what do employers want?

from Steve:

Business types (upper management)don't hire math types. They may authorize the job posting, but they are clueless after that. I always laugh when I hear about business types talking about what they want out of education. They want cheap labor that can get the job done.

What do the people who make the decisions want? Skills and experience. What have you worked on and how good are you? For the "high tech" world, it's a balance. They don't want newbies without experience and they don't want older people, who have experience(and high salary), but are not necessarily up to date on the latest technology. Younger people tend to have more drive and less commitments. Many companies are known to chew them up and spit them out, driven by good salaries and stock options. Can you say 60+ hour work weeks?

There is little loyalty anymore. Businesses do not care about employees as individuals. Salaries and benefits might be good, but you could be out on the street in an instant. High tech types have to be very careful about what jobs they work on and what experience they get. Many thought that Digital's VAX and VMS OS would go on forever. Now the Unix types better watch out, and I'm not talking about Linux. This has nothing to do with education.