Are you a computer programmer? Here is what Half Sigma thinks about your profession:

1. Computer programming is a low prestige profession.
2. As you get older, your desire to completely relearn everything decreases, so you are likely to succumb to the temptation of staying with the familiar technology for too long.
3. Whatever your position is, as a Computer Science person, you are socially classified as a geek.
4. The computer programming industry within the United States is an industry with a shrinking number of jobs (because of outsourcing).
5. Computer programming and IT in general is now seen as the foreigner’s industry and not a proper profession for upwardly mobile white Americans.
6. Computer programmers face the need to move up to management or likely wind up as underemployed fifty-year-olds, only suitable for lower paying IT jobs.
7. This trend, in which people without computer programming experience manage computer programming projects, is a result of the low prestige of computer programming.
8. If you look forward to one day having your own private office, then computer programming sure isn’t the way to go.
9. Computer programmers are cubicle employees, not considered important enough to be given nice workspaces.
10. If you can’t get into a Top 14 law school or a top graduate business school, then public accounting probably provides a better career path than computer programming.

So, if you are a computer programmer, maybe you should change your career and become a database administrator. After all, database administration is one of the fastest-growing jobs in the United States.

I believe that no matter what your profession is, keeping up to date with the “what’s new” in your industry/technology is very essential to career development.

Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. and YouTube Inc. Monday announced a joint effort to add news, weather and entertainment videos and original Hearst television programming in five local markets to YouTube.

Beginning Monday, Hearst TV stations in Boston, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Manchester, N.H., will begin posting local video to dedicated YouTube channels.

The deal marks the first distribution agreement between Google Inc. subsidiary YouTube and an independent television broadcaster, according to YouTube and Hearst. YouTube last week announced a deal with EMI Group PLC to begin showing music videos and performances on the site.

“We’re constantly looking at innovative ways to not only bring the YouTube community the best content out there, but also to find ways to bring them the most relevant programming,” said Jordan Hoffner, head of premium content partnerships for YouTube, in a statement. “Local creates relevance, and this agreement will ultimately deliver Hearst-Argyle’s programming to an even broader audience looking for local content.”

For Hearst’s part, the deal fits within its overall strategy to distribute its content on TV, the Internet and mobile phones, said Executive Vice President Terry Mackin.

As part of the deal, Hearst will also use YouTube as part of its new digital video project and will broadcast high school football and basketball and local amateur entertainment on YouTube.

Web sites operated by Hearst television stations nationwide generate 1 billion page views each year and provide Wireless Application Protocol content, podcasts, Web-based newscasts, Web videos and blogs in various markets.