If they insist on IT, I point at helpdesk. The turn-over is so big that within 8 months you can be team leader (by virtue of seniority) and you're on a fast track to management.

===

On the other hand, if we deny the premise that CS / Software Engineering is a ghetto for men too, then what is wrong with the picture? Do men get opportunities that women don't get? E.g. ground floor of a start-up?

I think the premise needs to be not that "something is wrong with women", but rather "something is wrong with the system if it treats men and women differently".

Everything you do in life involves sales skills. Getting better sales skills is going to make you more money. Even if you worked in some high-fallutin' ivory tower institution you still need to go cap in hand begging for funding. Every job interview is a sales situation, every annual review etc.

Are you disputing the claim about help desk having a high turn-over? Have you even worked in IT? Seriously.

As for programmers making such big salaries, outside of anomalies like Microsoft, Google and Facebook, good luck with that one. Try comparing against electricians, plumbers and carpenters. Or even the bloke who owns his own lawn mowing business. Yes, I know apprentice jobs are shitty and they make peanuts, but after their apprenticeship is over, they can make big bucks.

For big $ as a wage slave, try medical. Oh, you're such a delicate precious genius as a programmer, but couldn't cut it (sic) as a Doctor, Dentist or GP? Guess maybe you're not as special or smart as you think you are.

A lot of programmers who think they are God's gift to the information age need to pull their head out and go outside. Even a garbo can make good $ (and it's great for your immune system!)

I'm slowly leaving the field because of the smell of it. I want to work with professionals, not idiot-savants in sandals and hoodies. There are professional shops, but they are few and far in between.

So I've started my own company instead.

I'm one of the MS/Google anomalies, so I guess I'm not really familiar with IT.

As far as medicine goes, I come from a family of physicians so I see the benefits and costs pretty well. That said, I could never really see myself being happy in medicine anyway, so it's never going to look terribly interesting.

A lot of programmers who think they are God's gift to the information age need to pull their head out and go outside. Even a garbo can make good $ (and it's great for your immune system!)

Sure, there are plenty of other good jobs.

They have protective associations that get them lots of pay for a smaller chunk of work.

All the professionals are well paid just for having a protected market: Doctors, Lawyers, Psychologists, Nurses, Actuaries, Accountants, etc. None of the work is particularly challenging - they are paid lots for their professional status and because they have associations that lobby and market the profession as a whole. They have standards bodies and certification boards and so on.

The reason for these things is to increase their pay. Pure and simple.

Then you have the blue collar workers who have banded together to fight for higher wages - this goes for both union and non-union. They are manly men who are unwilling to be shat upon and for that simple reason get paid more. They also get bonus money for doing jobs that are not prestigious.

Being a plumber is hardly challenging by MIT standards but a first year plumber rakes in cash hand over fist and has zero competition with India. Likewise for all construction related fields that are booming - especially in Canada. A first year construction apprentice working in the Canadian oil fields can make $100k in a year if they choose to. This requires no high school diploma.

Meanwhile the effeminate computer science dweebs get manhandled by MBAs into working unpaid overtime - reducing the pay of everyone in IT - not just themselves.