Have you seen the mini-doc that’s been floating around the internet the past week? It’s eye opening. And amazing. And has me searching for coding classes, even though I have a job I love. Can’t hurt to learn it, right?
What kills me is that there are 1.4 MILLION jobs in the coding field, and only 400K people to fill them. That leaves one million jobs open. Which means those 400,000 people are living the life. You saw their offices. Giant comfy sectionals (no shoes required), scooters, pianos, cafeteria filled with healthy, yummy food… the list goes on. And I’m sure they’re not hurting for cash.
Not to get political, because as a rule this blog stays away from politics as much as possible, but what job crisis?! The problem is not a lack of jobs. The problem is a lack of skills in our culture. These kinds of skills, which, as you’ve heard, are not the skills of a genius. They are the skills of someone pretty decent at math. Someone with an imagination. Someone with a little perseverance and hard work.
I know after talking to my dad that there are companies out there with more job openings than they will be able to fill. And these companies are only growing. They aren’t taking buyouts, they’re scouting college computer labs like a football recruiter scouts high school locker rooms. We are just having a hard time adjusting.
And I can’t fully blame our population. Who knew the coding world (or even broader, the technology world) was so wide open? We need someone to talk to our school-aged kids. To teach them what career fields are growing. To guide them into a path that they didn’t even know existed. When I started college in 2005, my current job didn’t exist. Blogging was just gaining a little momentum. And now look where we are.
Whose in? Harry & I are starting coding lessons today. Seriously… go check out code.org. I’ll be there.
xoxo, Mallory