I agree it is unsettling, and I'm one of those ones who studied computer science for no other reason than the American "follow your dreams" meme. There weren't a lot of kids in my CS department at school, and they definitely weren't the business school follow the money types. We have had quite a few applicants lately who can't program their way out of a wet paper bag, but we have also had quite a few very qualified ones who were rejected simply because there weren't enough open positions.
It's generally a challenging job despite the myths, and programmers seem to be good at making things worse and more complicated for themselves, thus requiring more resources (programmers) to fix things. Also, the field is becoming deep enough that there are all types of specialties. Right now, AI and cryptography specialists can probably command high salaries, while your jack-of-all-trades guys are becoming a dime a dozen
I agree it is unsettling, and I'm one of those ones who studied computer science for no other reason than the American "follow your dreams" meme. There weren't a lot of kids in my CS department at school, and they definitely weren't the business school follow the money types. We have had quite a few applicants lately who can't program their way out of a wet paper bag, but we have also had quite a few very qualified ones who were rejected simply because there weren't enough open positions.
It's generally a challenging job despite the myths, and programmers seem to be good at making things worse and more complicated for themselves, thus requiring more resources (programmers) to fix things. Also, the field is becoming deep enough that there are all types of specialties. Right now, AI and cryptography specialists can probably command high salaries, while your jack-of-all-trades guys are becoming a dime a dozen