So what this survey actually says is....
...Joe Public think we spend all day staring at company issue iPads and engaging in various types of social media. Boy, are they in for a shock!
The IT industry is seen as a more desirable place to work, thanks to the likes of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg and fondleslabs like the iPad. Actually it's not quite so clear cut - 46 per cent of respondents to a recent survey believe the IT industry is seen as more attractive now than five years ago. Some 40 per cent …
Some of these people ought to try working an 10 hour day as Unix/RDBMS admin! The only GUI you get to see is the one that holds up the 96 SSH sessions you're using to keep the business critical DB servers up and running.
I am glad Exchange came along, as the Exchange admins now get a taste of what we real admins have had to put up with when a critical system goes tits-up and a management huddle forms around you faster than a line outside an Apple store when a new gadget is announced!
"In terms of the technology which is drawing people to the trade, mobile development platforms were considered most important by 58 per cent of people. Forty-seven per cent mentioned social media, 34 per cent said cloud computing and 32 per cent cited 3D and animation."
Eh?!
... Is art/design not Information Technology.
IT is something for which you need broad technical skills, to do animation you need narrow skills in 1 or 2 applications and a flair for art.
3D is a stupid fad.
Whilst we're on it, 99%* of people "in social media" are also clueless tech-retards (i.e. something they fell into because they stood out at nothing) really not serious professionals, the kind of people who do crappy surveys like this and just prove my point by doing it wrong.
*99.95% of stats are exaggerated to make a point
</rant>
I'm used to the inane utterances of the terminally ill-informed on these hallowed pages, but this takes the biscuit!
"3D is a stupid fad." You'd better let those fun loving chaps over at Pixar and their rivals at DreamWorks this information, they seem to have missed it and are doing rather well out of this 'fad'. So are Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the developers that create games for their respective platforms. Adobe and Autodesk haven't done too badly out of this 'fad' either.
Here's the fact; modelling, animation and the other skills for producing any kind of 3D content are far more involved than the "...narrow skills in 1 or 2 applications and a flair for art" that an ignoramus like you supposes. Next time, don't spout utter bollocks about something you have no real world knowledge of.
Not all 3D animation is good. Yes, it does require a range of skills (depending on the company - some are small where everyone does everything, some are large production-line sweatshops where one skill IS all you need).
Some 3D animation produces great movies, most does not. - working 6 days a week doing pointless 3D animated adverts to ridiculous deadlines for example.
Then it's no surprise that they are having to kill time looking at recruitment sites all day.
Some of these people need to realise that the real coalface work in IT is the design, development, delivery and management of systems, tools, processes and technologies to enable the designers, developers and deliver-ers to be able to actually PRODUCE all of these shiny throwaway gadgets such as smartphones and iPads.
I'll take a SAP/ERP architect, a UNIX sysadmin, or a good business analyst over a Facebook web programmer, iPad case designer, or smartphone ring tone maker any day of the week.
Gawd help us all indeed. That entrepeneurs and new technology should make IT seem like an effective service that actually puts usable technology in the hands of non-technologists instead of an image of sleep-deprived, socially-impaired trolls who inhabit the nether regions of buildings and produce only excuses for why the damned computers won't do what they're supposed to.
Gawd help us all, indeed.
*looks down at shitty Optiplex*
A better PC? Nah, not these days, now I have to develop Weblogic Java web apps using a shitty FOTM VM piece of crap. And for legacy work? An even shittier VM slice. I've sent links to your articles but that falls on deaf ears, it (allegedly) makes IT's lives easier and it's cheaper, so who gives a shit about actual performance.
Also, lol at iPads and the story in general.