I happened to grow up with Professor Salzman in LA. I wonder what methodology he and his grad student used to get his 4.7 million IT jobs in 2018? I'm searching "us total tech jobs" and see figures that are double or more than the 4.7 million figure.
What's up Hal?
2
Criticize it all you want, Year Up has accomplished something pretty amazing. This is a great thing and part of a solution. Skills change, etc. etc. - that's what free enterprise is - winners and losers, coming and going. Adapt or die.
3
The university I volunteer for has a fully accredited six month immersive full-stack coding coding course that teaches students to build web sites and has been very popular with veterans transitioning out of military service. The national average salary for a Full Stack Web Developer is $75,487.
Students who graduated from high school are eligible to apply. The landing page is http://fullstack.sdgku.edu
4
Many hundreds of thousands of entry level tech jobs in the country are stolen by H1B indentured servants currently flooding the U.S. job markets. Indian cartels and Republican politicians have cut young Americans out of these opportunities. These disposable people work for half the pay of Americans, get no benefits and can be fired for convenience. Any U.S. corporation who is allowed to hire these glorified trafficked worked should have to work on a 10-1 ratio, tens Americans trained for every 100 H1Bs hired until enough Americans are trained to fill these positions. Trump has everyone up in arms about the poor Central American coming to mow your lawn or pick your crops, while sustainable jobs are being sold off the highest Asian cartels!
8
Year Up is a transformative program. In addition to the technical and soft skills required to succeed in a professional environment, these young folks are receiving comprehensive wraparound support, mentorship from professionals in their chosen industry, and an entire staff of caring adults who provide high support and high expectations.
I’m a former employee of Year Up, and was humbled and honored to work with these kids. Every student hit a wall – questioning their abilities, and if they deserved to succeed in industries where leaders don’t look like them. They came to Year Up at a crossroads in their life, from some of the most violent and under-resourced neighborhoods in the country, and worked hard to become pillars of success in their community so they could life while they climb. Every single donor, corporate partner, or community member who walked through our doors left energized and excited about what these kids are going to accomplish.
If this sounds like a sales pitch, it’s because it is! Year Up isn’t only working in tech, they’re working across all industries that have a hiring need. But they need your help. Your time, your professional expertise, your connections, your gently used professional clothing, your funds – all are necessary on this journey. If you are feeling down and out about the state of the world right now, I hope you consider getting involved with a Year Up near you.
3
Let me get this straight.
So companies like Accenture are contracting with Year Up to staff entry level tech jobs.
But Year Up specifically "targets young workers, no older than mid 20s".
If that is not age bias/discrimination, I don't know what is.
21
It's something to read a 35-year-old book, Steven Levy's "Hackers", which recounts in part 3, the teenagers that got rich writing the first 8-bit video games for Apple ][ and Atari.
They started off getting a percentage of the game. But as the industry grew, that was cut and cut, and finally ended in favour of salary plus stock options on those great IPOs. Then the IPOs were over and the next generation were just heavily-exploited salary employees working a thousand free hours per year of endless "crunch time" that never stopped crunching their lives.
A friend of mine just tossed out a career running Unix server rooms, at 53. They just kept piling more and more machines on him, no raises, tethered to his phone 7x24 without compensation for it. He took machining at the local tech, now has a satisfying job as a machinist at nearly the same pay.
There's no magic industry that treats people like people; they all treat people as "resources" - that is, a thing to be exploited. Exceptions are the temporary result of labour shortages.
Tech has now been the Gold Rush for a full four decades; the temporary labour shortages are about all gone. It's now a fool's gold rush.
5
I am always amazed at the "ease" with which unskilled people are transformed into IT workers. Somehow, it is never attempted to make them into surgeons, attorneys or business executives. I wonder what it is about IT that makes it so readily accessible to the barely educated. I can only imagine the delight in the hallways of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Google that their critical resources can be obtained so easily!
9
@Bubba
"Somehow, it is never attempted to make them into surgeons, attorneys or business executives."
It's quicker to learn to code than to become any of the occupations you listed. Year Up is a one-year program. There are plenty of coding bootcamps that can prepare someone for a coding job in 3-4 months. These programs are not easy, but they're manageable and the odds of finding employment once finished are pretty good.
