IT job search

Where the IT Jobs Might Just Be

I just finished flipping through an online slide deck at Baseline Magazine. It’s entitled Where the IT Jobs Are Now and I’m happy to see that it validates several areas of activity that I’ve already touched on in other blogs of my own here. Here’s a summary of the points from this sketchy but thought-provoking presentation, slide-by-slide (titles are reproduced verbatim and explanatory text is paraphrased):

• Data Management, including business intelligence, data mining, and data warehousing
• Security, driven by an upsurge in online business and a concomitant need to protect against vulnerabilities and exposures
• IT sourcing and vendor relationship management, which I see as a natural business extension to the growing migration to cloud computing and virtualization technologies
• Networking and wireless, as wireless networks continue to proliferate in public spaces and private organizations
• Web development, also a side-effect of the upsurge in online business, but also a result of increasing efforts to support and interact with prospects, customers, and partners online first and foremost
• Quality management, fueled by increasing adoption of standards based quality and organizational management regimes (ITIL, CMM, Lean, Six Sigma, and so forth)
• Education, because as employment goes down “back to school” always goes up (and the current cohort of college age is also bigger than in the 90s and early part of this decade)
• Healthcare, as one of the continuing sources of growth and expansion even in this down economy; for IT this touches especially on help desk and electronic medical records creation and management
• Energy, with ongoing investments in both traditional and alternative energy sources and programs; these days managing energy is all about acquiring and managing data — LOTS of data
• The Feds (Federal Government) are still hiring like mad what with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus federal stimulus dollars for programs all over the technical and IT landscapes

Those looking for IT work who are considering venturing out of their comfort zones in the interest of finding gainful employment, might be able to glean a target or two from this list. And then, very probably, some of you will head back to school to bone up on the subject matter, adding further impetus to the item on Education!

Po Bronson Strikes Again with “What Should I Do…” Redux

Back in the last downturn — you know, the dot com bomb that followed the dot com boom in 2001 — Po Bronson, one of my favorite writers came out with a terrific book entitled What Should I Do with My Life?  that explored how best to take advantage of the many, often involuntary opportunities to change jobs that the dot bomb bestowed on workers. Given our current economic situation, with a technical end to the recession in sight, but with unemployment at its highest point in 26 years, and with worse still to come, it came as no surprise to me that he’s returned to this subject matter in a story for Fast Company entitled “What Should I Do with My Life, Now?” You’ll definitely want to give this a read, whether you’re out of work, thinking about making changes to your working life, or simply trying to keep up with ever-shifting employment landscape.

The story itself seeks to debunk a list of misconception or perhaps misguided ideas about what it means to ponder one’s fate, and consider one’s working life. You’ll want to turn to Bronson’s own inimitable prose for the biggest impact, but he manages to unearth some ideas and discuss them in a way that’s simultaneously interesting, amusing, realistic, and occasionally pathetic. The notions he seeks to debunk what he perceives as “the top fallacies that I think people project onto this dilemma” (where the dilemma is the title of the story):

1. People are not the architects of their own changes.
2. Responsibilities are not outside your circle of purpose.
3. Following your passion, or pursuing your fantasies, is no ticket to happiness, success, or job satisfaction.
4. No job is perfect, and all of them have yucky parts. But if you feel like you’re working toward something, that’s probably good enough.
5. It’s not necessary to have some kind of higher calling to have a sense of purpose at work.
6. There is no one perfect thing for each person to find and pursue. Any career that provides growth and fulfills a sense of purpose will do.
7. Don’t say you have no idea what you want from life: everybody knows what they want; the difficulty comes in satisfying them. It’s about learning, discovery, and being willing to start over.

All I can say is that I was glad to find and read this story. I hope you’ll do likewise and feel the same when you’re done. Enjoy!

Dice Pinpoints Top 10 IT Skills

In a survey conducted by Dice and reported in Windows IT Pro on August 13, you will find a list of the most difficult skill sets or positions to fill in today’s IT job market. This list makes for interesting reading (and you’ll also find a list of the ten top technology markets in this story as well, for those pondering their chances of finding a job, here or there, depending on whether or not relocation is an option for those looking for work). Here’s the list of top skills as reported in the story:

1. Security
2. Virtualization
3. Java/J2EE
4. SAP
5. .NET
6. DBA
7. Oracle
8. Active US Government Security clearance, military or civilian
9. Project Management
10. SharePoint

To me, it’s interesting to see the mix of developer, professional, and topical area specialties that this list represents — especially SharePoint, which appears to be gaining significant mind and market share in IT of late. Be sure to check out this story, where you’ll also find a list of the “Top 10 Tech Metro Areas” (which kicks off with the stimulus spending capitol of the US, the DC/Baltimore metroplex) as well.

September 09 Employment Situation

This morning the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the employment numbers for August, 2009. These numbers aren’t especially good: they reversed the modest trend from June and July during which time the unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged at around 9.4 percent. The August numbers show a loss of 466,000 jobs which increased overall unemployment to 9.7 percent, and included jumps in unemployment rates for adult men (to 10.1 percent), whites (to 8.9 percent), and Hispanics (to 13.0 percent). The total number of unemployed persons reported rose to 14.9 million Americans.

