Us techies (in my generation: who grew up in the 80s/90s knowing what an IRC was, how to push the power button on the “computer”, and wrapping weird batch scripts around multi-disc ARJ decompression to install pirated games for our friends, for example) were a fairly unique bunch in back in the day. But to those entering Uni now (10 years later) the tech was there from the day they were born, for all of them.

Amongst our own generation we’re still respected (though never necessarily liked) for our ability to tweak the Excel spreadsheet or fix the Internet.

Amongst the youngsters will we be no better than the dude who fixes the shower? Just another annoying job that somebody has to do.

Nothing against plumbers, here in the UK the plumbers make the $$$ and can actually afford things like houses. I still think I’d rather be a landscape gardener.

My thoughts while reading Meet Your Future Employee.

I do worry when they start talking about “HTML programming” though, and “advances like blogging and social networking”. I suspect the reporter may be showing her own generational gap… nobody can hope to keep up with the pace of change.

I can’t help but observe that statements like “[lack of] face-to-face communications skills, a critical asset for a modern IT career” are comming from the old IT career professionals. Predicting their own obsolescence?

[Actually, I think my IT-generation sits somewhere in between that which is the subject of the article and that which is the observer, um, or am I generation Y? I’m certainly not X. The article mainly leaves me just all colours of confused. Gah, bloody compartmentalisation.]