3
@Bubba You can teach coding to just about anyone who wants to learn it. At entry levels, it's predictable and a junior coder doesn't require a lot of intuition or experience to succeed. I can make you a salable Java programmer in six months. Compare that to the years of experience and business/organizational/people skills required to be a business exec or a lawyer or the hands-on experience to be a surgeon and you can see why Tech is about the only legitimate "get rich quick" scheme out there today.
1
Salable Java programmer in six months? You know not of what you speak! Having worked in Enterprise Java and other environments for over thirty years, I can tell you that even seasoned programmers switching computer languages find it difficult continually to remain current and relevant, given the breakneck speed at which the technologies accelerate. Offering false hopes to the already disadvantaged is pernicious. Reminds me so much of "Buy our diet plan, lose 20 lbs in a week! Only $59.95/week. Operators are standing by - call now!"
3
As someone who designed, managed and worked in many employment and training programs designed for the poor, I am tired of reading critiques of programs that screen on motivation, that they’re creaming.
Motivation without skills has limited economic benefits, and focusing on the hardest to serve yields low success rates, which leads to a loss of support for programs and cuts in funding.
I have run programs for multi-problem homeless single women in shelters and was accused of creaming because we screened on motivation. I have seen what public policies focusing on the bottom of the barrel yield - very little.
Enough already!
12
The knowledge required to really know enough about software engineering to make a career cannot be learned in one year. This idea that people can be educated on the cheap and fast and actually become capable of building new lives is a scam. Science and engineering are based upon huge databases of factual information and hard to learn methods of approaching and solving problems. Long ago, the ancient scientist, Archimedes declared, 'there is no royal road to mathematics'. It remains true, today.
19
@Casual Observers The quote is actually:
"There is no royal road to geometry" - Euclid -
Year Up should be looked upon as a catalytic agent for those ambitious people who need help and guidance in getting started. As other commentators have noted, $40K jobs are not likely to be long-term solutions, nor should they be. Rather, they should create opportunities for those who desire to take advantage of them. Getting one's skilled foot in the door is a big deal!
As to scale, if I were in Year Up leadership, I would not worry about that. Any growth they experience should be organic and a direct function of the number of motivated kids who want to take that next big step. I'd fear that forcing their model on anyone would destroy what works for them.
1
Please note that Amazon has been offering its fulfillment personnel $10K to quit and start their own delivery services for Amazon. Of course these people would now be contractors with no benefits rather than employees, but they would be working for themselves rather than Amazon. I haven’t seen the math, but I understand that some Amazon employees have made the leap to delivery services.
2
Information Technology is being used to HURT people, not to HELP. Employees used to be at workplaces 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, even when there was not much work to do. That provided security for millions of workers.
IT enables employees to be transformed into "indpendent contractors". Independent Contractors only work when there is work to be done and receive NO benefits at all.
Instead of slow times being absorbed by employers, that risk has been transferred to individuals in the workforce, who have far less resources.
IT could be used to HELP workers, not hurt them. The USA has made a political decision not to use IT to help working people become more economically secure. Instead, millions are very insecure. They are paid for tasks performed, doing little better than their great great grandparents who worked in mines and sweatshops in the 1880's.
13
Learn to code is a career-advice mantra? It's also a way to get yourself banned from Twitter. Obviously the mantra isn't universal as privileged classes mustn't be told it.
1
One of the major reasons elite universities have successful alumni is that, aside from jocks and legacies, they are carefully selected in favor of those who are smart, talented, hard-working and achievement-oriented.
Similarly, job training programs with high success rates tend to select inductees who initially show some level of communication and interpersonal skills and a high level of motivation to succeed.
Also, as noted in the article, mentoring and supporting trainees is critical to ensuring success and minimizing drop-outs and failures.
The real test of who succeeds in such programs would be to admit trainees at random and see how they do in training and after, but that is not likely to happen given the small size of most existing programs, which are under great pressure to show positive results.
The story of Ms. Ball is quite inspiring and I hope her story and that of other successes leads to expansion of existing programs and addition of new ones.
5
@Mon Ray
"One of the major reasons elite universities have successful alumni..."
