Heidi Said:

which career is better computer programmer or air conditioning tech?

We Answered:

Air conditioning repair for sure probably has the least changes to keep up with.

My uncle was an HVAC technician (or something like that) and I know he made a fair amount of money.

Still, working at Microsoft probably pays more, but since you're in Florida, an air conditioning repairer might be in more demand.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that there's something wrong with being a tradesman, though! :-)

Joel Said:

Is Computer Programming / Business Application Developer a good career?

We Answered:

I think that there is a sliding scale of companies that need to have internal IT dept staff, for which it is impractical to off-shore the work. Larger companies off-shore work that can be organized to be done outside the nation ... some companies off shore one kind of work and not other.

There's also a thriving business in companies that provide computer services to enterprises whose workload does not justify a full time IT dept.

Over time, many computer tasks that used to need human beings end up being automated out of existence.

I am a programmer who has become specialized
* one particular type of Operating System (one of IBM's)
* one particular kind of data base (DB2-UDB)
* one particular kind of software (ERP)
* one particular package (BPCS)

I am reasonably fluent in about half a dozen programming languages that I write in at the present time ... over my career, I have probably written in a score of different programming languages.

In my several decades career, I have worked on other OS DB software types, but end up in one combination easily for a decade.

There are code jockeys out there who claim to be able to work in any language, any OS, but they are usually a poor fit to a company that has mission-critical software running in a multi-OS environment

The hours are just as bad as they have ever been ... earlier I typically worked 100 hours a week, and now I am on "part time" doing about 55 hours a week.

The pay is no longer something special compared to other commodity jobs, but the job security is still pretty good, so long as you know your stuff.

You will need to take all sorts of continuing education classes throughout your career to keep current with technology that is constantly changing.