IT Job Market Recovering Faster Now Than After Dot-com Bubble Burst

tsamsoniw writes "More new tech jobs have emerged since the end of the past recession than during the same recovery timelines following the dot-com bubble burst and the early-1990s recession. What's more, the unemployment rate among technology professionals is now half that of the national average — with especially low unemployment rates for database administrators and network architects. What's not clear, though, is how many unemployed techies aren't being counted because they've abandoned job searches."

Comments

At least one

[tverbeek]

Well, I've pretty much stopped looking. I suppose what I'm doing now counts as a "tech job", but the IT job market sure has lost a lot of appeal to me. Who wants to get chewed up and spit out again?

Re:At least one

[TheGratefulNet]

I was (still am) out of work for a long, long time. spent 5 years at a big-name bay area company only to get rif'd when a huge org change happend.

for the first 6 months, I looked and looked hard. companies were not hiring and those that were, were asking for god, himself. nothing you could do would be good enough and the rates were below market, taking advantage of the poor job market.

I gave up, started my own one-man company in the hardware/software area and made some product prototypes. was hoping to bring them to manufacturing but was a bit outside my experience level (I did the hardware design, software/firmware, mechanicals, user interface, pretty much everything, all using home lab equip I bought used on ebay).

FINALLY, once the year turned over, I started getting calls from companies and recruiters. like the flood gates opened! night and day. not sure why, exactly, but I'm not complaining!

it was a very dry period for a few years. fwiw, I have 30+ years writing C code in the networking field and have spent the last 20 yrs in the bay area. yet I could not get anywhere during the dry-spell of the last few years.

I hope this up-turn is going to stay. we have been at bottom long enough!

(wish me luck, too; I have some onsites this and next week).

Re:At least one

[Cryacin]

Same here. My current employer almost went belly up keeping everyone on without the work. Eventually when faced with either closing their doors, my boss took everyone in a room and explained it had gotten worse, asked who had options and if they were willing to exercise them, and then the remainder were let go with the crystal clear understanding that they did everything they could, that it was certainly not by bad performance on their part, and that should things turn around, they will be the first to get a call.

Contrary to what they teach you at the Ivy league schools, as the employees were treated like reasonable people, they treated the business owners the same way. Some left of their own accord, and the rest although terrified about being out in the cold, understood and agreed that this was the only course of action.

Fast forward a few months, and most of the people who left, are now back working for us, as things have turned around. The rest are all in well paying jobs, and have nothing but good things to say. If only more employers worked in this fashion.

Re:At least one

[GodInHell]

It's the clutch and hold phenomena. You don't spend a penny at the end of your fiscal year that can be saved and reported as additional net revenue as of 12/31. Once the arbitrary deadline is passed, you can start doing the job hunt that you should have started in October. Another example of the efficiency of the invisible hand of the market (i.e. short-term oriented corporate leadership gaming the numbers to increase the stock value, and thus their benefits and pay).

This is mostly limited to publicly traded companies, but any company that emphasizes end of calendar year financials is open to this kind of manipulation. Spend less, make more, at least on paper, and you do better.

Re:At least one

[kelemvor4]

"It doesn't really matter. I uh, I don't like my job, and, uh, I don't think I'm gonna go anymore."

Re:At least one

[TheGratefulNet]

its double-edged, though! I was proud of my design and implementation and on some early interviews, I actually took my hardware with me and gave a demo of it if I was allowed. it never went well, for some reason. I think it put some employers off! they thought 'he's too hardware focused and this is a pure software job'. not realizing that there is over 10k lines of c/c++ code in my embedded project, not to mention the linux host side of things (the ip stack).

I got tagged as 'too entreprenurial' and not enough of a team player. go figure! I worked on my own because I had to and I could not afford to hire anyone. that does not mean I avoid group work. but companies are very quick to summary judge you and there is such a thick stack of resumes waiting, they won't spend time with you to see that you are 'not just a hardware guy'.

when I talked about my own company, some people were not sure I'd want to stick around at -their- company. that was not true, as I was (and am) fully ready to make the change back to the corp sw-eng job again, but most companies were not happy to take any chances. 'he might leave!'. gee, that applies to anyone, though.

too much of something or too little. life is about finding the right quantity, I guess ;)

Re:At least one

[Synerg1y]

I've never been "hired" by HR, have you? They just screen resumes, a wise career adviser once recommend to me to tailor my resume to the job description if I really want it and include a cover letter. In grateful's case I'd simply state I made this badass project and have all the skills necessary to do it for the potential company, I wouldn't mention the words "entrepreneur", or "own company" anywhere, they play the buzz word game, so should you, it's only fair after all.

