You know there is a serious skills shortage going on when you see contractors on 150k asking “How do you tell how much memory my computer is using?” and you answer “Oh Mate, you just go into Task Manager and it tells you all that etc..”.

Yes I’m serious.

Actually, I’ve seen a fair bit of this kind of caper lately. There is this new wave of .Net “specialists” coming through the ranks. The problem is, their computer experience has been purely limited to Visual Studio and within - they have never *really* used a computer and have virtually no sys-admin/power-user type experience whatsoever. Seriously, so many of them have only ever loaded up Visual Studio and studied .Net books. They’ll say “Oh is that how you copy a file? I only know how to do it using the built-in Microsoft .Net copy file wizard. I didn’t realise there was a manual way - whoa that’s hardcore - but I still prefer the Microsoft way, .Net is the best at everything.”. Yes these idiots have a permanet set of blinkers on. You can’t underestimate the importance of getting people with broad computer experience in a whole range of different environments enough - these “It has to be .Net” fanatics can be next to useless in so many practical situations.

The upshot of the skills crisis is that those with actual real skills can demand a fortune and the companies are paying it. It would literally blow for businesses though. Japan’s IT market is totally the opposite - its so competitive over there, every Japanese kid is born with technology in their hands and so there is no shortage of tech-savvy kids. The wages are so much lower and in my opinion you would be crazy to go to Tokyo and bust your gut in the IT industry, unless you secured a top end position with an international company based in Tokyo that paid at international rates. Over there, you are far better off doing something you purely enjoy the most, because the money will probably be the same or better.

In a way, I really think that the Australian IT industry needed this injection though. If the wages were the same as they were 5 years ago when I was in Newcastle, there is no way whatsoever that many talented IT people would be dedicating their working days to large companies and Government departments. The top guys in IT have worked very hard and could have been doctors or done any degree at uni they’d liked. If the wages were like they were back then, those with an entrepreneurial streak would be far better off taking a risk and starting up their own businesses. But the way it is now, it kind of sucks them in to hanging around for a bit longer and a bit longer purely because of the money.

Drive an RX8 right now and go on multiple overseas holidays per year while still paying a house off no worries? Or go back to eating bread and water to start that idea off that you are so passionate about? It takes serious balls in a market like this to do the latter, but I can truly admire those who take that risk, as longer term, you can’t work in a job forever if you have that streak of passion inside you.