Nearly 50,000 IT Jobs Lost In Past Year 460
snydeq writes "Employment statistics from the US Department of Labor show what most IT people have already realized: IT jobs are getting harder to come by. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13,000 jobs in the information industry were cut in July, bringing the total to 44,000 year over year. An additional 5,000 jobs were lost in telecom this past month. The statistics reinforce a recent survey of top CIOs who indicated that they will be reducing their IT staff over the coming year. According to a staffing research firm, some jobs have gone to outsourcers, while other jobs are simply going away, either due to cost-oriented automation efforts or due to increasing the remaining staff's workload."
What's the Extent of This? (Score:3, Interesting)
STRIKE! (Score:4, Interesting)
I say IT workers have a national strike day/week where we all don't show up for work and instead protest the ridiculous pay of incompetent managers and executives.
Not surprising (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's face it... the definition of IT is going to continuously evolve as people get more computer savvy and applications and hardware get more sophisticated.
My hunch is that many of those jobs were low level and barely passable as "IT" anymore.
Remember that in the late 70's/early 80's, you could make $60K/year for doing data entry. Typing skills and knowledge of a key program like Lotus 123 made you a god. Now of course you could pick any random 12 year old off the street and have him perform that job to perfection.
IT is the goose that lays the golden eggs. (Score:5, Interesting)
David Ogilvy (of Ogilvy and Mather) once said that when times were lean, companies cut advertising. This, he said, was foolish. It is advertising that brings in the money that is coming in.
IT is the same. IT increases worker productivity, making every dollar you spend on headcount outside of IT worth more. IT decreases costs and increases customer satisfaction (with things like order turnaround). In some companies, it's the IT department which makes new products possible. It is your operational IT staff which keeps disaster from striking.
When times are lean, it's a good time to look at your IT and figure out how to make it more effective. That might mean some cutting, but it more likely means project changes and staffing UP.
A badly-run, sprawling, over-staffed IT department is a prime space to cut, but I've seen few of those. Even in those, cutting needs to be done very carefully and needs to be accompanied by money injected on projects which will make cutting safe. Those projects take time must be nurtured well before cuts are made.
IT operations can be very expensive, in particular because it sometimes is lumped in with the desktop budget. But IT development is what makes IT operations cheaper, and just a few people can work miracles in IT development.
If you're cut from an IT department during lean times, and you weren't clearly dead weight, you have the very small satisfaction of knowing that your layoff proves that your company wasn't particularly clever.
Layoffs by Attrition (Score:5, Interesting)
Layoffs by Attrition. That's what I like to call it when management reduces staff and increases workload on the remaining employees. They're not laying off personnel -- they're quitting! I guess this looks better to the investors because they're reducing costs yet not reporting layoffs. Of course, the result is that you end up with an understaffed and incompetent organization because the best and the brightest end up leaving first. After all, the good ones can readily find gainful employment in other companies that know how to treat their staff better.
Re:Does this include help desk? (Score:4, Interesting)
I know many self-employed developers that do contract work for large companies and wonder if they are are counted as employed by the company when they do a job and downsized by the company when the job is finished.
Then learn new skill sets! (Score:5, Interesting)
"The Top 20 Most Recession-Proof Jobs" (Score:5, Interesting)
Submitted July 17th
Re:Industry finally deals with the 'skills shortag (Score:2, Interesting)
Where did we last see the jobs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Start there and retrace your steps.
IT, or maybe computers in general, have a hidden goal of making itself obsolete. As operating systems, software and hardware become more stable, the need for IT workers declines. At my previous position, i set turned a gaggle of workgroups into a tidy domain. i installed a power AV system. As i helped users, i showed them how to solve problems on there own (reboot, try again). Soon, i had much less work to do. Being laid off in this case was a matter of economics, than obsolescence, but the trend remains. i was making myself less necessary.
IT depts are pretty much pure overhead. Companies have IT staff because they need a wizard to heal the sick computers. IT generally doesn't bring in money for the company (at least not directly).
- Waxing Sci-Fi -
Over a long enough time line, maybe we'll make machines that make us obsolete. Our technology could be a step of evolution. We might exist to bring create our replacements.
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:3, Interesting)
The people writing stuff like file systems, OS kernels, and games are considered as being in the field of CS, not IT. more people understand that distinction nowadays than in the past but yeah, sometimes any job on involving a computer gets lumped under IT
Re:IT is the goose that lays the golden eggs. (Score:5, Interesting)
The company I've been with for 3.5 years has done this, every year.