Re:At least one

[CptNerd]

Take the advice of another old fart: Lose the old experience, and don't date anything past the last three jobs, or 7 years, whichever is least. Like you, I used to feel that all of my experience was (or could be) important, since it was broad in scope and domain. However, I found that taking all the old experience, pulling out some keywords, and paraphrasing the rest into short paragraphs made all the difference. When I looked like an old geek, I got nothing from anyone, even when I regularly updated my resume online. Once I removed any indication of my age, I started getting 2-3 phone calls and at least 5 emails per day, wanting me to talk to them. Fortunately by then I had a reasonably good job, and had only updated my resume on a whim, but it shows just how bad the age bias is in the computer HR field.

Hide your age, dye your hair, lose weight, and lie by omission on your resume. They'll lie to you about why they won't hire you, so feel free to "lie" to them about your age.

Well, doh!

[Kaz Kylheku]

The dot com bust hit the IT sectory specifically, and followed a huge bubble in which tons of people were found in unnecessary jobs fueled by the gush of easy start-up money.

How can you even compare.

Isn't this to be expected?

[viperidaenz]

The dot-com burst was a tech sector bubble.

The current burst is a finance sector bubble.

How's that finance job market recovery going?

Re:Isn't this to be expected?

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. They just announced another round of executive bonuses.

Important to be flexible

[fermion]

If one is going to work for a lifetime, I think it is important to flexible. This is why I prefer a good general education rather than have a two year degree where they teach you to use MS Office or configure a windows network. At some point that work is going away, and it sucks to have to look for a job that is becoming obsolete, or at least not as desperate for worker as it one was.

On hopes that people have found other jobs rather than being forced to exist on unemployment until someone gives them back what is essentially their old job. That is what recovery is. People finding work and the economy moving forward. I think it would be better if we educated ourselves for a flexible work load rather than a specific and narrow trade. That is why so many PhD students have trouble finding positions.

Prediction: Bye-bye "re-shoring"

[mrheckman]

Employment in high tech is cyclical - boom to bust, followed by boom again. It seems to happen roughly every 10 years (1991, 2001, 2009 come to mind, but there was another boom around 1980). When employment booms, there's a shortage of skilled engineers and programmers, so companies look to off-shore. Meanwhile, the number of CS students in the US skyrockets. Then those students graduate, and not long after, the industry tanks, the job market softens, and there's a local surplus of skilled workers who are suddenly more affordable vis-a-vis off-shore workers. Seeing the surplus of skilled on-shore workers, companies start "re-shoring" -- bringing jobs back to the US. But lots of unemployed engineers and programmers go on to other things and, seeing so many engineers and programmers out of work, CS enrollments plummet. When the next boom hits, there's a shortage of workers again and the cycle continues.

Kim Dot-com Bubble?

[gentryx]

Did anyone else read the title and thought "Megaupload's downfall wasn't that bad, wasn't it?" Or did Kim's extensive physique just lose structural integrity?

Re:Is the job market real?

[niado]

I have been a victim so to speak. You see, I got a job but the employer wanted me to get "up-to-date" certification at my cost, at my time and then commit to working 5 days a week and being on-call at least one weekend every 6 weeks for the first year, then on-call for one of the weekends in two months.

Needless to say, I declined the offer....still looking.

This may have been sarcasm, and if so, a big whoosh to me, but if you seriously declined a job offer because they wanted you to get some certifications and be on call for 9 weekends per year, you evidently don't really need a job.

Re:Is the job market real?

[vux984]

I have been a victim so to speak. You see, I got a job but the employer wanted me to get "up-to-date" certification at my cost, at my time and then commit to working 5 days a week and being on-call at least one weekend every 6 weeks for the first year, then on-call for one of the weekends in two months.

That actually seems pretty reasonable to me; the only point I'd negotiate on would be the certifications at my cost relative to my starting wage and/or signing bonus.

Surely the 5 days a week, and being on call one weekend in 6 wasn't the deal breaker? Doctors deal with the same reality... people don't get sick only from 9 to 5, and computers are no more accomodating. Things break on weekends.

Re:"techies" unemployed? Maybe those over 50...

