Thursday, May 31, 2012

This is what a shortage looks like: computer science edition, part 1 of N

From the august pages of the Wall Street Journal:
[snip] Starting salaries at leading companies for average computer science grads from top schools range from $75,000 to $100,000, plus signing and relocation bonuses worth $5,000 to $15,000, according to venture capitalists and recruiters. (New hires may also get small equity grants, with stars getting additional cash bonuses or larger grants worth as much as 1% of the company. 
[snip] Companies, he said, routinely wine and dine students at posh restaurants to discuss internships and jobs, plying them with free limo rides to bars, $500 cash giveaways and raffles for iPads. So many companies give away free food when they hold technology talks at Brown that sponsors had to move the food inside the computer science auditorium to keep non-engineering students from grazing. "That did not deter people," said Mr. Poletto, who accepted a job offer with online storage start-up Dropbox.
What's that I hear? The strains of "Summer Girls" by LFO? Yes! It's just like 1999 for chemists, when I was offered a signing bonus by my first employer because I seemed sort of competent. I'm glad someone is doing well in this economy. (And yes, yet more evidence that STEM is TE.)

9 comments:

  1. Wow, looks great from this side of things. Grass always greener?

    Related story: when I was hired at current job (mid-2011), boss said "Well, we can't afford Pharma $$ around here, but at least we have free coffee!"

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  2. We studied the wrong stuff. The problem is, America is transitioning from an industrial nation to an information nation.
    Remember, everything is supply and demand. If we eliminated the h1b visas and outsourcing, we would be equally as attractive and marketable.

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  3. The number of people from my Big Ten school at all degree levels who took jobs at Pfizer Ann Arbor from 1998-2005 was just staggering. Ah, for those halcyon days...

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  4. Outsourcing and H1B are part of globalization. Its in every country. Wake up and live the 21st century.

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  5. Computer science grads are in high demands but they also have a very short life cycle. A lot of older programmers, 40 or older, are having a difficult time finding employment in this market. The stress and work hours are not for everyone, especially those who want a family and a healthy work/life balance.

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  6. @Anonymous 7:26 PM.

    If you get your head out of your ass, you will realize that living in America in the 21st century sucks. Before we sent all of our jobs overseas, we actually had stable careers as a chemist with an above middle class lifestyle. Now, all you can expect is the luxury of getting a $10 an hour temp position. Globalization sucks.

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  7. I recently graduated from a science/engineering school, and the recruiting was pretty evenly split between (a) computer science (b) electrical/digital engineering (c) finance.

    Also, being too young to be bitter, I'd say $10/hr beats $2/day. (Maybe I should change my name to Pollyanna and stick my head up a children's book.)

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  8. "Outsourcing and H1B are part of globalization. Its in every country."

    If you try to save money on salaries, the global economy will eventually collapse because no one will buy the products. Also, some countries don't have H1B visa equivalents and patriotic and nationalist considerations keep some people form moving jobs to a different country and thus hurting their tribe just so they can get a bit more profit.

    Here is a long radio program that explains why trying to pay the lowest wage possible hurts the global economy in the long run hxxp://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2012/01/16/left-behind/ (replace xx with tt) and why Henry Ford might have been right when he said that "There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible."

    P.S. I got that last quote from Civ IV so not sure how accurate that is, but it is a good source. Plus narrated by Leonard Nimoy.

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  9. Key words here are "from top schools".

    I read the whole article and it's full of sweet anecdotes that really give a (I'm sure) good overall picture of employment for comp sci. I'm sure these cases of CMU, Brown, and USC are representative.

    Maybe this says something more about journalism than either chemistry or comp sci.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20