Game programming and general programming question (student)

[solidstategamer]

I'm taking a computer science degree and read a lot about programming. It seems to have quite a bit of negativity about it. Here are some things I would like clarified by those in the field:

- computer science, programmers, is a job that is not good for security and older programmers are often replaced by cheaper less experienced programmers.

Is this true? I find it hard to believe that if I was hired by a gaming company to code, all of a sudden 15 years down the line when I'm 45-50 I'm somehow obselete and would be considered to be replaced by some young guy so they can pay him half of what I'd be making at the time.

- programmer jobs are being outsourced, leaving many without work.
All this talk about jobs going overseas, what is the real deal here. Is it really that bad? My father seems to think that if it's true it would be just the low paying programmer jobs that are more along the lines of very repetitive and simple programming. I don't know any game companies located on american soil who hire a india company to code their games.

This has me concerned, but I find it hard to believe despite the high popularity of these types of complaints by people in various programming forums.

One big reason I find it hard to believe is because I'm located in a city that has Ubisoft, EA, Bioware, Eidos, Warner Bros, THQ and A2M. These are big companies, and Warner Bros just installed themselves here and Ubisoft just a few years back. There is no way these big companies would be coming here if for some reason all the programming if going overseas.

For those in the field, please share your thoughts.

 

[hang-the-9]

You are correct in all of your thinkings. The only option is to be so good no-one will want to replace you

You need to do some research in the fields, some companies are more likely to outsource than others due to their corporate culture, some general fields are also the same way. If you find a good niche where you need close and contstant colobaration with others, it should be nice and stable. For example, a CompSci and some type of math and/or science work will get you a very interesting and stable bioinformatics position. Since that requires constant feedback and work with researchers, it's not a position liable to be sent overseas.

 

[solidstategamer]

Right, so what about working for a computer game company. It's my first choice if I could work for any type of company. I'm not sure if it's as present in this field however.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you read some of the news items from there, it all depends on where you work. A small developer house is probably the best pick for good freedoms and maybe even salary/stock options, but you have to be really good at what they need. A large company like EA will suck your soul out, but you can hide amongst the 10,000 overseas contractors they probably use to put new player models on the same game each year.