When I got here, the IT department was huge, bloated, and mostly useless. The company realized this, fired the CIO, and laid off hundreds, including outsourcing large parts (such as desktop support). Surprisingly (or not so), things didn't get better, they got worse. They had no idea who to layoff, or why they were doing it, they just knew they were 'too large'. Cue 2nd CIO getting fired.
3rd CIO comes on board. Another round of layoffs. Again, wrong people get let go. Now, we have a bloated (still) IT department, filled with mostly the wrong people. And the good people, at this point, are just keeping their heads down, hoping not to get the axe. So nothing productive is getting done, as everyone focuses on shoring up their jobs. Politics begin in earnest here, as everyone starts to panic.
This cycle repeats itself 3 more times - yes, in 3+ years, we're on CIO #5. They just had another round of layoffs (the 3rd). This time, they nailed a bunch of the useless middle management, and some 'cabal leaders' that really needed to go. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then, I guess.
I don't work for IT (I work closely with them), and I've had enough. I just found a new job, and am bailing out, while I can.
What does this show? CxO's know that IT can be bloated/useless - but I don't have any confidence that they have a clue how to fix that, other than blanket layoffs, and bringing in 'management consultants'.
It also shows that jobs are out there - I didn't have much trouble finding a job, once I got serious about my search. In one of the other comments in the thread (I can't find it at the moment), someone mentioned that the lower level IT jobs and maintenance jobs are the ones getting impacted. Thats OK, I think - it's the natural cycle. As the lower level stuff becomes routine, it can be done by lower and lower level people, or one person can do more of it. The trick here is growing your career at least as fast as the industry, so you can keep closer to the cutting edge, and have opportunities. I almost fell off that treadmill, glad to be back on.
I never trust government job reports (Score:4, Interesting)
When they release unemployment figures, there are a variety of reasons those numbers are just false. I know quite a few people who "lost their jobs" only to incorporate a small sole proprietorship, and they're considered unemployed, even though they're earning more money.
Also, when it comes to IT downsizing, a very large corporation in my neck of the woods fired a handful of their IT staff (cutting their department in half). All those guys jumped into business for themselves, some uniting together to start a larger shop. They've even gone back to their old job as contractors.
Yes, IT is more competitive than ever, but it is also a field that has matured greatly. When I started my IT shop at the age of 15ish, I had very little work since the field was young (1989) in terms of what I was strong at. By 18, our business grew in leaps and bounds. Recently, we've seen some work slow down, but we've opened new fields to manage and the company is stronger than ever. I'd love to hire more people, but our business model works better with subcontractors than it does employees. Some people here know me as the guy who pays employees minimum wage, and that is still the case. I'd pay them $2 per hour if I could, and I know my employees would rather earn $2 per hour and a 70% job bonus than earn $31 per hour with no bonus. The cream rises to the top.
We did a small market survey in a new market about 50 miles north of our current one, and the response was surprising: nearly 30% of the people we contacted wanted more information. In the IT field, this is equal to "We'll hire you, what's the price?" I then did a quick survey of competition, and found very little. There is a HUGE amount of IT work available, if you're ready and willing to shrug off the old way of doing things.
Like the horse-shoer, we may be in an industry where the demand is not as great, which means one thing: lower your prices. It sucks, I know. I know many people who still are burdened with college debt who see the writing on the wall and are scared. I feel bad for them, but that's how the free market operates. When supply (of labor) goes up and demand (for labor) goes down, prices tend to fall.
Yet in the top tiers of the IT market, the pay rates for contractors has gone way up in the last 3 years, if you have a good amount of experience, many positive references, and a strong marketing budget. For us, marketing accounts for close to 8% of our gross expenses. If you're not branding your company, you're not going far. If you're not working on FIRING customers who are slow pay or complainers, and REPLACING them with decent customers, you're dead.
Here's a little clue for those in IT who are fearing their jobs: get people skills. Rebrand yourself as a confident business consultant rather than a geek. I know it sucks, but it helps acquire the confidence of current and future customers if you're business-oriented rather than tech-oriented. No one who pays your bill, generally, cares about tech. They care about efficiency, profitability, longevity, and stability. The tech backend means nothing, it's the eyewash you provide that gets you repeat business.
So true. (Score:2, Interesting)
There isn't a shortage at all, in any industry - if you're willing to pay a fair and competitive wage.
This is true in IT, true in agriculture, true in housing, true anywhere.
