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?"

Comments

Work is obsolete

[poptones]

That is... jobs are obsolete. If you have skills it's time to think outside the box, for sure. You didn't really WANT to spend the next thirty years in a cubicle, did you?

I took my $10/hr job at a call center for the insurance and to be with " structured friends" (ie to have co-workers and regular personal interaction). I work there a few days a week (mostly weekends), I have half decent health care, and I have plenty of time T-F to do what I want with my time. I realize this isn't an answer for someone who has a wife and kids and expects to keep them in primo jeans and caviar, but I honestly don't see how ANYONE with a decent skill set in this world today could spend their life a pauper unless they WANTED to live as a pauper (which I have done, as I said, by choice).

You've got a world of connecitons at your fingers. Find a project and become an expert, tell everyone who will listen about it. Eventually someone will pay you for your expertise, and they'll do it on your terms.