You Have It or You Don't

Technology job openings sometimes seem like an exclusive club: you can only get in if you have exactly what the membership committee is looking for. The job requirements always feature a long list of acronyms (JAVA, JCL, HTML, etc.) detailing the precise technology background the candidate must possess. If you don't happen to have that technology mix, you usually won't be considered for the position.

You'll never see a technology job posting like this: "Looking for experienced technology veteran with strong analytical and problem solving skills that has demonstrated flexibility in adapting to new technologies. Will train as needed." In technology either you have it or you don't. No one wants to be bothered with training. (Of course that begs the question: if you're not born with the knowledge where does it come from? Business replies: college.)

The result: a constant cannibalization of people in the technology field. People enter the field fresh from college, imbued with the latest technology, and at the short end of the pay scale. They work like dogs for 10-15 years, by which time there are new hot technologies that they are unfamiliar with (and they now have a more inflated pay scale.) Their "legacy"jobs are then outsourced, the hot jobs go to the new graduates and the cycle begins again!