Monday, July 15, 2002		Feature

Queues at institutes may never return
Jagmeet Sidhu

THE last few years have seen India find a hallowed place in the Information Technology (IT) market. However with the international economy as a whole and the technology sector in particular in the throes of recession questions are being raised over the future of this field. To get a better understanding of the situation, one must first try to understand this field better.

To begin with It arena has two types of professionals - application programmers and computer scientists

Application programmers are those who use and develop applications, based on various platforms, used by end-users. Computer scientists on the other hand are those engaged in research activity aimed at developing newer and better hardware and software technologies. While an application engineer is involved in making an application using his favourite platform (like VB, for example), computer scientists on the other hand typically develop the platform itself. These include the likes of Bachelors of Technology in computer science and engineering pass outs from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), RECs and other institutes of repute. While it is true that many of them take up normal programming jobs to start off, they hold more than just an edge over the application engineers when it comes to higher developmental jobs. Indeed their courses cover a broad spectrum of subjects that includes mathematics, electronics as well as the common basic sciences, humanities and engineering subject.

As opposed to application programmers, who learn programming for a career, programming is basically a tool for their study into these fields just like a calculator that is a financial consultant's weapon.

The nineties witnessed the development of India as a major outsourcing centre for software. The whole world was discovering IT. This led to a huge demand-supply imbalance, consequently causing software professionals to have some of the most enviable pay packages in the corporate world. However, the recent economic downturn led to market conditions most software professionals dread.

With the mushrooming of computer training institutes all over the country the supply of simple application programmers, like VB and Java professionals, increased greatly. The boom and the money have been so great that computer science departments the world over have been facing an acute shortage of faculty, researchers and students who wished to pursue higher studies. Also a lack of information (ironically, in this information age) led to the mushroom growth of many inferior institutes. As a consequence, an ill-equipped workforce was churned out. It is these application programmers who face the maximum risk in these testing times primarily because a computer scientists' study is geared towards the broad field of computer science.

People holding professional degrees (the B.Techs and Ph.Ds) see this downturn as an opportunity to differentiate themselves from application programmers.

The application programmer plays the role of a vital cog in the whole software process. However he has to ensure that he is well equipped to meet the challenges of new technology. This is a fast evolving field and one needs updated skills to be able to satisfy new requirements. The role of a programmer is here to stay but he needs to be adequately equipped to work in ever changing scenarios.

It may be a bit early to predict a rebound although many MNCs and Indian software companies have started recruiting. Most corporations are still not recruiting in the USA (this is perhaps true for almost all fields). However things are bound to improve. Many researchers in computer science have actually welcomed the downturn as it ensures that good talent indeed does stay in research.

A rebound is inevitable. It is just a question of when. Of course, the long queues in front of the training institutes may never return. It is probably for the good. This is because deciding on a career as a programmer means probably closing a lot of other options for oneself. This is a decision that should be taken after getting to know the field extremely well and not because it seems to be the in-thing. A lot many persons jumped onto the IT bandwagon just because doing a six-month (and in many cases a much shorter) course ensured great jobs. What probably many of them did not realise was that this career is not just about learning a programming language and enjoying the rest of one's life. It is a challenging job that requires constant up gradation of knowledge. It is only then that one can continue enjoying the benefits over an extended period of time.

The bachelor level courses at the good institutions are geared towards providing a broad platform from which to launch a career in research. However some of the B.Techs indeed have to continue joining the industry with just their bachelors degree as they are expected to move up from programmers and testers very soon and start looking into the more challenging questions of software design and process. A vast majority though would continue to pursue higher studies and then pursue research careers both in the academic community and the industry.

The boom is definitely over but only in the unplanned, chaotic me-too field. The future is bright especially as the technological innovations continue to push the field further up. Demand will continue to rise both for application programmers as well as researchers. The need for prospective entrants to this field is to wisely assess their options before choosing a career instead of looking for short-term gains. A career is what you do your whole life. Think hard before choosing.