I don’t see many glimmers of hope for IT professionals in these numbers, either. Table A-11 ”Unemployed persons by industry and class of worker, not seasonally adjusted” shows that the information category has experienced unemployment of 358,000 up from 144,000 in August of 2008, which represents a jump in unemployment rates from 4.2 percent (2008) to 10.7 percent (2009). For those IT professionals who may be classified under the heading of professional and business services instead, the corresponding figures are equally grim: 961,000 in 2008 (6.9 %) versus 1,560,000 in 2009 (11.0 %). Ouch!

What’s my verdict for the present situation: “sit tight, and make no sudden or rash moves” remains the watchword for the foreseeable future. Though we may have seen some indicators that the recession has bottomed out, it still hasn’t helped to turn the IT employment situation around just yet. Hang in there, because it looks like we might still hit the 10-plus-percent values this fall that economists predicted for the trough of the recession. I sincerely hope we see some reversals in the employment declines, especially for the industry and worker categories related to IT, not only because that’s where I work (and you, too, most likely, if you’re reading this) but because IT is so often the engine that helps to drive recovery and improvement forward.

Does Age Matter When Seeking Employment? Sure, but…

As a baby boomer myself, I can’t help but be sensitive to continuing reports or complaints about age discrimination for job seekers over 50. But in talking to technical recruiters and reading recent reports on boomer job search and unemployment woes, I’m not completely convinced that a single-factor explanation of “age discrimination” is sufficient to explain the genuine phenomenon that older workers take longer and have to work harder to find new jobs. According to the AARP (as quoted in this MSNBC careers story) the average length of unemployment for workers 55 and over is almost 30 weeks, while it’s under 22 weeks for their younger counterparts.

Here’s what other factors I believe may be involved, thanks in part to my research and thanks in part to a conversation with local technical recruiter Steely Dipuccio of Accountability Resources I had last week:

1. Boomers have been in the work force for a long time (even those who, like myself, have changed careers in their 30s or 40s) and thus also tend to earn (and want to keep earning) higher salaries. It’s well documented that those who make more money also tend to take longer to find work (the old pre-recession maxim that “it takes a month of search for each $10K you wish to earn when looking for a new position” has certainly increased, perhaps even doubling). Some lowering of expectations can offset this phenomenon to some extent, but be warned: Dipuccio notes that hiring managers are wary of seasoned professionals who accept serious pay cuts to find work, because they expect them to bolt as soon as something better (or higher paying) comes along, for good reason.
2. The longer IT professionals stay in the same job, the more likely it is that they’ll find their skills and knowledge outdated or irrelevant when they go seeking new work. This is age independent, but does affect older workers more, because they’re more likely to have been in positions for more years by virtue of age. The best counter for this phenomenon is a cover letter and resume that focus on recent and relevant learning, training, skills, knowledge, and experience, backed up by talking the talk, and walking the walk if and when you get into an interview situation.
3. As workers get older, they become more set in their ways and less flexible in what they’re willing to accept. Dipuccio observed in our discussions about job search that “flexibility is the most important characteristic a prospective employee can bring to the search process and the interview these days.” We older folks may have to work more at being flexible than younger folks, but awareness and attention to this need can help to remedy this defect.

If you’re in the over-50 category and looking for IT employment (or thinking about changing jobs) you’d do very well to keep these things in mind as you work through the job search process. Don’t rely too much on Web 2.0 to lead you to your next position, either: Dipuccio reports (and I concur) that the best jobs still get filled by word of mouth and personal relationships, often without ever being posted online or advertised in print. Though online social networks can help with the job search process, the old-fashioned personal network remains the best pathway to a good job, even for tech-heavy IT in this always-on Internet age.

CollegeRecruiter Lists Entry-level Jobs and Internships

What with the semester near its end and the summer drawing on, young people’s thoughts turn to employment. The CollegeRecruiter.com Web site has compiled a nice press release (dated 4/7/09) entitled “Best and Worst States in Which to Find an Internship or Entry-Level Job.” Here’s a tabular recap of their results:

There are lots of interesting things to observe about these numbers. First and foremost, it looks like (surprise) the states with the biggest populations float to the top of these rankings. Second, the absolute numbers for internships are miniscule, with the numbers for entry-level positions merely small. These numbers don’t look incredibly encouraging to me, until I stop to think that most internships don’t get advertised much, if at all (mostly they’re doled out through alma mater affiliations and/or family and friend connections).

It all adds up to a pretty interesting summer for underclassmen and -women looking for work, and a tough slog for recent grads trying to find their first jobs in IT. Good luck to one and all, and may your school, friend, and family connections help you find something. There’s not much on the boards at all, apparently.

Social Networking Picks Up Job Search Mantle

In her most recent (4/6/09) article, entitled “Social Networking Emerges as Job-Hunting Tool” regular ITCareerPlanet contributor Esther Schein, picks up and runs with an idea that’s crossed my mind many times in the last year or so — namely, that the various social networking sites offer great tools to IT professionals seeking work, as well as ample opportunities to catch up with old classmates, colleagues, and friends. I’d have to observe that this becomes increasingly true for social network members as they get older (for the younger set the emphasis is more on “social” than “networking,” while for those of use higher up on the age ladder, myself included, the emphasis is far more often the other way ’round).

