Jobs for Computer Science Degree Grads Going Up, Up

High salaries and plenty of jobs abound for recent computer science degree grads, according to a recent article on ComputerWorld.com. However, the picture may not be so rosy for veteran techies. In fact, some experienced IT workers are actually experiencing cutbacks. What is going on here? 

First, the recent college grads: Emanuel Contomanolis, of the Rochester Institute of Technology, told ComputerWorld.com that jobs for computer science degree holders were prevalent in IT firms, thanks to recruiters scouring campuses. He also said that financial services firms are filling jobs for computer science degree holders, because they have realized that IT features "are going to be critical to how they differentiate themselves on the market."

How does your salary compare to jobs for computer science degree grads?  Find out with PayScale's full salary survey.

Recent Computer Science Grad Salaries and More

As I mentioned in a previous article, a salary survey published in September by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) stated that computer science graduates have been offered an average salary of $53,051 in 2007, that's up 4.5% from 2006. In fact, the salaries offered to 2007 computer science grads are the highest reported to NACE in the past seven years.

What is behind the increased salary offers?  Recruiters have a smaller pool of computer science students. The Computing Research Association (CRA) says that the 170 institutions in North America that grant computer science degrees reported a total of 10,206 B.A degree graduates for 2006. That was down by nearly 33% from the level at 2000 when there were more than 14,000 graduates.

Surprisingly, the drop in college graduates in this field may not be over yet, at least that's what Jay Vegso, a CRA staff member, seems to think.  From looking at enrollment trend data, Vegso told computerworld.com that he expects the decline in computer science graduates to continue for another two years, or maybe stabilize at best. This will keep the job pool small and strong.

Experienced Computer Science Grad Salaries

For older workers, the outlook is not as good. According to ComputerWorld.com, Ross Perot's old company Electronic Data Systems Corp. is "offering an early retirement program to about 12,000 of its 50,000 U.S. workers."

There's more pain over at Sun Microsystems Inc. The tech giant says it plans to fire 1,500 employees as part of a "workforce reduction program." The Intel Corp. confirms that its IT staff is being cut by as much as 10%, more ouch!

Whether these are just the restructuring of a few companies that have missed the latest of Web 2.0, or a sign of a larger trend for mature IT companies, remains to be seen. For an example of the later, remember that both Apple and Silicon Graphics crashed badly during the late 90's, which was otherwise a golden era for computer science grads.

Computer Science Graduates from Overseas

Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at RIT, told ComputerWorld.com that "mid-career workers better beware." He added, "The same firms that are laying off thousands are clamoring that they need more foreign workers. One interpretation of this phenomenon is that companies have no interest in retraining or retaining incumbent workers to fill those positions."

It appears that companies as a whole do cutback with one hand and reach for overseas workers with the other. Recently, the U.S. government began issuing around 85,000 H-1B visas for the new fiscal year; not nearly as many as the tech industry says it needs. The industry has tried to raise the H-1B cap, but those efforts have fallen short because they were tied to immigration-reform legislation that failed.

Why would a company hire someone from overseas to do a tech job in the US, when a more experienced worker is available here?

It is all about the Benjamins :-) As the following table shows, typical computer science grads with 20 years of experience in the field cost nearly twice as much as recent grads.

Median Salary by Years Experience - Degree: Bachelor of Science (BS/BSc/SB), Computer Science (CS) (United States)

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If senior employees are not perceived by their companies as being twice as productive as new hires, their jobs could be at risk. Perhaps learning Ruby on Rails on the weekends is the answer :-)

How does your salary compare to the pay of computer science grads? The PayScale Salary Calculator is a quick and easy way to compare positions. When you want powerful salary data and comparisons customized for your exact position, be sure to build a complete profile by taking PayScale's full salary survey.

Cheers,

Dr. Al Lee

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Comments

[Diploma owner]

Yes, the salaries are up, but the prices are up also.

[Petey]

That's stupid. Of course people with 20+ years of experience are at least 2x more productive than new graduates. Hell, even 5+ years of experience are at least 2x more productive. Ever hear of "The Mythical Man Month"? Computer Science is not a manufacturing job!

[Kylie]

Well, this is interesting. While it's easy to say that in the first year after graduation, a graduate is really slow during the period that they are settling into their work, they say that after about two years on the job, a person has experienced pretty much everything that they need to. After that, productivity starts to flat line. Someone working 10 years in a firm may just mean that they have done the same thing 10 times over, it doesn't mean their work has developed.

In addition, there may be an image (Whether true or false) that older I.T graduates may be out of date. With good universities, the graduates should graduate with the most updated computer technology, and that must be appealing, if not the fact that they are half the price!

[silveralpha]

It can cut both ways. In corporate IT I have seen cost-crunching increased to a state of obsessive-compulsiveness. Either there is a swim-or-be-cut mentality, regarding doing more with less staff, or there is a "mole" in the department so middle management can pluck feathers for its cap via "money saving strategies" that "increase performance". These headcutters then pocket an incentive based on money supposedly saved, and are transferred. "Weak" employees are watched with the proverbial microscope, then fired on trumped up charges, based on said recommendations.

So it is less about qualifications than perceived ability to be increasingly productive, while being under-paid, for doing the jobs of several other specialists.

I have seen old-timers who were disinterested in bettering themselves, taking the stand that corporate was responsible to train on additional skills, and that experience equals a degree. Not always true in practice, even if the knowledge base is slanted in their favor.

Paper-pushing management who don't work in I.T. and don't know you are talented, look for "piece of paper" certifications, etc.