Where the US worker is getting fucked over is by countries that lack our labor protections and environmental protections, that treat their people like slaves, who then sell "services" to fat-cat CEOs and undercut what ought to be a fair market wage. And of course, this actually amounts to the real inflation [msnbc.com] we've been feeling for years - instead of monetary, we get shit for services when jobs are moved to third-world crap countries.
Bought a new home and found that all sorts of repairs - roofing, supports, improperly laid foundation - were needed? Congratulations. An illegal mexican built your house, and you paid the price: money out of YOUR pocket on repairs, plus YOUR inflated tax bill to pay for his illegal family's medical bills in the emergency room, his anchor baby's birth in the local hospital, his illegal kids' schooling (stealing directly from YOUR kid's education), the crimes committed by his illegal friends and his kids in gangs [wikipedia.org], and of course the fact that HE and HIS ILLEGAL FAMILY are stealing someone's social security number to run up debt in their name.
The person whose SSN he stole, who will have their lives and credit ruined when he skips out on the bills later? Congratulations - that could be YOU or YOUR kid. [msn.com] The kid killed by his friends or his kids in gangs? Congratulations - that could be YOUR friend or family member.
Tried to call tech support any time in the past few years? Got nothing but idiot Indians with accents thick enough to strangle a moose and who can't actually address the problem, just keep yammering from a script? Congratulations, you're a victim of this.
They're wasting your time, and giving you substandard service. Oftentimes, I call in for a warranty only to run into the cultural problem that the indians don't understand what a warranty is or, worse yet, they are simply instructed to ignore the warranty terms. And forget asking for a supervisor - they just hand you off to someone else from the cubicle next to them, who then hangs up. Getting their name? Good luck - they all give lying fake names, to avoid someone actually managing to complain about them specifically should someone get to the person in the US who's supposed to check up on customer service.
Similarly, instead of being able to get a human (or substandard indian variant thereof) at all, I usually spend 20 minutes on hold with a looped tape of "you can get self service on our website"... well guess what sherlock, if your website was any good, if my question was actually answered, I wouldn't be on the phone calling.
But remember - "open borders" and "free trade" are good things. And you can keep repeating that to yourself as YOUR job gets shipped out to trash heap india, communist china or mexshithole [businessweek.com].
Re:STRIKE! (Score:3, Interesting)
Knock yourself out. I'm more than happy to take your job. And I have a feeling that crossing a picket line of geeks won't be any near as dangerous as at an auto worker's strike. ;-)
Re:IT is the goose that lays the golden eggs. (Score:3, Interesting)
Nobody in particular likes to cut costs. Apart from obvious fat which is rare all around, you have to cut on something.
Cut marketing? Less income.
Cut salesmen? Less income.
Cut production? WTF gotta deliver.
Cut R&D? Peeing in your pants.
Cut IT? They're your backbone.
Cut management? Unmanaged mess.
In reality, it's not that hard.
Cut marketing and push brand name and cost cuts - customers get a lot more price sensitive in bad times.
Cut sales where the market just doesn't carry, squeeze everything you can from the market.
Cut production and lower costs facing lower demand - it's better to be around at the upturn than bleeding to death waiting for good times to return.
Cut the "long shot" R&D and go with relatively trustworthy improvements
Cut back IT to maintenance - you keep saying Windows XP and Office 97/2k is all you need, well deal with it a bit longer
Cut management back to the size you cut everything else.
Really, none are immune in the bad times and nothing is something you want to cut. The question is just "where will it hurt the least?"
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not a CTO. But I am involved in hiring some of my small company's IT staff.
There is a shortage. Especially of Software Developers.
We're about 40-50 mins from Boston, MA. And we can't find a Perl developer worth our time. We can't even get them to the phase where we discuss salary, they're just not in the area, or they're just not applying. We can barely find someone worth an interview, and we have tried taking many chances on not-so-stellar resumes.
We like the Open source technologies we use, and believe using Perl gives us an advantage to rapidly develop our software. We've invested heavily into Perl + Linux, and it would take a major restructuring to change our technology and development process to accommodate the glut of cheap developers that do .net + java.
I realize that not using the 'popular' development languages hinders our applicant pool.
We've even resorted to taking anyone developer intelligent enough to pick up a new programming language. We just can't find them.
It's a tough market. The jobs are there, but the applicants unfortunately aren't.
Re:There IS a shortage (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a shortage for Competent skilled and experienced IT workers that will accept a very low wage.
