will be more fun,” Achtor said. “[Computer science] is not a bad major to have, especially because there are other majors where finding a job is a lot harder.”
David DeWitt, chairman of the UW Computer Science department, said he does not believe outsourcing is something to be worried about, stating it is a natural occurrence in an economy.
“I don’t see why a loss of a high-tech job is any different than a loss of a textile job to China,” DeWitt said. “Jobs will go to where they’re most effective — I think it forces a country like the [United States] to be more effective when it comes to [production of] computer software or textiles.”
Achtor said the main problem with getting jobs today is due to the slow economy.
DeWitt agreed and claimed the economy drives the availability of jobs.
According to Achtor, there are “drastically” fewer available jobs to graduating seniors today compared to when he first came to UW.
“When I was a freshman, there were 400 engineering recruiters on campus, and last fall there were only 200,” Achtor said.
Though the exportation of programming jobs seems to be on the rise, DeWitt said there are certain jobs that will never be able to leave the borders of the United States.
“There is a lot of software written on defense, something you don’t want other countries to build, like airplanes,” DeWitt said. “Innovation is still happening in this country, even with companies like Microsoft, which improves the lives of the people getting jobs.”
DeWitt said job demand might shrink over the next five to 10 years for undergraduate and graduate students, but implied uncertainty because “computer science goes through cycles of demand.”
Achtor believes that this is a problem that will “definitely get worse.”
“The jobs that will be the worst are the software engineering and computer science jobs, because relocating those jobs are a lot cheaper than other jobs,” he said, adding he saw the products of outsourcing in many of his internships and in talking with other people.
“Last summer I worked on a software team where we worked every day with 300 people in India,” he said. “A number of people I know are foreigners and aren’t allowed to get jobs [domestically] because of visas.”
