Why Half of New York's Tech Workers Lack College Degrees

We tend to embrace popular images which shape our perceptions of how things are. But the reality is often far different - and frankly - sometimes better than we imagined.

Our mental notion of those who inhabit the tech world has been built around Steve and Bill and Zuck and other smart white guys from good backgrounds with top educations (or access to same...) who headed west to build empires. Even the latest TV sitcom, Silicon Valley, is about a bunch of geeky guys who fit precisely into that demographic.

But as a new report, described below, explains increasing numbers of tech jobs do not require advanced degrees from Stanford - and aren't even in tech.

More than half of the tech jobs in New York are now in finance, fashion, media, health care, communications, entertainment and retailing. Half do not require college degrees - and yet they still pay almost 50 percent more than the regional average hourly wage.

This is consistent with the history of technology adoption and adaptation. Electricity, the telephone and the automobile all required specialized skills to begin with but soon became widespread. Who, in what industry, does not use a computer? Waiters entering customer orders, auto repair and construction, for example, now all employ technology - and people who know how to apply it.

The future will depend upon the effective deployment of technology by people who understand how to improve the technology itself as well as the problems it is assigned to solve, whatever their educational attainments. JL

Patrick McGeehan reports in the New York Times:

Less noticed is how broad a range of opportunities technology has created for people seeking work

The fast-growing technology industry in New York is often cited as a magnet for graduates of the nation’s top universities. But a new report to be discussed in a speech by a deputy mayor on Wednesday found that almost half of the technology jobs in the city are filled by people without college degrees.

The report was commissioned to show just how important the tech sector has become, estimating that it accounts for nearly 300,000 jobs in the city, more than half of them at companies in nontechnology businesses, such as finance and advertising.

Alicia Glen, the city’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, is expected to highlight that overall finding when she speaks to the Association for a Better New York.

The rising importance of technology companies and the corporate use of technology have been well documented. But less noticed is how broad a range of opportunities technology has created for people seeking work in the city, said Andrew Rasiej, the chairman of NY Tech Meetup, one of the sponsors of the report.

The other sponsors of the report, which was prepared by HR&A Advisors, include the Association for a Better New York, Citi and Google.

Mr. Rasiej said that he and other entrepreneurs and tech executives in the city hoped the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio would create more continuing education and job-training programs to prepare New Yorkers for the sort of jobs the industry is creating. He said he would also like the mayor to press for expanded high-speed access to the Internet at a low cost.

A spokesman for Ms. Glen declined to say what policies she would propose on Wednesday.

Ms. Glen, in a statement, called the tech industry “our pipeline to the middle class” and added, “It’s our job to develop the work force these fast-growing companies need so people from our schools and our neighborhoods have a real shot at these good-paying jobs.”

At least one other city official appears to share that view: The report was managed by Carl Weisbrod before he left HR&A, a real estate consulting firm, to accept Mr. de Blasio’s appointment as chairman of the city’s Planning Commission.

The report’s author, Kate Wittels, the director of HR&A, said “the spectrum of tech-related occupations — from programmers to sales reps — is creating well-paying and quality jobs for New Yorkers at all levels of educational attainment.”

Tech companies in the city employ about 140,000 people and as many as 150,000 others have tech jobs in other companies, the report estimates. About 44 percent of those jobs do not require a college degree, but on average, they pay about 45 percent more than the typical hourly wage in the city, according to the report.

Mr. Rasiej said that premium was partly because tech jobs paid better and partly because technology companies tended to pay more than companies in some other big industries in the city, such as health care and retailing.

Many of the tech jobs are with large banks and media companies that have relatively high pay scales. At Citi, more than 10 percent of the company’s 17,000 jobs in the city are tech positions, said Melissa Stevens, who is the head of Internet and mobile banking for Citi.

Ms. Stevens said she had “a huge team,” many of whom were not trained as computer scientists or engineers. She added that she too was “not a technologist.”

Indeed, she said she started at the bank 16 years ago in the human resources department and moved to the digital side of the company just eight years ago.

“Really, in an industry like ours, technology is at the heart of everything we’ve done,” she said.

Many of the most lucrative opportunities are in programming, a field where demand for talent outstrips the current supply, said Avi Flombaum, the dean of the Flatiron School, which trains people in software coding.

Mr. Flombaum, who dropped out of college several years ago to create programming for a hedge fund, said all but two of the 126 graduates of his 12-week course have found work. Their average starting pay, he said, was $82,000.

Some of the students at the Flatiron School did not attend or finish college and others are older adults looking to switch careers, Mr. Flombaum said. “There are more programming jobs than there are programmers right now,” he said.

Mr. Flombaum, who said he took advantage of a $250,000 grant from the city to move to larger quarters near Wall Street, gave the administration of former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg high marks for encouraging the development of the tech industry. Asked what he wanted from the de Blasio administration, Mr. Flombaum said, “Stay out of the way in terms of legislation or new laws.”