THAT is the real shortage. I know of several IT guys that were making a paltry $23.50 an hour that have been offered several IT jobs at $12.95 or $18.95 an hour and told the recruiter it was an insult.
They make more selling insurance and working as a drywaller than in IT.
Re:you do realize (Score:5, Interesting)
What are you talking about? Learning a new skill always pays off. It may not immediately mean more money or a better job, but education is something that is never a bad investment. I'm one class away from having my MSCS. Is it automatically going to mean more money? Probably not. Did I learn lots of stuff that I now use daily in my job? No, although I did learn a lot of fun, interesting things. What I have gotten out my additional education is a deeper understanding of CS which I can build upon and I've met lots of people that I otherwise wouldn't have met. Many of these people have already offered me jobs where they work or at the companies they own.
It's easy to blame your current situation on forces outside your control, but learning new skills is one way to take control and change your situation.
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The detailed report shows different story... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd anecdotally concur with what you've seen. My skills haven't been in this much demand since the crash. However, my skills have improved drastically in the last few years... so it may be that I got lucky and hit a sweet spot of demand+skills. In short, it looks like "traditional" IT is in trouble but the folks who saw the trends coming and got themselves ready for the changes are doing well.
Re:IT employment news summary: July 29th to Aug 7t (Score:3, Interesting)
Wish I hadn't posted so I could mod you up. Very good. Thanks for posting this.
I do see that there is a surge of demand in certain skill sets and a sharp decrease in others. For example, seasoned developers (PHP and Java guys I've talked to) seem to be in demand right now while sys admins, network admins, testers, help desk, analysts, and managers are seeing all time lows in demand. I'm basing this on impromptu "research" using indeed.com and keyword searching job ads and using their graphing feature. So I'm sure it's not totally accurate. It also seems it depends on the state you live in. NC seems to be seeing a big jobs recovery after a major bust.
What you post tells me this regional job market bounce may not last or may just be seasonal. I was hoping it would... show a positive trend... oh well...
Don't forget the U-6 employment rate and ageism (Score:3, Interesting)
The U1 is the most commonly reported number. But there is a U6 number which counts people who do not show up at employment centers (most of which are a joke BTW), are working temporary jobs, pasting together 2-3 part-times jobs or discouraged and not looking. The U6 is now at about 10.3%. Anecdotally I have met EE's and programmers working temp jobs to try to get by.
http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab12.htm [bls.gov]
Also, companies whine and bitch about not being able to find qualified workers. But due to ageism, workers over 40 often have a hard time finding work, regardless of education, certs, experience etc. This is do that companies do not have to pay more salary and benefits for skilled workers.
http://management.silicon.com/careers/0,39024671,39168214,00.htm [silicon.com]
Re:By the way (Score:5, Interesting)
On a more historical basis, when our French ancestors first came to America, they needed women to perpetuate the human race on this new continent. So the king sent the "King's Daughters" (Les Filles du Roi) [fillesduroi.org]. They stopped first in Quebec City, so we chose the beautiful women first. Then we were dumping the rest to Montreal. This explains why we have so much beautiful women here in Quebec City!
Achilles' heel of IT industry (Score:3, Interesting)
The Achilles' heel of IT industry is the fact that it doesn't scale. There is only room at the top, not the middle or low end of the economic job range for IT workers. The only people who get family-wage paying jobs are 'the best of the best of the best, sir! as you recall from the first Men In Black movie.
Other more mature industries can provide jobs for a wide range of people with aptitudes and and skills. But the IT industry (and to a lesser extent, the electronics industry) can only provide good jobs for the upper 5% of the graduates from good tech schools. This is why the so-called industry leaders can decry the lack of top talent and at the same time lay-off thousands of skilled and experienced mid-level mid-career technicians (software techs like testers and standard code-from-algorithm writers and hardware pot tweekers).
This is a defect in the industry: it doesn't scale. It's a primary reason why young people are not entering the profession in the way that they did twenty years ago.
Don't nit pick me on this. There's a whole book in each of the above paragraphs. But they're basically true.
Now I know that you don't care because if you're on Slashdot, you are the B of the B of the B, sahr! But no matter how good you are, or your ranking in the Grade Point Angel hierarchy, this inability to provide good jobs for a wide-range of workers is beginning to seriously impact the industry.
This isn't such a major issue in a place where people are actually making things for sale, a place that still has a manufacturing sector. Manufacturing by its economic structure provides a wide range of fairly good jobs. In this area you can go from an entry-level 'move things around' low-paying position to a mid-level design and test position with a two-year degree or the same period of study.
