Camille Luckenbaugh.

A slow economy and job loss in the tech sector are having a dramatic effect on the job market for CS grads.

Only two years ago graduates with computer science degrees could expect a salary of more than $50,000 and an increase of 12 or 13 percent in the first year. “It was really out of control,” admits Camille Luckenbaugh of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE, www.naceweb.org). NACE watches the rise and fall of demand for college graduates.

Luckenbaugh saw a dramatic drop in the technical job market in 2002. “They’re feeling the brunt of this economy,” she says. Last year the average salary for a graduate with a CS degree was $51,429. This year it is $44,678 – a 13 percent drop.

CS and similar degrees like IS and MIS are still on the NACE “top ten” list of desirable degrees, Luckenbaugh says, but CS is sixth on the list and IS follows at seventh. Business admin and related areas occupy the top spots this year, so a business-focused CS or IS degree may be the smart way to go.

Lt. Col. Rachel Borhauer teaches IT classes at West Point.

Civilian jobs with the Army
While many major corporations are experiencing slowdowns, some government-related organizations are adding tech staff. Lt Col Rachel Borhauer, who currently teaches systems lifecycle and software engineering classes at the Army’s West Point Academy (West Point, NY), says civilian IT people are in great demand by the military.

Borhauer, who has worked in IT-related positions for the military for nearly twenty years, has witnessed the growing demand firsthand. One example, she says, is at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona, where she herself worked until 1997. Here, in the largely uninhabited desert, the U.S. military has established a command center for IT, computer science and engineering work focusing on military intelligence.

Borhauer describes Fort Huachuca as “an electronic proving ground hidden in the desert. There are lots of different opportunities there,” she says, including internships and entry-level jobs for civilian CS grads.

“I would encourage women and anyone who is good at math and enjoys it to go for a career in IT or computer science,” Borhauer says.

Leanne Phirman, a Convergys intern, was later hired by the company.

Leanne Phirman of Convergys: experience is the key to getting a job
Leanne Phirman is beginning her career at Convergys, the company she interned with during her senior year at Northern Kentucky University (NKU, Highland Heights, KY). Convergys is an information management consulting company. She interned with the systems engineering group in Cincinnati, OH, a short drive from her college campus. She worked twenty-four hours a week while also taking several courses she needed to graduate. Phirman was one of two interns in the group. “They treated me as part of the team,” she comments.

Phirman found Convergys through a friend – a Convergys manager’s daughter in her college class. When the friend mentioned that Convergys was looking for interns, Phirman knew she couldn’t ignore the opportunity. “Getting experience is the key to getting a job,” she says.

Phirman started by writing reports on workflow and client specs. She monitored time sheets and how long it took to finish projects. Soon she was updating requirement documents. To learn more about the process, she sat in on review sessions and took notes.

Convergys hired Phirman in May 2003, right after she got her IS degree with a minor in business. “I chose a minor in business because I am more interested in the business side of computers than the technical side.”

Her work at Convergys addressed real-life issues rather than the academic concepts she had studied in the classroom. She learned how to cope when a client didn’t like what she presented or suggested changes she didn’t expect. At work, she says, “You learn practical applications for what you were taught in class.”

Phirman picked her career path early. Between high school and college she went to a meeting for people thinking about going to college at NKU. Each department had a booth at the event. “I ended up at the IS booth, and decided this looked like something I was interested in.”

Phirman feels she has a good future at Convergys. “Because there are so many different IT jobs within Convergys, there are so many options.”

Aon’s Goksu Tugay likes both the technical and business sides of IT.

Aon’s Goksu Tugay helps IT people all over the world
Goksu Tugay also came to her job through an internship at financial services company Aon (Chicago, OL). Tugay earned her bachelor’s degree in business management in 1999 at the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey). After graduation she went to work at Shaw Cable Systems (Saskatoon, SK, Canada) as a technical support group representative in the marketing department.

Although she liked her work, she wanted to live in a bigger city. She had friends at the University of Illinois in Chicago, so she went there to earn an MBA. When she got there, she learned that UI offered a combined MBA and MIS degree. Since she was interested in both the technical and business sides of IT, she got the combined degree in 2002.

While at school, she met a VP from Aon who saw a presentation she and a group of students did about developing a database system. Soon after, Tugay began an internship at Aon.

