Please no flames, Im not critisizing, just my $0.02
was bored and this kinda passed my mind recently
I started working in IT 10 years ago in the United States, hell I dropped out of medical school because of it, back then a MCSE meant squat, I've seen MCSE holders walk up to a broken NT server and did'nt know what to do with it. Textbook vs real life scenarios are two very different ballgames , If you knew how to implement/troubleshoot lan/wan, server, users.. (well you cant really implement or troubleshoot users though I wish you could, I've seen some pretty retarded users in my days) You can make a decent salary.
All was good in the IT sector for about 3-4 years, then suddenly everyone and thier mother was either investing in a .com or doing some sort of buymycrap.com web page. It was a huge cash cow thats well, pretty much dead now or what's left of it is being force fed and kept alive by some of the major players. (poor cow)
It seems there are too many CNE, MCSE, MCE, CCNE, BNE? "insert any abbreviated certification here that most people dont know what the hell it is anyways", there are so many people with computer engineering/science degrees all with the know hows of computer hardware and networking to a certain degree.
This is all fine and gravy, I understand time does not stand still and cant expect everyone to be staying behind, time moves forward and so does technology, it's a competitive world, computer technology is where it is at, everything is computer this, computer that, bill gates this, microsoft that, your refridgerator can automatically shop and replace your groceries.. (ok well maybe in another 10 years but who knows, at this rate, maybe in 5 and it'll probably be made by Microsoft. I can picture Microsoft making refridgerators in 10 years with built in Windows 2020)
The kicker is half (probably more) of these people with these degrees and certifications probably have no interest in computers. Ten years ago if you asked a computer technician about computers, he/she will go into a 20 minute ramble with geekish computer terms that you or anyone else that's not a computer nerd would understand. It was back in the days when you met a MCSE holder, he really had a passion for how computer works, he would know in detail everything about a workstation, the lan cable to the switch, the switch to the backbone, the servers connected, etc.. he would probably even have a small network setup at home.
The sad truth is most people use IT as a stepping stone to move onto other bigger better things, either consulting, banking, research, or some other path. I just feel the quality of the so called Computer Technicians now a days lack a passion for the "Personal Computer", most friends I know that work with the so called "Information Technology" department dont want or even have a computer at home. In the end, the quality has really suffered. The demand, since there are so many certified technicians and graduates pouring out of technical colleges around the world every year, the salary now for a typical sytem administrator really has'nt changed from 10 years ago. This is bad, because you would think after a decade, you should be making more because everything else around you, the economy, rent, food, the bus, everything surely cost more then it did 10 years ago.
So maybe it's time I changed my profession
ok Imma stop rambling