But when the IT industry allows all the manufacturing to be relocated to cheap labor countries it destroys its foundation. Information and data processing has little economic value by itself; only in conjunction with other productive industries does it create its economic wealth.
It might be well to sometimes stop thinking like a programmer and to sometimes think like an economist.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:There IS a shortage (Score:3, Interesting)
That is a pretty serious problem. I recently quit my job as Senior Sys Admin of a small but very technical niche company. I'm not having much problem getting bites on new jobs, so there is clearly demand (Hopefully that demand translates in to a job soon but I'm still feeling pretty confident).
All of this to say that I've realized since I started serious hunting for a new job, that almost no one outside the field has any idea what I do. I've been sent ads for everything from programming jobs, to help desk jobs, to senior security analyst jobs by friends and family. We've created a modern version of the Masons. No one knows what we do, what our specialties mean, or how we accomplish the stuff that they see on their screens.
if I go into a marketing meeting, I can contribute. I'm not a trained marketer, my ideas might need polish or might not even be good, but I understand what they are doing. I can say stuff and not look completely clueless. A marketer in a tech meeting may as well be on Mars. We're barely speaking English, it's acronyms and abbreviations and source code. Unless you are in the cabal you can hardly understand what you don't understand.
The question is: can this be fixed? It's an inherently complex topic in which higher math and logic are par for the course in getting basic concepts. How can we make so people are capable pf grokking without years of training, experience or both?
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:4, Interesting)
In a small metro area ... in 2002 ... with a specialized airline skillset? You tell me. :-)
It took me 32 months to find something other than contract work, I had to move 1200 miles to do it, and I actually had some C/UNIX skills to fall back on. I know others with more experience and arguably greater skills who took even longer to find something permanent.
Circumstances can greatly change the receptivity of a given local job market (especially a saturated market) to new hires regardless of their skills or experience, so that isn't always a good indicator.
contrarian anedotes (Score:3, Interesting)
2) I attend our area's open source and Java user groups occasionally. There always seems to be more recruiters than attendees (as recent as Tuesday). At least we get free pizza dinner out of it.
3) Our company has had a hard time recruiting graphics and Java wizards. Many recs still open.
4) On the monthly mailing from SIGGRAPH/Creative Heads there are 300 openings for graphics wizards.
US tries to get more guest worker Visas (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:So true. (Score:2, Interesting)
Crying "racism" and "xenophobia" are ways to say that you can't refute my argument any other way. Throw in a good nazi analogy while you're at it, then you can really godwin yourself.
Oh, so sorry. I was misunderstanding comments such as:
"Similarly, instead of being able to get a human (or substandard indian variant thereof)"
"Got nothing but idiot Indians with accents thick enough to strangle a moose"
"jobs are moved to third-world crap countries."
and of course this entire paragraph:
"An illegal mexican built your house, and you paid the price: money out of YOUR pocket on repairs, plus YOUR inflated tax bill to pay for his illegal family's medical bills in the emergency room, his anchor baby's birth in the local hospital, his illegal kids' schooling (stealing directly from YOUR kid's education), the crimes committed by his illegal friends and his kids in gangs [wikipedia.org], and of course the fact that HE and HIS ILLEGAL FAMILY are stealing someone's social security number to run up debt in their name."
As being racist and xenophobic simply because they imply such things as: "Indians are sub-human", "All Mexicans are criminals", "people should not have accents", and "Third world countries have crappy people."
Now based on your reply I realize that you're not being racist at all. You realize that there are fine people in India and Mexico, or at least there were. Thankfully they have all already legally immigrated here, so we can feel free to despise the ones that stayed or were, for one reason or another, unable to get a visa. Certainly all of them ARE criminals, lazy, or even sub-human.
Whatever you meant (and I'm sad to say that while your intentions may not have been racist per se, they do display a disturbing lack of empathy for people outside of this country), you came across as spewing racist xenophobia. The quotes above show exactly that. While you may not have meant to include all Indians, or all Mexicans, you use both terms in the plural and don't clarify that you're speaking of a subset. I will grant that when talking about Mexicans you always specify "illegal Mexicans", but you don't subdivide Indians at all and your overall tone suggests that you are the type of person who considers all Mexicans to be "illegal Mexicans".
I have in fact met "Illegal Mexicans", I lived in New Orleans after Katrina. There were many migrants there from all over South America trying to make a few bucks in the rebuild. There was a significant rise in crime when they arrived, and it's true that the Mexican gangs follow the migrants. It's easy to hide amongst them. That doesn't mean that there weren't also good, smart, and hard working people scattered in too. A few were even giving part of their incredibly meager incomes to the relief agencies.
