The IT slowdown

[gobbledonk]

ER,

 

I could be wrong, but I believe that the move to 64-bit hardware and OS'es (most of the commercial Unices have a 64-bit version, and Linus is hard at it on the 64-bit kernel for Linux) will obliterate the problem.

 

For those who are lying awake at night over this, there is a Perl script here which will tell you if your Unobtanium server is going to experience problems. Personally, I think we've got lots of more immediate things to worry about

[vinod]

Hi

 

The Unix date change is only a fraction of s/w development requirements and it is just a drop. I've been in the IT for the 18 years and this is first down turn. Statred from dot com burst and is still contuning. The IT industry has gone over board with a whole of products, services which the enterprise cannot support the high tech industry, when they are in deep shit. Specially the comminications industry is hit hard. AOL just announced a loss of $ 95 billion. I work for a medium sized product company in the New Jersey area which closed last month and more than 165 people laid-off. The industry looks like nothing will happen or look-up in another 2 years.

 

People in US starting to think of changing career given the current IT out look.

 

vinod

[gobbledonk]

People in US starting to think of changing career given the current IT outlook

 

Vinod, I assure you that this isnt limited to the US, but exactly which industry did you have in mind ? At Uni, we were always told that we need good generalist skills, to enable us to fill a wide range of roles in our working lives, but reality is that every role demands experience in that area. Business Analysts are fortunate in that they can move between industries, but a web developer is exactly that - I cant simply decide to move into the accountacy profession tomorrow (nor do I wish to...).

 

The alternatives, as I see it, are :

 

a. go into business for myself

b. study

c. abandon IT completely for a rewarding career in office administration....

 

Whatever the outcome of the next month or two of searching for a job, this experience has been a wakeup call : I have to work toward ensuring that I am not at the mercy of a single employer. I'll let you know when I get the website up and running

[haltest]

I worked in IT for 8 years in the UK and after 4 rounds of redundancies in 2 years decided enough was enough. I agree that the recruitment industry is useless. they advertise jobs they don't have and don't have a clue about the things they are supposed to recruit for. If HR departments actually did their own work for a change I think it would be better on the whole for the industry.

 

Now I am taking a year or so break in Thailand and teaching IT and english to supplement my income. Actually I sold up in the UK and I don't imagine I will go back to work the same grind day after day, but you never know......

 

I know a lot of guys who are unable to get any work at all, ranging from quite recent graduates to some with 10+ years of experience. Sometimes I miss the work and my colleagues and I wonder how much damage to any career I am doing my daring to take some time out doing something else. I think it will be very hard to get another position even if I had stayed in the UK though. Everyone saw the money to be made in IT and contractors et al grabbed as much as they could and now we have a surpus of skills and less positions available.

[jasmine]

Hi,

 

A lot of people are losing jobs in my area too (DC), just got a call from a young man who left us to a better salary. the company refuses him at this time.

 

My company's projects are with the government, just won some homeland security and other projects. We do need people who can manage projects with technical skills but we are seeing that the biddings are lower than 2 years ago, that means the salaries are lower too.

 

I agree with all post here that it will be at least 18 months/2 yrs. before we see an improvement.

 

Keep on trying and good luck.

 

Jasmine

[gobbledonk]

I agree that the recruitment industry is useless

 

Haltest, I cant agree more strongly with this. I had a phone call from a young lady at a recruitment agency in Sydney, one which specialises in finding jobs for people with PROGRESS skills (PROGRESS are a database vendor based in Boston). I sent my resume to the agency approx 2 weeks ago.

 

Karen : 'Hi, I wanted to talk to you about a couple of positions which may suit you'

Artie : 'Great - fire away !'

Karen : 'Yes, we've got an AP job in Brisbane and '

Artie : 'Er. Karen, I'm not an Analyst Programmer. I'm a DBA'

Karen : 'Oh, OK, are you willing to relocate ?'

Artie : 'For the right job, yes'.

Karen : 'We've got an admin job in Hobart'

Artie : 'Unix administration ?'

Karen : 'No, they want someone to administer their Windows network and build Access applications'

Artie : 'Karen, do you actually have my resume in front of you ?'

Karen : 'Er, no, its here somewhere ....'

Artie : 'I'm a Unix Administrator with PROGRESS DBA and web development skills. You really want that placement fee, dont you ?'

Karen : 'Absolutely !'

 

Surely she could be making a better living as a Real Estate agent, and wouldnt need to know buzzwords beyond 'Renovation potential' and 'Position Plus !', She couldnt even be bothered glancing through my resume before ringing me. I realise recruitment is a sales role, and that persistence pays off, but this was truly sad.

[jasmine]

Hi,

 

The recruiters, even in the middle of good times like 1999 did not know IT language well. They normally pick up a few key words and assume that they match the requirements.

 

My specialyty is Configuration Management. Many recruiters called me looking for administrators who could configure systems, no concept of what I do.

 

How was the interview?

 

Cheers!

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

 

Although in a completely completely different field it remainds me of when I left the army 30+ years ago. I called a recruiter at a local hospital to apply for a temporary job as janitor. It went something like this:

 

Me: Hi, I just left the army and would be intereste in the position as janitor that you have announced.

 

Recruiter: That's fine however you are also required to manage transports between local hospitals. Do you have any experience driving trucks.

 

Me: Yes I drove trucks in the army.

 

Recruiter: Were they big.

 

Me: I did move tank trailers short distances but mostly I drove smaller trucks weighing about 10-15 tons.

 

Recruiter: I'm sorry but we have a big truck and really want an experienced truck driver. Thank you for your call.

 

After this I got a job as a truck driver at a local dairy driving trucks of the size I was used to. Later I met the bloke that got the job at the hospital. The truck was a Ford Transit pickup. HaHaHaHa

 

As a side note, I to am in the IT business. I wouldn't care much to explain to a recruitment agency that working with embedded systems and radio area networks doesn't make me a suiteable candidate to work with large administrative systems.

 

regards

 

ALHOLK

 

[gobbledonk]

Al,

 

I'd like to put a bunch of these 'recruiters' into a truck - or perhaps under one ....

 

They wouldnt know embedded systems from web development, they simply throw buzzwords around with gay abandon. Have to laugh when they list things like 'ADSL' in the midst of 'MCSE' and 'RHCE' - it cant be long before we see 'RTFM' in the midst of that lot.

 

I wish they'd all go off and Read The Fucking Manual

[Guest]

Perhaps you could throw ROTFLMAO into their buzwords and see what they say. Tell them it's your specialty and I sure they will add it to your resume with appropriate highlighting.