You are wrong. I've worked in datawarehousing for nearly 12 years now and your statement is wrong on so many levels. "get the job done" -- you can "get the job done" in ruby on rails but the code is not extensible. You can use MSAccess and VBA but then when the requirements expand you end up with a nightmare tool that functions, but no one knows how and when it breaks down, everyone's in a manic as no one knows how it works or why it works how it does
Secondly, intermediate skills in any technology is ok for basic programming, but you need a couple of years to understand what you can do -- with a guy with 5 years experience that comes down to 3 months, but not less.
Finally, more important than coding which any code monkey can do is software engineering -- thinking logically.
Building a software application isn't really rocket science anymore. -- if you want it to last and have a good foundation for building upon, then yes it is. If you want a hack job that functions right now, but you have to toss out if you ever want to add more functionality then yeah, it's not rocket science
No employer in this economy is going to pay top dollar for a software programmer when there are millions of readily available resources from overseas. -- yes and no. For a basic programmer, yeah. For an engineer, no.
Cronos,
Nice description of the difference between coders and software engineers.
You are actually arguing over tools. You can use JAVA-oracle or .NET-SQL server or whatever tools suits you but you miss the point. Datawarehousing itself isn't rocket science or brain surgery .... (unless you are still using assembly language for programming in which case you shouldn't even be in IT business anymore). In fact datawarehousing is actually FAR LESS complicated then say designing a microprocesor or a digital signal processor or for that matter any other engineering fields like automobile,construction,Machining Instrumentation or manufacturing.
“Secondly, intermediate skills in any technology is ok for basic programming, but you need a couple of years to understand what you can do “
I guess we have different definitions of what constitutes intermediate level skill. With only 2 years experience you are still at entry level, not intermediate.
“Finally, more important than coding which any code monkey can do is software engineering — thinking logically.”
Logical thinking isn't necessarily a niche of American grads or software engineers. Even janitors can think logically. You don't need a 4 year college degree in software programming to be able to think.