I remember starting in on IT after I got my degree in Psychology and saw the low paid positions that were open to me in my chosen field. My Dad was concerned when I started turning down IT offers because I said they were too low, especially given that I was a woman. He said it was important to break into the field and prove myself for higher salaries. I told him at the time that I agreed that was the way it used to be, but I predicted THIS field and others like it would be based on a different scale. While everything was new, it was in demand and a decent salary could be requested. If you were female, like me, you may have to turn down a few offers you might have liked to work into, but on the whole, the longer the field "lasted" the more likely the salaries would slowly go down to the lowest level possible. And I've seen that in the IT field. Now, I could do just about anything with a computer... I gained enough electronics interest and curiosity from my Dad to really be excited about each new evolution. I started out doing word processing when WANG was the thing, and worked a little on the "big computers" at Army DoD installations... Fortran, I believe it was we used. From there, I taught myself about the insides of a computer and became adept at troubleshooting and reincarnating broken computers. Got into some PC coding, but I'll admit it wasn't a real love of mine, and my abilities showed through. I was always much better with hands-on stuff. But I watched while high value data analysis was taken down in salary level, every time tech support was denigrated in word and salary. And, while good Analysts can still claim a decent salary with some good companies, the part that really took off was the Security aspect. THAT I was never comfortable with. But then, I busted my chops during the days of people being put on report or fired for accessing "whitehouse.com"... I looked at IT security as being another aspect of the authoritarian state. Some of that belief was true... some aspects weren't. Today, I WISH companies took security seriously!

But that was my view of careers... is it new? How long has it been around? Long enough to come to a steady state, more or less, wage wise?

I honestly don't know if I can say it worked... I still retired poor! (LOL)