[Kjella]

When you say "left school" are you talking about high school?

He's talking about troll school and has been at slashdot ever since...

Can't get started

[Bramlet Abercrombie]

I've got A+, Network+ and MCP and it's still not enough to get the first job in IT? What gives?

Re:Is the job market real?

[TheRealMindChild]

This is the problem though. Give an inch, a mile is taken. What is one more weekend? One less sick day? 30 more minutes to a day? You need to bring your own computer to work on.

Re:"techies" unemployed? Maybe those over 50...

[TheGratefulNet]

I'm over 50 (just barely).

the agism (in the sf bay area) is visible and intense. my healthcare went up A LOT on my 50'th birthday and I have private HI since I'm not employed now and wasn't when I was 50, either.

companies have to pay higher rates for older employees (I'm pretty sure). they also have more legal hurdles to jump thru when they fire you. in general, they don't like older guys. lots of reasons, with very few of them actually good reasons.

fwiw, if you are in the bay area and approach mid 30's, start thinking about an 'exit strategy'. by mid 40's you should have some idea or plan. I did not and I'm paying the price for my lack of forethought (I really didn't believe this, back when I was still young).

maybe other areas of the country are more accepting of us older guys, but the bay area IS NOT! trust me. yes, there are companies that have grey-hairs there but they are usually the minority and very few of them feel totally secure in their jobs, if you ask them and if they answer honestly.

its a shame. some cultures in the world respect and honor age, experience and wisdom. the bay area, fwiw, is NOT one of them ;(

(I wish I could speak one of the asian languages or be able to move there; I am told that the eastern part of the world still DOES honor and respect age and experience.)

Re:Local differences

[TheGratefulNet]

I went for an interview (really well known company, everyone wants to work there, or so they think) and when they told me that the job was paying about half of what I made 10 yrs ago (!!), I did not balk. it would have covered the rent, at least, and employment is honorable even if its way below your last several jobs' rates.

they would have no part of me, though. too old, way too overqualified (they said so) and they didn't want to risk taking me on. I did not (at all!) act above-the-job. I honestly would have been fine working there, even for that rate. maybe it would lead to other things or I could establish myself in that company. but no, they never even called back to give closure. (this company is known to be rude to prospective employees, and people still put up with it, too).

employers, please don't turn down those who are 'overqualified' in a tough market. get a feeling for whether they'll stay or jump; but don't just -assume- they'll jump. those who have been out of work would really appreciate the chance and they'd likely be loyal and glad to have the chance to come aboard. if they're older, they'll likely be more stable, too, and not be a job-hopper. believe me, the job-hopping days ended 10 yrs ago or even more.

the tough part is staying positive when you see the ugliness and greed that companies have, when they know its an employer's market. its soul crushing to see the lack of humanity and lack of compassion. it was a learning experience for me and I'm going to try never to do that to anyone, if I'm on the other side of the interview table.

Re:Fake jobs

[lightknight]

'Tis purposeful. Apparently, a number of companies have found a way to play fast and loose with H1Bs. See, in order to make things legal, they need to post the job publicly, so that the natives have a chance before the foreigners get to apply. Since the companies in question are already using the possibility of a green card as leverage over the foreigner (to decrease their potential salaries / wages), the hiring of the foreigner is much preferred in the company's eyes.

But how do you dissuade, or otherwise disqualify, the natives from applying / getting the job? According to the rules, the salary has to meet certain criteria (somewhere within the average of the industry), so purely low-balling the natives won't work. Instead, these companies realized that they can use the qualifications / criteria for the job itself to get around the requirements: they hand the foreign applicant a disc with proprietary apps (costing, potentially, tends of thousands of dollars to buy, possibly even demo), and tell them to familiarize themselves with the apps. Then when the time comes to apply for the job, they can truthfully say that they have used these special apps before, and thus are more qualified for the job than the native. In other words, it would cost the native tends of thousands of dollars to buy these special apps, ostensibly provided for free to foreigners, in order to gain experience with them, in order to qualify for this job; obviously, a native will not do this, as the job itself is probably not well-paying enough to cover these capital costs.

Let it be known that I have no problems with foreigners competing for native jobs. I do, however, have a problem with uneven playing fields; fighting dirty befouls the entire industry, and lays the foundation for terrible gains. Had I my way, the H1B caps would be abolished, and their wages no different from that of the natives.