100 years ago
(1918), the top ten richest peoples in America were mostly in the heavy
industries, such as oil, steel, automobiles and railroads.
No
Name
Us Billions
Source
1
John D. Rockefeller
12.8
Oil
2
H.
C. Frick
2.4
Steel
3
Andrew Carnegie
2.1
Steel
4
George F. Baker
1.6
Banking
5
William Rockefeller
1.6
Oil
6
Edward Harkness
1.3
Oil
7
J.
Ogden Armour
1.3
Meatpacking
8
Henry Ford
1.1
Automobile
9
William K Vanderbilt
1.1
Railroads
10
Edward H. R. Green
1.1
Inheritance
Source:
Straits Times, 24th August 1997, *1918 figures adjusted for inflationtion)
In 2005, amongst the top richest peoples in
America, 4 of them are founder of computer companies.
No
Name
Us Billions
Source
1
Bill Gates
46
Software (Founder, Microsoft)
2
Warren Buffett
36
Investment
3
Paul Allen
22
Software (Founder, Microsoft)
4
Larry Ellison
18
Software (Founder, Oracle)
5
Michael Dell
13
Hardware (Founder, Dell)
Source: Straits Times, 24 Sept
2005, Forbes Magazine's list of 400 richest Americans.
Job Opportunities
There are abundant career opportunities for
graduates specialised in computer engineering. Computer engineers work in every
sector of society and industry. You can work in any organization that uses
computer systems, e.g., multinational corporations (IBM, Microsoft, Intel,
Google, Oracle), banks and financial institutions (Citibank, DBS), government
ministries and statutory boards, manufacturing industries, telecommunication
companies, defence industry, small and medium enterprises, computer
hardware/software vendors and suppliers, educational institutions and service
industries. You can wok as a computer engineer, hardware designer, system
integrator, system architect, system analyst, system administrator, or
programmer in companies. You can also choose to set up your own company as the
start-up cost is relatively low.
Globally: According to the US
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)'s employment projection to 2014, among the 30
fastest growing occupations, six are computer-related. They are network systems
and data communications analysts, computer application software engineers,
computer system software engineers, network and computer systems administrators,
database administrators, and computer systems analysts. BLS also projected that
"Employment of computer specialists is expected to grow rapidly as organizations
continue to adopt and integrate increasingly sophisticated and complex
technologies – in networking, to facilitate the sharing of information; in the
expansion of client-server environments; in cyber-security; and in electronic
commerce applications."
Locally: The latest Infocomm Development Authority (iDA)'s
manpower survey reported that infocomm manpower is predicted to rise by 3.4%
between 2006 and 2007. The projected growth areas are in the higher-end jobs
such as research & development, digital media, and web development. In 2005, the
number of infocomm job vacancies was 5,700.
MONEY Magazine researched hundreds
of jobs, considering their growth, pay, stress-levels and other factors, and
pick software engineer as the best job in America. The FORTUNE magazine
picks Google – a great computer company – as the number one company to work for
in America.
In Singapore, there is a great
opportunities for all the people who wish to take computer engineering jobs
since it is used in most organization in terms of web site support, operation
support, programming team, database management, network management, etc.
Sources:
Daniel E. Hecker, "Occupational Employment Projection to 2014",
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, vol. 128, no. 11, Nov 2005.
"Connected Singapore, A Blueprint
for Infocomm Development", Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, March
2003.
"Annual Survey on Infocomm Manpower for 2005",
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, March 2006.
