February 23, 2019: Question Series #10
Written By: Marc Moskowitz
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Every parent I know wants their children to be successful, self-sufficient, and a contributing member of society. I’m certain the parents that you know think the same way, too. I also know that it has become harder and harder for new graduates and young professionals to find good jobs. Many of them are under-employed and earning less than they should, even with the booming job market we have today. There are many factors that contribute to this problem, but the purpose of this article is not to debate or breakdown these reasons. The purpose of this article is to let you know my hypothesis on what I believe your children can do to guarantee themselves a high-paying job once they graduate from college.
My theory will work with any major they choose, but it works better with any science- or mathematics-based degree. Even the social sciences and general business degrees will strongly benefit from what I’m about to tell you. The key is going to be to start them on this learning as early as middle school, but high school is OK, too. By the time your kids get to college, it’s often hard to make the time to sneak it in. So what am I talking about?
Your children need to learn how to program a computer or write code.
I know this might seem obvious at first, as everyone knows computer programmers get paid well and that they are always in short supply (especially those who are very talented). However, what I’m saying is even if your children do not major in computer science, data science, or management information systems, they should learn how to code somewhere along the way (have them choose a mid-level, coding language like C, C#, or Java). It will without a doubt help them get a better entry level job, consistently stay employed, and likely earn north of one-hundred thousand dollars in short order (only about 20% of all households earn more than one-hundred thousand dollars per year as of 2015).
There are many skills that your children will acquire from learning how to write code. All of them, regardless of major and job choice, will make them better at their job—any job. That last part of my statement is the key: WILL MAKE THEM BETTER AT THEIR JOB—ANY JOB. Being really good at your job is the key to making a lot of money (excluding government and fixed-income jobs, where tenure is the main driver). Regardless if you’re a plumber, doctor, sales associate, marketing manager, businessperson, or writer, if you are really good at your job, you will earn big money.
So, what will your kids learn from writing code that will make them more marketable? They will learn the following:
- How to think logically and in a structured fashion
- How to solve complex, real-world business problems that create value
- How to write queries for extracting data from databases and create reports
- How to spot trends in data and know what information to ask from other people (data is today’s gold)
- How to quickly find issues/errors in other people’s work products (both coding and non-coding)
- How to overcome failure, as very few programs work correctly the first time
- How to build a finished product
- Much, much more
Does it now make more sense why learning to write code is such a valuable experience? All of the items on the list above will make anyone better at any job. Coding is one of the few places where one can learn all of these skills fairly quickly, and then be able to apply them to just about anything. What job these days doesn’t generate loads of data, require critical thinking skills, or need real-world problems solved? Not many, and none that will pay well.
So why did I chose the one-hundred thousand dollar mark instead of just saying a better paying job (adjust it up to one-hundred and fifty thousand if you are reading this from NYC, San Francisco, or LA. If you are one of my friends overseas, think top 15% of all earners in your country)? It’s because these particular skills are separators to getting higher level jobs, especially if your full-time job is not programming or mathematics. Imagine the marketing manager who knows their way around a SQL database. How about a construction supervisor that is an expert in testing someone else’s work and creating geometric calculations? A business executive that can create a data-driven business case? These are one-hundred thousand dollar earners!
What do you think? Are you going to have your kids take a computer programming class?
Thanks for reading!
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