...is they have rich parents. Fixed it for ya,
2
This was the great unspoken farce about Amazon's New York venture. All of a sudden, thousands of parents were convinced their kids were going to be highly paid coders, whereas those jobs are extremely selective and open to applicants from anywhere in the world. Compound this with NYC's dismal schools and the pipe dream evaporates. This is linked to Thomas Friedman's cruel mantra of "lifelong learning", which places the entire onus on the worker and none on the employer who expects them to show up on day-one fully-formed, like Athena out of Zeus' brain. Needless to say, the employer expects to spend nothing on training. If the worker then fails in their quest, its entirely their fault, and society can wash their hands of them.
23
@stan continople If you were an employer, wouldn’t you want to hire people who didn’t need to be trained? I sure would.
However, the real world is such that some new employees will always need some level of training, so employers do allow for this.
I agree that it was silly for anyone to suggest—or think—that if Amazon had gone into Queens it would have hired people from the projects for 6-figure jobs; and the number of low-level (and low-paying) jobs in Queens would not have been very large.
4
A short term fix for a motivated few. But, the very tech jobs for which these folks are training are themselves targets for automation and deskilling in the near future.
7
Sigh. It’s sad to read the comments with more naysayers than supporters; many of whom will never walk a day in Brittney’s shoes nor will they ever have to choose from her limited options. It’s always easier to comment from the sidelines, then scroll on to the next story/issue/problem. I pray that many more doors will swing open to embrace her!
17
Is it possible that in recent years genuine opportunity for almost all has led to a socioeconomic meritocracy where folks tend to be employed in harmony with their abilities?
According to the job numbers presented here, tech created as many new jobs as manufacturing eliminated. That sounds like part of the solution for expanding the ranks of the middle class to me.
1
I am guessing that the majority of grads from programs like this are going into the kinds of tech jobs that traditionally require an associate's degree - network administration, hardware and software support, certain cybersecurity positions, front end web development - rather than the more highly paid software engineering positions. Those are perfectly good jobs, but honestly, I think the people going through these boot camps would be better served by getting the A.S. at a community college. Then they would have credits that could eventually transfer to a 4 year program if they decided to go on. Employers tend to be more used to hiring from community colleges too, which makes it easier to find a job,
1
@csgirl The students at Year Up DO enroll in College FOR FREE, have extra support and end up being about 1/3 of the way toward their AA. Finishing a degree while gainfully employed is a great option that many opt for.
7
@csgirl "I think the people going through these boot camps would be better served by getting the A.S. at a community college. Then they would have credits that could eventually transfer to a 4 year program if they decided to go on."
I used to believe this, too. Then I found out that reality doesn't work that way (anymore) ;(
I went back to school last year to study IT. Turned out our local community college had a mediocre CIS program. They teach old technology. Cisco runs the joint. (Most students would be better served learning Linux/open source programming and scripting, web development, databases, etc.) You can't even get access to the cloud computing class until you've taken years of other classes first. There are a lot of gatekeeper courses even to get an AA.
I'm about to sign up for a cheap coding boot camp. It's a good program, but I'm not expecting it to lead to a job for me, at least not directly. It will give me a foundation I can use to do some freelancing, make my own app, upload some code samples into GitHub. It'll be great to finally have company on my coding journey. All of that is much, much more than I was getting out of community college.
But I hear you on being cautious about boot camps. Here's the deal. Somebody going into a bootcamp with a BA or MS in computer science or STEM who just wants to slap some coding training on top of that will get snapped up by employers immediately. However, the rest of us mere mortals will have vastly different mileage.
1
@csgirl
These programs attract adults who are unable to find jobs that support them adequately, and are looking for the fastest way to get those jobs. They do not understand what really is needed to succeed nor where to look for the training that they require.
Anyone who wants to enter a career should know that after one is hired, all future advancements and job security depends upon performance and working well with others in the organization where they start. If the training does not support that, it's not worth the time and money. A career in STEM jobs, requires more than one year's training. These trainees will not be allowed much chance to work on their own. Not being able to do that, they will be stuck in jobs where others must supervise their work.
2
My the age of 15 I had thousands of hours of self-taught programing and was developing software beyond degree level. That was with a borrowed BBC micro, a computer that has a fraction of the capabilities of a $70 Raspberry Pi starter kit with keyboard... never mind the smart phone in your pocket. Technology is very cheap and it has never been easier (and free) to teach yourself. Only you are responsible for what you get out of opportunities in technology.
