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10 Hot Computer Driven Careers

computermajors.com — While traditional IT careers will probably stay in-demand for the foreseeable future, don't forget the alternatives. From climate modeling to revolutionizing the very fabric of life itself, there are plenty of enjoyable computer jobs to keep the computer professional creatively engaged.

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  • GerryBot, on 11/28/2007, -5/+88I suppose climate modelling *could* be considered a hot career :)
    • Andareed, on 11/28/2007, -2/+29Yes, but it's still not clear whether the climatology field is being driven by long-term, natural economic forces or recent industry-fueled hype.
      • Daedalus17, on 11/28/2007, -1/+3Here is a thought experiment for you: What percentage of Climatologists got into the field because they "wanted to do something about global warming"?
    • nofrak1, on 11/28/2007, -3/+2You are a bad person. You should feel bad for saying that.
      • Veni_Vidi_Vici, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4You are a bad person. You should feel bad for saying that.
        • PURPLEDRINK, on 11/28/2007, -2/+1You are a bad person. You should feel bad for saying that.
        • metallicabmc, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1I am a bad person. I look at porn
    • ucg1, on 11/28/2007, -5/+2you should have put quotes around "hot" :)
    • SleepingOrange, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3oh snap.
  • seawaves, on 11/28/2007, -25/+2GerryBot, I couldn't have said it better myself. Nice one, dude.
    • badenglishihave, on 11/28/2007, -1/+9The "Reply" button is your friend, mate. Cheers :) .

      Also, climatology sounds boring.
  • killerstache, on 11/28/2007, -20/+3interesting, i never knew you could drive a computer
  • netant, on 11/28/2007, -9/+14Gee, a good thing that article is ludicrously flawed, or I would conclude there is no future in the computer industry. The only jobs that I see as being prevalent is "Internet Entrepreneur" and "Web specialist". The others are ridiculously niche, it would be like getting a spot at a major sports franchise.
    • LokitheComplex, on 11/28/2007, -1/+6Yes its naff article.
      Its full of painfully obvious points mixed with absurd optimism and a lack of actual industry knowledge.
      • spywacko, on 11/28/2007, -1/+2Because 3D animation is almost dead?
        • LokitheComplex, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1Because the pay is low in comparison with comparable professions.
          The demand is low compared with the supply.
          The hours are long and the security is low.
          Sure people love their actual job but that does not make it a good career choice.
          Its really a bit like recommending acting as a profession.
    • elint6, on 11/28/2007, -2/+3dude read the description:
      "While traditional IT careers will probably stay in-demand for the foreseeable future, don't forget the alternatives." these are alternatives, and yes, they're niche, that's why they're HOT.
      • netant, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1You still don't get it.

        If I were a guidance counselor, giving advice on future IT jobs, and listed these turkeys, I should be fired. Training for a career is taking 4-7 years of your life, which could be spent making money, instead of paying a hundred thousand USD in collegiate education, for a job that will PROBABLY BE THERE long enough for you to recoup your investment costs.

        What you don't understand is that you do not have to be a competent journalist to get a job on any non-financial periodical. You just have to be able to write up interesting articles and not be so incompetent that the reader (who will be knowlegable in the field) thinks you're incompetent. This is a guy who is definitely skirting the line. It doesn't matter that he gives himself a linguistic out. Most of these niches won't survive by the time you're done getting the schooling, or WORSE, end up being a buggy whip artisan a few years after that.

        Examples: the reason why simulation modeller won't be a computer science technical niche is that people care about the answer it puts out, so they're going to hire the science specialist to design the model (whether its physicist, biologist, meteorologist, etc.), and they are going to be computer language competent enough to hire the "monkeys from India" to actually write the code. It would be nice if there was enough to the "modelling" theory to justify the need for a compsci specialist, but that's just not the case. Games programmer? 3-D graphics programmer??? Get real. Right now there are tons of game coding jobs available. TONS. But they pay garbage, and will always pay garbage. That's why there are so many jobs available.

