So where is your Computer Science engineering degree?

A cheap Xerox copy of mine is about three feet to the left of me, framed in an even cheaper plastic frame we got on sale at Michaels. The original went to my dad along with a $350 mahagony frame with reflection-free coated glass and a beautiful blue and orange suede background. It was a complete and total waste of money, and I am not talking about the frame.

Bill Gates has been making the rounds at various colleges, making speaches and buying buildings. As does every other IT CEO, Gates has made a point to encourage students and particularly minorities to focus on careers in computer science. Apparently, the demand for software writers will be greater than ever and we are in danger of not having enough computer science majors to fill that role. What a tragedy that will be.

Except, this is the very same story I heard in 1996 when I was choosing a college. By the time I graduated in 2002 there was no such thing as an IT job, unless it was replacing a defunct position that no existing employee was willing to apply for because it would lead to certain professional career suicide. Knowing they could not find a single qualified person for the job, they offered ridiculously low wages ($35,000/year) and expected to train someone. Not much has changed since, and despite massive layoffs and off-shore outsourcing, there is a desperate need for programmers. Or so the IT CEO’s would claim.

Well, here is a little kicker: I am AN IT CEO. I own a little ISV and a service provider and I am proud to proclaim that my engineering education has been a horrific waste of money, time and effort. Had I not invested my spare time on a second degree in business I would currently be a Sr. Analyst, as my buddy Pablo is at America Online. Keep in mind that that you’re considered a senior citizen at 35 in the IT world, which would give me about eight more productive years during which I would be mentally penciling myself into a daily Dilbert cartoon and hopelessly waiting for that six figure developer gig from Monster.com, only to be solicited endlessly by recruiters trying to get me to move to California for a 3 month contract-to-hire position.

Thats the cold hard truth. I am not writing this to demotivate anybody or discourage you from pursuing an education, but consider who is telling you the story. The fact that it is Bill Gates, the CEO of the largest software vendor on planet, is completely besides the point. These facts apply equally to Oracle, Symantec, Sun, SAP and everyone else in the IT CEO world:

• We do not need more software developers.
• We do not need more computer science majors.
• We do not need more developers.

What we do need is more creative, ingenious people. Do not be fooled for a second thinking that Microsoft (or any other IT leaders) got to where they are on innovation. They got there through careful business acquisition. There are few innovative people out there, and trust me, they are not engineers. Engineers solve problems. Engineers identify problems. Engineers brainstorm. But they do not produce.

Who does? Entrepreneurs. People that can identify the problem, find someone that can identify and work on a solution (ie: computer science engineer), find someone to financially back the idea and then work it through to a finalized product. Look up and down your degree requirements. I think you would be hard pressed to find a single class that will teach you anything about the business of IT. Instead, that engineering degree will make you somewhat capable of written and verbal communication with emphasis on putting the pieces together. Congratulations, you’re on the same virtual footing as the guy building a brick wall. How tall, wide, what color brick? C# SharePoint web part for the NCAA Sweet 16? Yes sir!

Crude but true. So why is Bill so focused on getting more computer science majors? Drive around Redmond, try to find a single building under construction. Now Google through the AP newswire and find out how many new jobs is Microsoft sending to India. How about China? That is where your college loan repayments are being sourced out to. And there are plenty of them, filled with Ph.D candidates. For 1/4 of the pay of United States.

Perhaps Bill is right, one day down the road the circumstances may change and there will be more jobs in Redmond, more jobs in San Francisco, more jobs in Silicon Valley. Until that happens, you will not be able to break even on the investment you put in your education, stress and social implications of being an underappreciated, underpaid software developer. So go and sign up for an elective that will teach you what a breakeven point is. Hang out with people that work to be better and strive to provide solutions where they can see problems.

But if you still think that Gates has an inspiring message for you, run over to jibjab.com and look at the Big Box Mart movie for some added inspiration. This is not a negative email, and I think it strikes at the core of American Opportunity: you are in control. You can choose to follow the pipe dream, or you can choose to do what made Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and every other IT CEO successful. And no, it was not C++, not by a loooong shot.