IT Professional...

[FrankRizzo]

LOL,

I saw a guy standing in the middle of the fucking road on the island there with a sign that said, "IT Professional needs work" and then it went on to list all the languages and shit he knew.

Is it THAT bad for you guys?

 

[WODIN]

U aint seen nothing yet.

 

[FrankRizzo]

wodin - do you really think the economy is going to go that far south, or am I misinterpreting?

That kind of stuff is scary to me. I am new in my career and want to make some cash, not get laid off. I am not an IT guy at all. I am in the commercial construction industry.

 

[john937]

I predict unemployment will cost George Bush Jr the re-election,
just as it did his father ("It's the economy, Stupid").
I hope I'm wrong; I nearly had to declare bankrupcy during that one.

 

[WODIN]

Rizzo everything I read leads to a period of stagglation for the remainder of this year, which is a no growth phase. Companies start laying off when these things hit. Telecomes alone are going to shed 275,000 employees over the next 3 months...

 

[r00+]

Telecomms?

Huh? Is 'telecomm' what all non-technical people think the tech industry is?

8 months to a year and things will begin to rise again.

Most of the tech comapnies that have lived this long are doing just fine. For instance, my company. Our stock really bites right now, but we have a 300 million market cap, 600 million in the bank and we just bought out two companies in the past year. We've doubled our sales every quarter for the past seven quarters.

The reason the market sucks isn't because of these companies, it's because the world has this facination that wall street is sacrosant.

Computer sales are down and will be down for some time, comanies that produce those as their bread and butter will certainly resort to a consulting/tech service model.

But who knows....maybe the market will continue it's downward spiral. Maybe all of us technical nerds will be on street corners, writing cronjobs to clean people's windshields.

 

[tripleV]

i live in "silicon valley north" and we've had over 8000 layoffs in the high tech sector this year. very bad these days. people are getting desperate.

 

[r00+]

Me too

I live in the East Bay.

And I agree, times suck. But there are is a silver lining to it:

When we first moved here houses were a million+ dollars. We just bought one for 450K.

Real estate is way down. Gas prices are finally adjusting. And gorcery costs are dropping. Now add that to a pre-bust (assuming you haven't been laid off) salary and you have some happy folks.

 

[HappyScrappy]

at first I was happy b/c it was getting rid of all the jack offs that didn't know their shit.

but I know a few guys looking for work around here and they are having trouble.

the recruiters here seem to be gearing up for something in a month to 3 months.

the worst side of it is that companies can now drive the salaries down. oh well. it was fun while it lasted, now we have to build back up, or hope for the economy to pull itself back up.

 

[WODIN]

roo+ I just gave telecom as an example of the economies down turn that is hitting.

 

[HappyScrappy]

telcom still hits home for me. the company that I'm working for does stuff that will... well, I cna't go into specifics, but generally will greatly help the telcoms.

we are working with all the big names, and meanwhile they are laying off people left and right.
part of the problem is how slowly telcom moves - in order for them to make a decision on something relatively minor, it literally takes months.

annoying.

we are on the brink of either being very big, or everyone getting laid off.
hard to read.

 

[Milhouse]

I know of alot of people either involved in these industries and some recruiters as well and they are all facing the crunch.

The question I have is alot of them were making a shitload of dough, how many of them actually saved for this or were at least prepared?

JUst asking because I know a few who were prepared and put the money they were making wisely while others got a little full of themselves and deserve exactly what they are getting now. Not the majority, but a few.

 

[r00+]

Covered

We have been saving for 8 years. Most of the other guys who make over 6 figures at work are covered too.

I can't imagine someone NOT saving.

 

[HappyScrappy]

there are many articles on thet net, tv, and radio discussing that exact thing.
like a humorous interview with a repo-man and how he goes about his day in SF.
all these dot-commers got Porsches and Jags with the assumption that their options were worth anything and then their whole company went under. so now they are moving their cars around to the neirbor's garages and stuff to avoid the repo man.
he has an undercover truck that has the lifting mechanism hidden in the bed and he can then follow them - they go to the grocery store, and then bam he gets their car.

me personally, I thought I had a lot invested away... but then found out about the joys of the ups and downs of the stock market.
next time, money markets

that and my money pit... err, car.

 

[lincoln]

This may come off as arrogant but I firmly believe that the best people in any career field are never without work.

Regardless of the economic climate.

 

[r00+]

TruDat

Word up Linc!

Seriously though, I have seen so many people lose their jobs. But when I think about how well they knew their field or how hard they worked, I can't think of one that didn't need a to start "working off-site" .

 

[HappyScrappy]

This may come off as arrogant but I firmly believe that the best people in any career field are never without work.

Regardless of the economic climate.

hmm - that was what I thought - but not always - now it is if you are willing to take a pay cut

economics

 

[Milhouse]

Yaeh, one reason I was thinking about this was from what I posted in that thread last night about people always thinking the grass is greener on the other side.

Alot of people jumped around from job to job because they would make an extra $10000-20000 a year.

Nice for the short term but then again who gets laid off first.

Loyalty doesn't exactly always get rewarded during tough economic times but if I have the choice I am keeping the ones who stuck with my company thru the whole time over the people who jump around, even if they may be better.