I have also seen cutbacks of staff based on salary, regardless of experience. It is all about fulfilling the percieved need for credentialed, yet "cost-effective" workers.

Thus, to survive, one must plan on job-mobility within a company, seen as being proactive and upwardly mobile. Enjoying a career in one position for years is becoming dangerous. By then, of course, you have gotten better money, and cheaper help can be had.

No, old techs are not always best to management. The young beat them in sheer "hunger" and enthusiasm to excel. They are still on honeymoon, happy to be in "their field" at last. So they are likely to work harder for less than a savvy IT veteran.

[Kurt]

It takes 2 years for a CS grad to acquire basic competence; that means he knows what all the buttons do. That is far from knowing all their is to know. There is no way to explain this to the hot recent grad, but there is great value in "seat time" that can't be got any other way. The value of seat time is why that 10-year veteran who is only moderately bright makes more than the brash young guy who thinks he's so smart. You need to see a variety of projects succeed or fail before you "get it".

CS programs aren't good yet at distilling experience into a form that can be memorized, the way they do in medicine. So you get the basic theory and a little programming practice, and then you apprentice in industry for 10-15 years before you are really competent. Anyone who doesn't believe this has definitely not put in their years yet.

Only problem is, not all jobs require all your smarts. Any coding monkey can write another data display page or login screen. So companies don't want to pay a veteran if that's all they do. They keep a couple around to lead things. But it's a pyramid. Lots of fresh young coding monkeys, a bunch of moderately experienced but still cheap folks, and a few architects and techno-wizards that they reluctantly pay 2x the newbies, even though they are maybe 10x as valuable.

Did I mention that there is salary compression? When I started out (1980), the salary range was 2.5x. Now it's down to 2x. Any corporate manager who wonders why people don't go into CS any more should look at this number.

[Justin]

I am a current BS CS and IT student. I am in my second year and love what I am doing. I like the salary information I am reading, but am disturbed by the news of the older more valuable employees being dismissed for fresh bodies. I wonder if I am making a mistake persuing this career. I guess I just do not want to worry over security after putting all of the student loans on my back. I hope that I am making the right choice with this degree.

Justin

[Dr. Doom]

If the company that you write code for strings you along for 30 or 40 years with the carrot on a stick and then fires you 1 or 2 months before retirement just so they don't have to pay your retirement pension, then you know it's time to unleash the doomsday virus easter egg that you've hidden away all these years deep inside the operating system kernel where they'll never find it. There's no better job security than knowing that the company's intranetwork will be brought to it's knees a few weeks after you've been fired. What's that? All the accounts payable, accounts receivable, taxes, personnel and customer data got wiped clean weeks after I was fired? Well, maybe I have it backed up and maybe I don't. I guess it depends on how much you're willing to pay me when you hire me back on as a consultant.

Don't piss off your IT people!

Mwuhuhuhahahahahaha ha ha ;-)

[JD]

To the current CS/IT student - I'd seriously think about another line of work. If you like what your doing then you could always pursue it as a hobby. Many companies won't think twice about replacing you if the bottom line sings. The IT industry is the worst if your 40+. Besides, how long can a person keep running at full speed on the technology treadmill.

[Science]

Maybe we should all go back to college and start looking for jobs there.

[Ben]

It is all about cash flow, putting out half as much to get 80% of the job done right is cheaper than paying 2x as much to get it done 100%. But that is business. The greed monster is always getting greener.

[Tshepo Maswanganye]

I am currently a final year student in Computer Science at a University in South Africa and i was wondering what chances do I have of obtainig a career overseas, in a country like the US, once I complete my studies at the end of 2009?

[Cori Olsen]

My husband is 34 years old and is currently pursuing a BS in Computer Science after running his own computer repair business for several years. We currently reside in CA and want to move outside of this liberal environment.....

Any suggestions on where we should move. I am a social worker and can find employment just about anywhere.....

[Daniel Kelly]

I've seen these horrors first hand and it's a crime what these companies are doing. It is so much more difficult to obtain a BS in CompSci than it is to get whatever degree these managers have; my question is how can they sleep at night?

I've worked in IT for four years. A little while as a grunt for Motorola then as a site lead at the same spot (headquarters). The pay, recognition and reviews were a shot in the groin. I moved elsewhere and got the same.

I also tried technical recruiting for awhile but left because I felt like a horrible person. Don't hire old people was the rule. Negotiations were ruthless, I felt bad for these IT pros and programmers.

I'm also about 1/3rd of the way done with a BS in CompSci. I love it, but I'm afraid for my future - I don't think I'll be able to maintain my standard of living and sanity to be honest. I hope to start a company, but I know how hard that is and the chance of failure as well. It's tough not to get extremely depressed at times. I think you can be successful if you devote almost all your free time to work and neglect your family and personal commitments, but since when was that the American dream?

I find out what teachers want, give it to them and get an A. Will I find out what employers want, then just lose it? I don't know. And these H1B's are pissing me off. They suck at writing code, following directions and working on a team. I know that's an over-generalization, but it's what I've seen.

Sometimes I wish I'd have gone to school first and not worked right after high school. Maybe then I wouldn't know about all this depressing stuff. Oh well, we'll see what the future holds!

That's my rant, written on an iPhone in the waiting room of the doctors office. My apologies for the lack of structure but I had to comment.

-Dan

[sczherchisen]

is this true that when your reach 40 years old you will be fired by your employer?i am a 2nd year BS comsci student after i read this i feel worried with my future.20 years of working will not be enough to have all my necessities after i've been fired.i am so happy reading the salaries that a computer science graduate can get but after reading this i am now doubting if i still going to pursue this.