Warning: most of this post will only be of interest to U.S. citizens.
Everyone is wondering about how to keep your job. Many professional developers wonder how they will stay relevant as Tech jobs leave the US. Dave Thomas suggests that developers need to be able to reposition themselves in the value chain.
One way to reposition yourself, with relatively little change in skills, is to work for the U.S. defense industry. There are plenty of jobs for developers with security clearances. Many employers pay big bonuses for security clearances since they cost a lot and take so long to get. To get a clearance or even to work in the industry at all you usually have to be a U.S. citizen, so there is no worry about jobs moving abroad. If you want to be a developer, my suggestion, especially for all the new Computer Science graduates, is to work for a defense company and work hard to get a security clearance. Even if it expires, it is so much quicker to reinstate than to get a new one that companies often prefer it over experience.
Posted
Mon, Jul 21 2003 3:37 PM
by
Darrell Norton