As an intern she worked on a project for research advisory services, collecting and centralizing research. “I did content and a Web page,” she says. She and another intern also developed a database.

After graduation she joined the staff as a full-time employee. She’s now a research analyst who also helps develop small applications. “We’re helping Aon people all over the world,” she says. Aon employees can now visit the website or participate in analyst calls that Tugay arranges.

Eventually she hopes to be a project manager. “That’s not something you can start out doing,” she points out.

NSA’s Susan X: protecting government networks
A job fair in February of 2001 turned out to be a good way for the National Security Agency (NSA) to find new talent. Thousands of job seekers came to the fair – many more than the government agency had expected. One was Susan X, an IT network intrusion analyst. Because of the work she does, she can’t use her last name here.

X, students and other job applicants met with recruiters and spoke with NSA employees. X was one of a few to receive a conditional job offer on the spot, but she decided to consider her options before saying yes.

She had finished a BS in mathematics from Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ) in 1996, and got her MSCS from Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) in the spring of 2001. She was hoping for a job that used her math skills, both because she likes math-related work and because she felt it would lead her to the best jobs.

That was before September 11, 2001. She was living in the New York area and pursuing math-related job options when the terrorist strikes changed her goals and her life. “I wanted to do what I could,” she says. Her thoughts turned to the NSA, with its reputation for cutting-edge analysis and technology in the service of national defense. She remembered how enthusiastic its people were and how interesting she thought their work was. She contacted the agency and accepted the offer.

Now, as a network intrusion analyst, X performs in-depth diagnostic analysis. She uses network security techniques to protect computer systems and networks at the Department of Defense. She produces security analysis reports, researches and develops network intrusion analysis tools, and works with customers to boost network security attack analysis.

The NSA, for security reasons, has no plans for another on-site job recruiting event. But the agency still attends local and college job fairs and career fairs. In 2002 the NSA visited more than 100 college campuses, and ran a variety of intern programs.

Agata Wysiadecka, center, enjoys the technical aspect of her work at Unisys.

Agata Wysiadecka: working with clients at Unisys
Agata Wysiadecka, a technology consultant at Unisys, earned her BSCS at Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) in 2001. She spent several months that summer touring her home country of Poland – a graduation present to herself, she says with a smile.

When she returned to the United States she decided to look for a job in southern California. She considered working for the company where she’d done her internships, Andersen Consulting. When that didn’t work out, she sent out resumes and searched for local jobs even though she had no contacts or connections.

Her plan worked. She was one of 400 applicants contacted by Unisys (Blue Bell, PA) about two positions in Los Angeles. She went through four interviews in July of 2002 before getting the job that she now holds.

As a technology consultant she is part of the Southern California Microsoft Practice (SCMP, Los Angeles, CA). SCMP is a group formed as part of a partnership among Microsoft, Unisys and Intel. Wysiadecka works with the Unisys ES 7000 server, which runs Microsoft software on an Intel microprocessor. The group offers an opportunity for consulting clients to interact with the technical people who build the hardware and write the software that their Unisys consultants provide for them.

Although Wysiadecka is most interested in the technical end of her work, she also enjoys working directly with clients. In her team of a dozen people, she’s one of only two entry-level employees. “It’s very exciting work,” she says.

Wysiadecka’s group first meets with clients to talk about their technical needs, and presents the information to a Microsoft architect. Then the client comes to the Unisys technical center to talk with Microsoft architects and consultants and learn more about the products. Wysiadecka helps set up the system and makes sure it works well for the client.

This is not the kind of job Wysiadecka thought she’d be doing. She did some programming and Web design in college and liked it, so initially she looked for a job in Web development. But the search process changed her expectations. “I thought I knew what I wanted. But nothing like that was out there.” She expanded her search and is glad now that she did.

The job search was hard. She posted her name on Internet lists and applied for so many positions that she ran out of new places to look. “It’s hard work but if you don’t apply you won’t get called,” she says. “I had no connections. No one helped me get here.”

She urges job-seekers to stay upbeat when interviewing. “From that first interview you should have a good attitude, be excited and willing to work. Stay positive, be patient and the jobs will come.”

Although opportunities in CS and related areas are not as plentiful as they were just a few years ago, the new grads profiled here found satisfying and challenging jobs through persistence and hard work.

D/C

– Claire Swedberg is a freelance writer who lives in Somerset, NJ.