Slashdot Mirror
Moving Up the IT Ladder in a Poor Economy?
Andy asks: "As almost anyone who joined the IT industry on the tail end of the Dot-Com boom can tell you, trying to move up in the industry for the past couple of years has been like jogging up-wind in a hurricane. I have sent resumes to countless numbers of employers only to still be working in the same $13/hr. low-end outsource support job as when I started (and $13/hr. doesn't get you too far in Boston these days). Learning more and more languages/technologies/protocols has merely resulted in a larger skill set on my resume, with pretty much the same level of experience, and no new interviews. Has anyone else been able to get out of this sort of slump, either during this economic slump or a previous one? Should I just continue the path of learning as much as I can and applying for jobs? Would getting a cert (maybe an RHCE or some Cisco certs) help? Would it be worth it to get a degree in MIS or CS?"
The downside is that you have to leave Boston. Well one of many downsides......
to find a rich woman to live off of. I don't know where to get certified for that though.
Seriously, if it's about the cash, find a new career. Make it something you enjoy, because you'll be spending a large part of your life doing it.
You kill your boss to move up the ladder. I suggest this for a poor economy, too.
im only 18 but im finding easy to find IT work in small town usa, i dont have any certs, but i know my shit.
Spoken like a true 18 year old who doesn't know their shit.
Maybe this will change when I finish school next year, but damn, I would kill for a salary of $13/hour at the moment.
I make about $9.60 an hour as an enlisted Air Force programmer. It can always be worse.
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
555-1111...ring...ring...
Hello! My records indicate that this number is registered to an eligible single female in my area code. As an eligible single male, I wanted to take this opportunity to extend a special, one-time off...*click*....
sigh...
555-1112...ring...ring...
Let's try not to let fact interfere with our speculation here, OK?
Apparently, spelling ability doesn't matter either.
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Show some employer loyalty.
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Being employed is like being engaged to someone who hasn't figured out what they want. The moment you give your employer loyalty they'll put you on the back burner and keep their eyes open for someone else. Your particular qualities, even if you are the best, don't even matter any more.
It's really ridiculous. Employers ask you to sign employee agreements which are utterly ridiculous in their scope and demands but it's either sign the line or take your chances at McDonald's. Then you're at the mercy of a lecherous boss for promotions or pay raises. Then you accept to be terminated at the employer's discretion for any reason--including you wouldn't polish your bosses' SUV right after he finished tearing you a new backdoor on a performance eval which was as subjective as it was laughable. "Oh. I'm sorry. I couldn't deliver the next drug candidate at the end of the quarter? Well maybe that's because I'm a research ASSOCIATE and don't have the political pull of a program DIRECTOR!" -- "Makes no difference. That's what we wrote in your goals for you. It's all part of your job description. You synthesize molecules and, if you make the right one, it's the drug candidate. It's that easy."
And you want loyalty from me?
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA* Piss off. You'll get loyalty when you pay my debts and give me a house.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
Damn... You navy guys are getting pretty desperate with your recruitment pitch. Hint for the next time: slashdot may not be the place to use geek in deragotory.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Considering the audience and economic environment, I'll keep my good advice to myself and have better chances at getting the job. Why help out all of you, the competition? I hope your resumes are miserable relative to my own! Want the easy way to fortune? Gather all pennies from your fellow unemployed geeks and form a lottery pool...
I don't have a degree but I have tons of experience and a proven history of creativity and being able to solve complex problems. I'm currently the Senior Developer at www.xdti.com working on a very sophisticated agency automation solution (C#, ASP.NET-based). I designed and implemented the complete accounting back-end (which was non-existant at the time I started 16 months ago), have driven the Browser (IE) beyond capabilities listed on most websites (I know, I've searched and had to solve them on my own), implemented and designed the industries most open business-to-business communications and information-sharing protocols, fraud detection and prediction analysis programs, and more. I routinely am relied upon by other team members who are having difficulties solving some very pressing and trying technical and implementation issues and have always proven myself to succeed when asked (and not only help them get their deadlines, but still complete mine ahead of schedule) but I've only been late once.
I work 40 hours a week (rarely more unless we are in a production crunch). Started with 5 other developers and now am the most senior of about 47 developers + QA + analyst (that didn't exist when I started). I have been promoted to Senior Developer and they all report to me in certain respects: I mentor, train, help them clean up the code, help them undestand the application and so on. I've reduced about 40k lines of code to about 10k lines in an OOP kind of way. My pay raises tend to be 10% a pop.
Two weeks ago I was offered a position as a Project manager and accepted. They are now going to train me in it for a year while still having some lessor responsibilities in my previous Sr. Developer role so that if I decide it isn't for me, I can stay where I was an no harm, no foul, or I can leave the developer spot and get my own team. I'm currently leading a the Accounting (in part) team which is the largest team and most heavily funded team in the company.
Do I have a college degree? Nope. In fact, I started and left college because of money issues. But I have an impressive employment and record and excellent experience.
I am currently in school now to finish my CS degree. I actually have my sights on transferring into Caltech and am preparing myself for that level of academic excellence. Wherever I end up attending, I will succeed well and am doing well without it. My income? My taxes this year I filed for $138k. It took me a year of unemployment before I landed my first interview but they hired me and here I am. During that unemployment I consulted and made decent money but personally, I prefer being employed (unlike most other people I know, would rather be independent).
So if you are looking solely at college achievement to help you make your decisions, you are only cheating yourself and the company you represent. Anyone with the right attitude, mindset, devotion, knowledge, and creativity can do impressive feats when given the chance (I know these people are rare, I haven't met anyone else like me yet) but the college degree missing, doesn't make them any lessor.
In short, I'm glad I don't work for you, and if I ever come across you in an interview (supposing I make it that far), I can only hope that something in me reveals itself to you and you can see me for who I am, and not what you think I'm not based on not having a degree.
The software that I write (this is my third enterprise application I've started that is sold commercially) has many thousands of users that use it daily (as it is an application) and our database is about 10 terabytes (a very large one considering we are a Microsoft shop).
Anyway, like I said, the attitude you project is only cheating yourself. You are doing yourself no justice by weeding out college grads only, but I can also see your point. I work and have worked with many people that have multiple degrees and even multiple masters degrees and I still out perform them in the critical thinking area and the trouble
IT is dead. Quit your job (or get laid off) and bitch about it on slashdot. Get an elite username (like mine) and troll on slashdot fulltime. Trolling is more entertaining and rewarding than an IT job anyway.
My missus has got an international politics degree in Spanish.
She's sent her CV to Spain, Mexico and most of South America.
She's still holding out for a vice-presidency (or a presidency if its a third world country). She hasn't had much interest yet.
Can you share any tips?
Last week dilbert had one where Catbert was called for a reference. He said "we don't give references for past employees, but if I did, it would rhyme with Mazy Loron.
Made me laugh all day.