        What the newcomer to any industry fails to grasp is that the people who own these magazines are rich, and the advertisers they depend for their salaries are rich. What stories are getting planted are industries that want to hire CHEAP labor, so they tell these "journalists" there is a shortage of competent programmers. The bright people who read this think there's a job waiting for them, they put in the investment, only to realize later that they're screwed after they get out of school. The industry gets cheaper hires, the "journalist" gets his paycheck, but the fish have to learn a hard lesson.
    • PURPLEDRINK, on 11/28/2007, -1/+2It's a good article, if you get tired of making sure TPS cover sheets go on all the reports going out now, despite the getting the memo eight times...
  • trying2hide, on 11/28/2007, -2/+2Hmmm. But what good is it to be really great at, say #8, in the middle of Indiana, not able to move?
  • Error601, on 11/28/2007, -1/+15I believe you'll find just about every career uses computers these days.
  • SFBWork, on 11/28/2007, -7/+1Awesome, my job is #8 on the list
  • dynacrylic, on 11/28/2007, -1/+34I see they left "Professional digger", or better known as a digg troll, off the list.
  • pbrooks100, on 11/28/2007, -10/+2BLOG Spam
    • Orderless, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4Way to throw buzzwords around without first understanding the meaning.
  • Nougat, on 11/28/2007, -4/+10Once again, nothing at all about the people who design, configure, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair the network devices and servers that all of this stuff runs on. IT != AppDev.
    • MerryMortician, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4NO DOUBT.
    • jspegele, on 11/28/2007, -3/+2"Website Network Manager / Administrator . . . With the growing number of website and blog networks, the need for people with technical skills to maintain the networks will grow as well."
      • Nougat, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Yeah, read the rest of the description. It's basically an administrative vendor management position as they describe it, not a technical one.
    • SideShowMel0329, on 11/28/2007, -1/+1I agree, a Software Engineer will be much more successful in life compared to say, an IT specialist running a web-server.
  • Myztry, on 11/28/2007, -1/+1Environmental Simulations Developer - I want the job pinning the weather sensors on the Amazon butterfly's (chaos theory). Beats the tail chasing agony of trying to measure and model an infinitly complex system.
  • dynacrylic, on 11/28/2007, -3/+10I see my profession, a librarian, is not on there. Librarians never make it on a top 10 list unless it's "The Top 10 Jobs that Require a Masters Degree with Least Pay".

    And yes, librarians are very computer driven....at least we're supposed to be.
    • tardpicard, on 11/28/2007, -1/+3...what??
    • BigBrother87, on 11/28/2007, -1/+5I'm sorry, RTFA. It's about where to go IN YOUR FIELD after you graduate with a DEGREE in the COMPUTER FIELD. They didn't include that you can drive a garbage truck either.
  • mikehill33, on 11/28/2007, -2/+7I didn't see internet troll on the list?
    • edwartica, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Yeah, if I could find out how to make it pay, I would totally make a career move.
  • micahwilli, on 11/28/2007, -2/+6A few of these seem waaay too niche. For example maybe #1 could be expanded to be a general Geographic Information Systems (GIS) jobs. That would mean i make the list.
  • heartcoldfusion, on 11/28/2007, -3/+40Nice list. While we're on the subject of ideal jobs you'll never have, consider these great careers:
    Rock Star.
    Pro Athlete.
    Male Porn Star.
    Billionaire.
    Playboy.
    • antdude, on 11/28/2007, -0/+9How does one train to become a billionaire?
      • jhul, on 11/28/2007, -0/+22I'll train you, tuition fee is $1000000000.
        • antdude, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1I don't have that much money. Is there a loan for it?
      • edwartica, on 11/28/2007, -1/+1Nice work if you can get it, and if you get it...won't you show me how?
    • Daedalus17, on 11/28/2007, -3/+8Doing porn sounds great until you find out that the large majority of male porn stars get their foot in the door by doing gay porn. If banging dudes is worth it to move up the latter to the hot chicks all the more power to you.
      • sinurgy, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4I think you're being a little optimistic there slick, you won't be the one doing the banging!
    • sd01, on 11/29/2007, -0/+2EXACTLY. Dumb article.
  • LokitheComplex, on 11/28/2007, -0/+15I do video graphics. I wouldn't recommend it. Long hours over screens (I now have eye damage). And there is far more supply than demand.
    IT jobs are easy to out source and the skills treadmill is a nightmare. Why train your staff in new systems when the younger cheaper people can do the job at half the price? Can the average work retrain themselves every 5 years?
    Skills are for slaves.
    You can be a genius all you want but unless you have access to the cash bag then you always get burned.
  • pascal21, on 11/28/2007, -0/+7design. design. design.
    with an era of visual culture where people expect to "see" information, designers are more and more important, because everything has to look cool, right? where is graphic/web designer on that list?
  • dupswapdrop, on 11/28/2007, -0/+26Most company's use their IT people poorly a guy I know doubles as the janitor because they don't think he is doing anything. It's his own fault for keeping the networks and computers up and running.
    • smackhero, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4while i'm more of a web developer/graphic designer, i've had a similar experience with my previous employer. i was the in-house graphic designer and web developer at a local record label, but instead of actually doing graphic design/web development, i was mostly given menial tasks like putting together magazine ads/album layouts using artwork commissioned from outside designers and updating the website--for which i specifically designed an easy to use content management system so that i wouldn't be needed to update the site. I also became the IT guy at the office whenever the workstations needed to be updated/fixed or the network went down.

