   Programmer != Job Security
  This is not a rant, nor a fact, but a discussion.  I am curious how those here who have been working in the ''real world'' and those still in school view this ..point.Programmer != Job SecurityTo start off, let me give you my ''oppinions'' for you to pick at or add to.First, I don''t believe there is such thing as job security.  Either you own the company, or you are meat.  Even then, if you own the company, you can get booted, (look at John Romero).One point, the current thread at Blue''s about Ion Storms ''layoffs''.  You will find a post by me, but I wanted to go into it deaper. ClickyProgrammers work on projects.  Projects usually have a development period.  Programmers are needed only during several phases of the project, and the required number change during the project. So why do programmers think they should be needed forever? (job security)   Do you feal like the company should keep you because you did a good job?As one who did contract work for a bit in Japan and my initial reentry in the US, I found the two countrys look at contractors differently.  In Japan, they accept that contractors are needed, but treat them as employees and keep them around forever.  In the US, contractors are treated as second rate citizens and are easily thrown aside.  People and friends talked to me with worried faces when the subject of me being a contract worker came up.  However, they never realized I made almost twice as much as them and had the same ''job security''.I am now working salary, and while I don''t ''think'' it could happen, this new company could just as easy let me go after a project is done, as being a contractee could.To end my long post think about this, here is one idea to think about.  The big IT bubble lasted about 1.5 years.  This is also the length of an average project. Many programmers were staffed, projects were either finished or ran out of money, and the programmers were not needed any more.  While 90% of the products made were crap, it does not matter since the big surge in programmer need had rissen so fast, the fall would be just as fast as projects completed.  The tech boom may have been no more than just a coincidence of many projects starting at once...which it was. 
  The tech boom happened because at that time the big companies didn''t realise that they can hire people in India, and other countries for far less than the average programmer salary in US.I also noticed that the US companies, even the small ones, do not treat their employees as humans, but as tools. So if something is wrong, or they fidn a better/cheaper tool, they just replace you.There are nowdays far more computers than a few years ago. That means that more computer jobs are needed (programmers, tech support, web designers, etc.) But why pay someone from US 30 USD/hour when you can pay someoen from India, or Ukraine, or even Canada 15 USD/hour or less? ;  Valid points.  The fact is, outsourcing affect many job types, not just programming.  However, outsourcing pretty much only affect contract related jobs, which is why programming jobs are hit the most, I think.Now, I do disagree with one thing you said.  US companies treat their ''contractors'' as meat, not their ''employees''.  This is quite the opposite of the way things were no more than 10 years ago.  For example, contractors to NASA were given better benifits than their employees.At the company I am working for now, our client we are making software for is from another country.  This is the beauty of a global market.  That country may view him as outsourcing, but in reality, he only found his solution in the US, and thus can stay in business and pay his own employees.  Same thing holds true for US companies.  My main point though, to stay on topic, is that programmers should look at their job in terms of contracts.  ;  Unless you are a mortician or a tax collector there is no such thing as job security.On the other hand, as a consultant I am normally involved in a large number of projects concurrently and assist in developing and advancing those projects.  A big part of what I do is called "knowledge transfer" by my boss and his counterparts at our clients.  I call it teaching.  The IT industry is still going strong, but like anything else it is becoming specialized, streamlined, and saturated.  To be successful you have to be flexible, hardworking, and realistic.