Career Change

Are you people joking?!?

Here in CA the average policeman, longshoreman, and bus driver each are paid more than the average programmer! Plus they have benefits AND retirement. Hell, the grocery store clerks even get retirement while the programmers do NOT!

If you must, clearly computer repair will grow as computers grow. BBUY has already laid down a claim on that though. Networking - not that hard of a problem anymore. Animation - good luck! Security - maybe one or two people per large site. Not alot of jobs.

In case you haven't checked it out, almost no net jobs have been created in the private sector since March 2001; but, optimistically maybe things will rebound. A rebound never happened for manufacturing or textiles though. Employment fundamentals are bad so you're playing roulette to go into computers.

Areas where you can have a job and earn a decent living: 1. Government (99.97% of all net jobs in the last four years have been in government!) 2. Doctor - due to insurance health care is a habit for most Americans (note I explicitly said "health care" and not "health" as they are largely disjoint in the USA!) 3. maybe bio-tech and energy-alternative energies? 4. real-estate (as the dollar hyper-deflates, real-estate skyrockets) 5. banking-mortgage

Best luck