How is the tech field? (Seattle, Pacific: appointed, home, layoffs)

[jenlion]

I'm in IT and haven't had much trouble finding work. Just had to have help getting my foot in the door for my first post-college job. After that each job led to the next.

I can tell you that people need help with their accounting and ERP systems. That's what I do now. If you can get really good at a package like that, there's lots of consulting to be done. When people don't know how to get their financial numbers out of their "systems", or they don't know how to manage their inventory or sales or customers, then they need help. And a LOT of small businesses need help. I learned on-the-job, so I don't know how hard it might be to pick up a system and learn it from scratch without good context, but it's a good idea. I plan to learn Dynamics next -- I worked with the precusor to that years ago and then moved to a competitor's product. I'm quite good at that other product now, but I think Dynamics is going to be kicking a** next, so it's time to get good at that one.

It's the kind of work where you can be a big fish in a small pond. If you find a niche in it, you can do work that makes a big difference to people!

Good luck.

[dpgtfc]

@jenlion

Thanks for the info, sounds like a good stable portion of the market with some future. Doesn't seem glamourous, but I don't mind that at all.

[coldbliss]

Choose a job that melds your IT skills and personal (face-to-face) customer service. A customer could be a business client or a consumer. There are many small businesses that require site visits from software experts (installing, training and maintenance of systems).

Any job that involves programming or engineering behinds the scenes is very vulnerable to outsourcing. I always tell people to find a job and a career that requires as much as face-to-face interaction with businesses and consumers as possible. Indians and Chinese are at a huge disadvantage here because their American English skills and cultural connectivity to American consumers cannot match a native-born IT expert.

Computer science students should also study marketing and take business management courses.

[mikec34]

Originally Posted by coldbliss

Choose a job that melds your IT skills and personal (face-to-face) customer service. A customer could be a business client or a consumer. There are many small businesses that require site visits from software experts (installing, training and maintenance of systems).

Any job that involves programming or engineering behinds the scenes is very vulnerable to outsourcing. I always tell people to find a job and a career that requires as much as face-to-face interaction with businesses and consumers as possible. Indians and Chinese are at a huge disadvantage here because their American English skills and cultural connectivity to American consumers cannot match a native-born IT expert.

Computer science students should also study marketing and take business management courses.

Ever see the box-mart jib jab?
Big Box Mart | Funny Video Animation by JibJab

This is hardly just an IT issue. Of course disgusting Americans are still sending our jobs overseas (nobody's taking them - we're giveng them), but unemployment has been fairly low and for me the IT market has been very good for the last several years. When I was in WA I'd get 2-4 IT job opportunities a day (at least half were software), so while some have gone to India, I think it's more of a 'the foreigners are taking our jobs' BS where people want to blame their problems on others. One could say we have so many IT jobs available we are 'importing' talented workers because even after outsourcing, we still can't fill the gaps. Tell me of another industry that has so much work availab e that talent has to be imported.

[coldbliss]

It's called not enough supply (labor) meeting the demand. Fewer college grads are majoring in computer science today. At the other end, you have some people who are willing to work in the IT field but they have only a paper certification and inadequate skills to meet the demands of this challenging field. In countries like China and India, there is an emphasis on mastering engineering and technical disciplines. The students there realize that acquiring engineering know-how is the key to a comfortable middle-class life.

In the United States, we have grown fat and lazy because of our affluence. We spend our time dreaming to be characters on a TV show: I am the next American Idol; the next hot-shot corporate lawyer; the next runway model; the next superstar football or basketball player; the next cool fashion designer; the next culinary artist. The list goes on and on. This country is seriously diseased from popular culture.

We need more scientists, engineers, and physicians to make a better quality of life for this country. Our bridges and public transportation systems are crumbling. The NASA space program is stuck in neutral. We have a significant shortage of qualified doctors in primary care. Society needs to change its values by placing more energy on education, investment, savings, and common friggin sense.

Originally Posted by mikec34

I think it's more of a 'the foreigners are taking our jobs' BS where people want to blame their problems on others. One could say we have so many IT jobs available we are 'importing' talented workers because even after outsourcing, we still can't fill the gaps. Tell me of another industry that has so much work available that talent has to be imported.

[dpgtfc]

Well, before the economy tanked anyway. Now there is more supply than there is demand.

[Heiwos]

Most IT people don't need a degree, to do the actual work that is. No university teaches someone how to convert data from one particular accounting system to another, say--you just need to be a logical, independent thinker. A shortage of capable folk is a myth made up by Gates et al in the hopes of importing more cheap labor. The problems with crumbling infrastructure is mainly a Bible Belt problem; i.e. whenever there's too many Bible thumpers living fat thanks to the smart folk, we get a prez who funnels $trillions of borrowed money to his buddies, and then the bridges fall down. Again, not a shortage of skilled labor. Remember that for the last 8 years politics trumped science.

[drewba]

I'm sure that things have changed some, but I spent about 4-5 months in mid-2008 trying to fill an systems engineer position at a very well known company. I was surprised at how few resumes we received and the lack of quality of those that I did receive. We ended up finding someone who's been a great fit, but it took a long time.

Based on my hiring experience, I'd say that the IT market was still pretty strong for job seekers, at least in mid-2008.

[seattlenextyear]

No one's mentioned the flood of unemployed Microsofties that's happening this year. That announcement definitely gave us a few more gray hairs.

[Heiwos]

Originally Posted by drewba

I'm sure that things have changed some, but I spent about 4-5 months in mid-2008 trying to fill an systems engineer position at a very well known company. I was surprised at how few resumes we received and the lack of quality of those that I did receive.

This could easily be caused by offering too little. I haven't applied for a full-time position in a decade, because I could make a lot more by contracting. Every time I looked at full-time positions, they paid way less. Likewise, there's no shortage of American-citizen CEOs, since they get $mega-millions. When Gates says there's too few qualified tech workers, he means too few cheap workers.

My dad worked for the federal gov't as a personnel officer. He had a very hard time hiring, because the gov't pays so little compared to the private sector for similar work. He had the best luck with big-city applicants from the East coast, whom he would take fishing, to demonstrate that pay isn't everything.

Of course, in a depression, all bets are off.