      so, while i had a good relationship with my boss and enjoyed the work environment, i eventually got sick of my talents being wasted and doing work i was overqualified for. now, i'm freelancing and--at the moment--making well over 3x the money i was making at my previous position.
  • somepennguy, on 11/28/2007, -3/+0Awww yea...coming in at #9!
  • HeatVision, on 11/28/2007, -1/+5"Internet Entrepreneur". Wow, that's pretty vague. Sounds like something you would see as one of the career choices during one of those correspondence education ads.
  • bubbadoo989, on 11/28/2007, -1/+5Terrible list, but begs the question: with a huge, politician-sponsored influx of cheap foreign labor (h1b), how could anyone say comp sci careers look bright. Salaries in my area are down around 40%, over the last two years, and the consulting market has largely dried up.

    What's more, the future looks even bleaker... it doesn't matter for whom you vote... Barack Obama has been quoted as saying: "... there is no shortage of people, just a skills shoratge..." I don't know about Barack, but I've got lots of highly technical friends (java developers, dba's, etc.) who are either unemployed and ready to leave the field, or under-employed and under-paid.
    • LokitheComplex, on 11/28/2007, -1/+2I'm in the UK and I feel like a sucker for going into the video graphics profession. The author knows nothing.
      • KennMac, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Well, judging from all the comments I've seen on this page... it's pretty safe to say, a job is a job, and they all suck.
    • ucg1, on 11/28/2007, -1/+3Where do you live? Things aren't bad for software developers who are actually good at what they do. The problem is that most of the ones out there aren't.

      Be good at what you do and you should have no problem with a software development job (I don't know about IT jobs, though). Living in a decent city helps too.

      As for the H1b's, I know quite a few, and they are stuck doing the ***** jobs no one else wants. There is a cap on h1b now and much more restrictions, so there is less of that going on anyway.

      Offshore outsourcing has largely backfired and is not as common anymore.
      • bubbadoo989, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1I guess it's all about what you call good $$. You just have to point your browser to DICE or monster and clearly the salaries are lower than just two years ago.

        Being good at what you do is more key than ever, but has less and less with what you are paid.
    • smackhero, on 11/28/2007, -5/+2yes, blame it all on the immigrants. because you deserve a better life while they do not--it's your birthright, despite the fact that they're the ones actually working to make a better life for themselves while you sit around bitching about immigrants.

      it's always the incompetent and least talented individuals who display this false sense of entitlement to better jobs ,and blame their own personal failure on immigrant workers. i guess it's everyone else's fault that they're not competitive enough in the job market. how pathetic do you have to be to blame your own shortcomings on the less privileged?
      • dalexandruz, on 11/28/2007, -1/+2No american would want a job that pays $1-3 an hour but the mexicans will take it since they have no choice and it's a better way for a small company to make tons of money. Dont mind the dirty work just pay me alot of money and I will do it.
      • bubbadoo989, on 11/28/2007, -0/+5Smackhero, get a life. I'm not complaining about immigrants... I'm complaining about a largely corrupt work visa program that brings huge numbers of lesser skilled immigrants to our shores. We are not talking about a couple of thousand tech workers, but more like 200k foreign tech workers a year. The motivation for this is purely to build a work force that is less expensive than home-grown talent.

        As for a sense of entitlement, no one I work with feels that way. You work hard and invest time and effort into a career, you expect that career to grow. It's not. For me and those like me, the next step is into a different sector of tech, Corporate IT has had it.
        • sleepycoder, on 11/28/2007, -0/+0Here's a heads up: the work visa program is not "corrupt", it is doing what it's supposed to, which is reducing costs and improving profits for business.The US is a capitalist society. It is a brutal, competitive environment *BY DESIGN*. I'm not sure why you don't realize this yet.

          So you have two choices: vote the Republicans out of office and hope that a more socialist US govt. will come to your aid, or get your butt in gear and try to make yourself more marketable. Am I saying that people can keep up that level of effort until they're ready to retire? Heck no, I get tired just thinking about it. But that's the cold, hard reality, and wishful thinking isn't going to make it better.
          • bubbadoo989, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1Dude, it doesn't matter whether you vote Democratic or Republican, the h1b programs are backed by politicians from both sides of the aisle. In fact, if you look at voting records for raising visa limits, most Congressmen will often vote yes at one time and then vote no at another time. It's based on which lobbyist is funding our for-hire government that day.