From Table B-1: (Score:3, Interesting)
There's also growth in "management and technical consulting", and "architectural and engineering services". (no idea if software engineering is grouped in that line)
I think InfoWeek is misunderstanding what constitutes the "information industry". It isn't IT people:
With the exception of, perhaps, Telecomm companies, there's no reason to infer that those are even IT jobs. When a book publisher cuts an editor, that's an "information" job.
Re:Where did we last see the jobs? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Then learn new skill sets! (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly! My last boss did this for an SVP at my current company. He took the SVP's vision and made it an IT reality. Less than a year once he did this successfully another company in our industry got wind of it and plucked him away and made him their CIO.
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:3, Interesting)
This sounds like a sunk cost issue. You're not willing to invest in migrating to a new system which would likely get you a larger pool of more qualified developers. Why not? You'll have to bite the bullet at some point - the number of 'qualified' (per whatever your definition is) Perl developers isn't going to go up any time soon (or ever).
"We like the Open source technologies we use, and believe using Perl gives us an advantage to rapidly develop our software."
Obviously it's not much of an advantage if you can't find enough people to do the 'rapid' development.
Maybe you're not advertising in the right places. Or not using the right incentives. Are you advertising that this is a $100k+ position? Cause that's what I think you'd need to offer to get someone to move to Boston (add relo costs as well) and do Perl full time. Long term, Perl is a dead-end career move for most people interested in keeping up with the current trends in software development.
Feel free to post your position on http://webdevjobs.com [webdevjobs.com] and I'll promote it on my next podcast. :)
I don't get it (Score:2, Interesting)
I see a lot of bitterness in the posts here. I have been in the "biz" over 20 years. My first jobs I got because I could spell computer. I started life as a programmer. I was managing a multiserver Novell network before they invented the silly thing called a CNE. Which by the way is a total abuse of word engineer. I have come to a conclusion that most of you will find unpalatable. IT is a sideline. I make a good buck. My job is one that most of you certified something or anothers would refer to as an end Luser. What do I do? I draw. I can make the case to my boss that there is a direct corellation to what I do and how much money I make him. You see I think so, he can hire people do work that can't or wont. I don't require any IT. You see I am a tradesman from the old school I understand all of my tools. I make it my purpose to. I also make it my purpose to make the old man more money than I cost him. So to me this is all hyperbole. You think that because you are brilliant in your own estimation that somehow business should bow at the altar that you have created for yourself. I learned very early at the first 30m a year company i worked for what the "bean" counters thought of my ilk. You see computer gear was a tad more expensive back in the day. The only reason I even survied even thrived in that environment was that I had what was considered useful skills. You know like dude I actually helped them to build and program their product. I cared about the companies purpose more than I cared about how absolutely fragging cool and brilliant I am because I knew more about all this "technical" CRAP than all the stupid idiot LUSERS did. I see no downside ever but then again things have changed a bit. I just don't see how anyone worth their salt would ever worry making a good living or even finding a job that had a good fundamental knowledge of computers. Then again I am not a prima dona either I actually work for my boss.
Lots of under skilled in the market (Score:4, Interesting)
I think part of the problem is that right now, the market is flooded with under skilled techies. The company I work for was looking for a good DBA for over 8 months and none turned up. Then, after our DBA left I was bumped up to the position. Instead, we are now looking for a system admin to pick up on what I don't have time for anymore. They are easier to come by, but not by much. We have interviewed countless people and they all come up short.
The same goes for our engineering staff. Countless people interviewed and most of them just flat out suck. Sorry, but just because you have a degree that won't buy you much without strong job experience. If we wanted newbies, they are a dime a dozen.
If you are skilled (and in the right part of the country) you can get work very easily. I had a friend who accidentally made her resume public and got calls for weeks on end. (Keep in mind, it was only public for a day or so)
Based on what I have seen and friends telling me, it seems like a lot of companies are trimming down their departments as small as they can make them. Employing more jack of all trades types rather then a larger department of specialists.
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:3, Interesting)
So approximately how much are you offering to pay? I'll bet you it's roughly "Not Enough" dollars. If you can't find a developer willing to work in Perl, raise the salary until you find someone who can do what you need.
"Shortages" only ever exist on the economy-wide level. Locally, shortages do not exist, insufficient local buying power exists.