All around you the headlines scream about impending Armageddon: layoffs planned at 3Com. Gateway staff rocked by news of job losses. Hewlett Packard issues profit warning. Intel results show 9 per cent profit dip. High-tech firms suffer as US economy falters.
You could be forgiven for believing the whole computer industry was about to implode. First it was the .com start-ups and now it is the giant computer manufacturers who are feeling the chilly winds of recession. With the US economy preparing to take a nosedive and some of the biggest names in PC and chip-manufacturing issuing profit warnings, some commentators are suggesting the once all-conquering industry no longer represents such an attractive career option.
Well, it never promised its recruits job security anyway, with many of them choosing to be self-employed or take jobs involving short-term contracts. So what has changed? For you, the only concern is whether there will be the same number of jobs in the computer sector when you graduate. About 72,000 people work in the domestic technology industry now; how many will there be in five years?
One fact which seems to support the view that the good times will keep rolling is the number of Irish-based IT companies which are recruiting abroad, especially in eastern Europe and Asia. Why would they be doing this if they had plenty of graduates to fill the gaps? The answer is they don't.
Employment prospects
Prof Mark Keane, head of computer science at UCD, is keen to reassure students about the latest market jitters.
"The current cutbacks among US information technology companies will not affect the job prospects of graduates," he says. "While in the short term, it may cool spiralling wages - currently graduates are starting at around £20,000 - given the massive shortage of IT professionals, we have a very long way to go before people find it hard to get a job," he adds.
Other research bears out his views. Recruitment and consulting firm NewMedia CV said in its report at Christmas:
"Demand for people with e-business and web skills is still very strong in Ireland, despite technology stock jitters. Demand is being driven mainly by current industry participants, new entrants in mobile commerce and web hosting sectors or by late adopters."
Late adopters in this case are companies who are finally devising an IT strategy and hungry for people to work on their projects. This is what makes other commentators enthusiastic about IT and computing generally. For example, only about 35 per cent of Europeans are online, compared to 85 per cent of Americans.
So Ireland and Europe have a long way to go and there will be serious growth in PC ownership in the next decade, which should boost the Intels, Dells and Hewlett-Packards of this world.
The NewMedia CV report makes interesting reading about future demand in e-commerce, a sector which has shown instability in the last year.
"Even though some e-business companies have slowed down their hiring activity, there has still been a growth of between 10 and 20 per cent in the salary levels on offer over the past six months across a range of positions. However, the level of increase is down on the previous six-month period when salary level growth stood at 25 per cent," says the report.
In other words, salaries are still rising but not by quite as much as they were. According to the report, there is "most demand" for experienced programmers and developers in computer languages like Java and C++, graphic designers with more than two years' experience, system analysts and e-commerce consultants. There is "least demand" for audio and video engineers and animators.
There is "moderate demand" for graduate developers, HTML (used to build web sites) authors, webmasters and people involved in localisation (making software suitable for local markets).
Courses
What is written above will change, so you should be looking at the bigger picture when considering your options for CAO and third level. There are between 60 and 70 computer and technology courses in the CAO system. The best way to choose one is to ask yourself what you are good at.
If you are very good at maths or science, a course primarily devoted to programming might be the best idea. If you are good at art in school and like anything artistic, you might consider a computer course involving digital design.
If you are good at business subjects, you might want to look at e-commerce courses. For people who are not sure at all, maybe take a pass on the idea at this stage.
Because the sector has been growing so much, there is a raft of postgraduate courses available which can be done no matter what certificate, diploma or degree you did in the first place. For example, UCD offers postgraduate diplomas in computer science and software localisation, specifically aimed at graduates from non-computing courses.
So theoretically, a graduate in Greek and Roman civilisation or geography at UCD can become a computer scientist or software localisation worker within a year. So never say never when it comes to computers.
Because there is a lot of uniformity between third-level computing courses, some colleges have added a language to make their course more appealing. Sometimes it is only a module within the main course, whereas in other colleges a language is as big a part of the course as computers. For example, the University of Limerick offers a four-year degree in computer systems with French (LM 059).
Not every graduate, though, who has taken French or German at Leaving Cert level wants to face into it again at college. Also, many computer courses require you to have a certain grade in maths. But as ever, each college varies.
For example, to do the software development course at Cork IT with French/German (CR114), you need at least a B3 in ordinary level maths, but at Trinity College, if you want to do its computer course with either French or German (TR011 and TR010) you need at least a C3 at higher level.