            Yes, sleepycoder, we do live in a capitalist society, but buying influence to shape legislation is not really capitalism, it's CORRUPTION. There's nothing capitalistic about stacking the deck to bring in and then exploit guest workers. In fact, it's the opposite of your socialist argument.

            As for marketability, knock yourself out studying, it's so '80s. As far as I can tell, unless you're under 30, it's just no longer worth the effort.
    • PURPLEDRINK, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1but in what area? there are good jobs out there
  • Ebulating, on 11/28/2007, -1/+1They forgot Geographic Information Systems/Science.
    • siekosunfire, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1I'm guessing this is similar to the work done by the geo-spatial intelligence groups. If so, it's definitely a very interesting field, with plenty of applications of theories from pattern recognition and computational intelligence. Plus, from what I've seen, there's definitely a huge drive for integrating everything with Google Earth.
  • dukeochutney, on 11/28/2007, -2/+2list may have been correct about 5 years ago. last time i checked (3 months ago) network and security jobs are in high demand. but what do i know since i work in the network security field.
  • scott1329m, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1List seemed random with no evidence to support that any of these "careers" (some are just vague suggestions) are actually in demand.
  • trying2hide, on 11/28/2007, -1/+1gee that's nice. Perhaps that is why I have a 4 year security degree and design for a living. LOL
  • ajent420, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Does any one else notice that #2 looks like a very high rez (or re-done) level of Lockout from H2? In the green room? Down low? Looks like it doesn't it?
  • surfing, on 11/28/2007, -0/+15They left Nigerian / 419 Scammer off the list.
  • boot20, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3I started my career as a coder. I lived ANSI C. I moved on to C++ and C# later on...but I wasn't really happy. BUT, I did what I thought would make me the most money...Then the market went to crap after the .com bubble burst...

    The best thing that happened is when the plug was pulled on a project I was working on. I fell into training. It's a great career choice for me, but lemme tell ya...not for everyone.

    Moral of the story? Do what you like to do, don't let stupid lists like this drive your career choice.
  • sesstreets, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Where's teaching?
  • dhdenny, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Robot drone jobs are so 1990's.

    I don't see positions like consultant or sales engineer on this list, which is a tragedy. Technical types with people skills can take their years of experience and cash it in for a more consultative role. I traded in my programmer's hat for a sales engineering position a few years back. The result? I make roughly double the salary I made as a developer and work pretty damn close to 40 hours a week. I still get to solve challenging problems, but I no longer have to be the one getting my hands dirty and doing the manual labor (implementation).

    BTW ... this list blows. Blog spam.

  • cracker42, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1In the left navigation bar "Find the perfect Computer school or program in your state below:"... I was surprised not to find my state (Louisiana). I mean I know our (my) computer degrees aren't great, but damn. That's depressing.
  • hmunkey, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2I fear that in the future computer jobs will be outsourced. Indian and Chinese engineers can do these things just as well for a quarter of the price.
  • matteusx, on 11/28/2007, -1/+1Not a great list really.

    Also, it'd be more proper and respectful to refer to Al Gore as former Vice President Al Gore and not ex Vice President Al Gore.
  • zachshmack, on 11/28/2007, -0/+5Lol, and of course Fox News has to show someone pole dancing.
  • wrenchone, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Their "3D Animation Technician" isn't even a real job. What they describe is easily 10 very different jobs done by different people...
  • gibbwake, on 11/28/2007, -1/+2If you care about your career, you care about your future. If you care about your future, you will need to call your senators and tell them not to vote for Senate Bill 1959. If this bill becomes law, your words & actions could be considered terrorism. IT EVISCERATES FREE SPEECH, and empowers the govt. to declare ANYTHING they deem an “extremist belief system”, instantly make you a terrorist, resulting in stripping of US citizenship, torture, and/or execution, with no habeas corpus rights, & no ability to challenge it.http://digg.com/politics/Senate_Bill_1959_Will_Lab ...
  • franznpdx, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1What about torrent site operator.
  • ThunkDifferent, on 11/28/2007, -1/+0its gotta be blogging, so hip. so fresh. so bookmarkable.

    Here's one. http://ThunkDifferent.com
  • edwartica, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2In soviet Russia, Computer careers drive you!
    Wait, that didn't come out right.
  • CaptainLando, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1I've worked with environmental simulation visualization! Awesome to see that on the list.

    These are some 3D Volume Visualizations of Ozone and CO over NC:
    http://webpages.uncc.edu/~ltharri1/3d.html

    Probably some of the prettiest visualizations I have seen in awhile.
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