6
It beats flipping burgers, but it's just 21st century digital janitors. HTML designers aren't real engineers, no matter how many people try to say otherwise. And most "software" is just HTML web sites.
10
@Ncr "HTML designers" isn't an actual job title, FYI.
Also, most softwares are most definitely not "just" HTML websites. The technology stack has evolved quite a bit in the last few years.
5
@raymonst Even some games are based on XML. Most software may not be html websites, but perhaps to a non-technophile the differences are minor?
Good for her. Yet every time one of these sorts of articles appear they always ignore the reality that the overwhelming majority of people are not suited for, not capable of being, software engineers - or any other kind for that matter. That's a cold, hard fact like death and taxes. So stop trying to sell the illusion that's the case. It's dishonest and does more damage to people in the long run.
The trades need people. And you can make just as good money, if not better, doing them. Truckers are sill sorely needed. And no autonomous vehicles aren't arriving any time soon either, regardless of the irresponsible hype from the media. You're looking at 25-50 years before that happens and it may not happen at all. These are viable, secure, well paying careers. We can't all grow up to be astronauts. The world needs ditch diggers too.
32
@Sparky
You make an important point. As a person who used to work in tech (though not as a software engineer), it was apparent to me that these companies wanted only to hire top-notch software engineers. The idea that if "everybody learns to code" they'll achieve job success is just bogus.
My civil engineer brother told me, "If I hire a B+ engineer, I'll get sued. Only A-quality engineers make the grade." Software engineering is much the same; if you're not very good, you're better off doing something else.
I knew of one company who moved its less-successful programmers and engineers into jobs that were more public-facing--and if they had good communication and social skills, they often had enough tech understanding to do a good job.
So yeah, you need a portfolio of skills to survive. However, programs like Year Up give their students exposure and knowledge that may make them better able to negotiate their own career paths going forward.
3
Kudos to her but she’s being underpaid. I wonder how many of her five year software engineer male colleagues are making as little as $50k. She should be closer to $65k to $70k.
21
I doubt very seriously whether the program described in this article will scale. Not because you can't put the funding, facilities and instructors in place but because you won't be able to find enough students that will be to take advantage of the opportunity. Before you can train someone to be a software engineer they must have an inquisitive mind and like/love building things in addition to being very motivated. Some people love carpentry or music or accounting or sales or history and trying to train these people to be software engineers won't work if they don't like/love the challenges of the software development process.
My 2 cents after being in the software development/network admin/security fields for nearly 40 years and being an instructor for the last 20 years.
10
@C.G.
Agree with much of what you said. However, some of the best software engineers I've worked with were musicians and even had degrees in it.
10
@C.G. "Year Up has 15,500 alumni, and 4,700 people in its program this year. " thats more than some small colleges. I'd encourage you to dig into this program, they have diversified revenue, partnerships with the biggest companies in the world, and can not keep up with the demand for both slots in the program, and corporate partnerships. Sounds like you could be a great advocate and perhaps mentor?
@Dormouse42 isn't composing a kind of coding? :) A kind of structure building?
It beats unemployment, but I suspect that churning out armies of microserfs isn't going to be a long-term solution to the problems created by society's transition to a neofeudal rent economy controlled by a tiny, ultra-rich ruling class. Writing The Man's code will become as poorly compensated as shining his shoes, as soon as he has spawned enough struggling strivers to drive down his labor costs.
38
Well, I guess anyone over 27 need not apply, according to this article.
18
@Joe
You are correct to some degree. Many of the "underemployed" who go through programs like this are young, unencumbered with kids/mortgages.
My brother has an associates in Electronics Tech, but spent years as a custom home builder/developer. After the 2008 collapse, he returned to school to get an associate degree in computer technology at age 55. He graduated first in his class, straight A's, recommendation from the dean of the tech school, but they still would not hire him for any internal IT openings at the tech school, and the private sector had only "help desk" openings earning about $13 an hour. He never worked in the IT field and recently found a good paying job as a construction manager for a local builder. Even with a recent education, coding jobs don't pay well since so many companies use minimum wage coders from India.
26