And despite Schein’s observations to the contrary, my own experience is that Facebook and MySpace remain far more social than networking oriented in this sense, whereas other, more professional sites such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, and so forth, naturally assume the job search mantle because they’re rather more professionally oriented anywyay. This by no means detracts from the value or import of the article, and isn’t meant as a major cricitism of Shein’s excellent story: there’s no denying that social networks can be very useful to job seekers, especially during the early phases of reconnaissance and targerting where personal connections can make a huge difference in identifying opportunities, and making the first cut between the “nahs!” and the “let’s look at this resume/appliction more closely” stages of candidate qualification.

Shein also observes that once you target a prospective employer, the social networking sites can let you learn a lot about current employees, especially when it comes to understanding the prevailing work ethic, typical employee profiles, corporate/organizational culture, and other aspects of life as a worker at the target company or organization. Of course, this kind of information also leads naturally into interview preparation should an indication of candidate interest provoke a similar sign of interest from a prospective employer.

Personally, I’ve found LinkedIn to be a great way to reconnect with former colleaues, co-workers, and co-authors. In my own case, it hasn’t led me to any job offers, but it has led to numerous consulting and writing gigs, some of relatively long standing and nice remuneration. Working social networks for work purposes turns out to be a savvy and workable approach to today’s job market. If you haven’t done so already, I urge you to give it a try, with LinkedIn at the top of the list. And of course, that leads to my final words on this subject here: always treat your presence on social networking sites as both personal and professional, and don’t post (or say) anything you wouldn’t want a current or prospective employer to see! Otherwise, those words and images could haunt you for years and years to come…

Government Stimulus Comes Home to Roost?

According to the Washington Business Journal, the DC area was only one of four major metro areas in the US — including also Boston, Dallas, and Houston — to experience job growth in 2008. For the DC area, 2009 is shaping up even better, due at least in part to the US Government’s aggressive hiring of more staff to help set up, coordinate, and oversee stimulus spending. Given the need for qualified IT staff to help do likewise for the information systems involved (set up, coordinate, and manage/maintain is probably a more appropriate locution), this helps to explain why IT hiring is up, up, up in the DC metro area overall.

Unemployed or underemployed IT professionals willing to relocate for work opportunities should take notice. Here’s an interesting statistic to ponder as well: “For every $1B in Federal spending, 7,000 jobs are created in the Washington area. The new stimulus could give D.C. $23 billion during the next three years, meaning 30,000 Washington D.C. jobs could be created by 2010 and 64,000 jobs could be created by 2019.” (Source jobfetch.org blog 3/12/09) Gosh, those are some pretty compelling numbers.

But before you start loading up the family van, you might also want to ponder these factoids as well:

• DC area median household income ranks the highest in the country, according to the US Census bureau, in ranking large counties around DC (source Cleveland.com)
• Real estate prices have remained pretty firm — and likewise, fairly high — in the DC metro area as well
• Traffic around the DC metro area, particularly inside the I-495 Beltway, is busy and often highly congested
• Overall cost of living in the DC area is among the highest in the country

In other words, if you want to go where the action is, you’ve got to pay in more ways than one to make your way into and around the DC area. But for those with good qualifications who can’t find work, or can’t advance, in their current locales, it may be time to starting thinking about joining up with Mr. Smith, and heading for “Das Kapital!”

It’s COLD Out Here/There…

In a classic exercise known as “eat your own dogfood” — by which I mean practicing what I’m preaching about hunting for contract and full-time employment by signing up at resume and job-hunting sites — I’ve been taking a pretty serious shellacking at the hands of recruiters and hiring managers lately. “It’s OK,” I console myself by saying, “I really don’t want those jobs anyway,” but man it really hurts to see one’s market value decline along with the rest of the economy. Let me explain…

I’ve signed up directly at various job shopping/resume sites, and also through my memberships at Facebook and LinkedIn, to see what the job market is like on a personal basis these days. So far, I’ve found perhaps a dozen positions for which my qualifications match sufficiently for employers to be at least theoretically interested in talking to me, if not actually interested in doing so. Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve experienced so far from these twelve positions:

• So far, no reponse at all for 8 of the online applications has occurred, for intervals between one and three weeks since my indication of e-interest. I’ve been careful to provide cover letters and current resumes in all cases, and have also received electronic tokens of receipt for these applications, so it’s clear they’re not simply floating in the ether never having been received.
• I’ve gotten calls from two recruiters, both of whom have offered half (or slightly less) of the minimum hourly or salary rate that I carefully included in each of my applications. It’s very much a first for me to be approached when such a profound mismatch exists between my stated hourly or salary needs and the rates the hiring or contracting company is willing to pay.
• I’ve gotten electronic messages from two employers, both indicating that my application is under review, and they’ll get back to me if and when they decide my qualifications and their requirements warrant further discussion or conversation. Other than that, nada!

I’m guessing this is typical for the current market. Conventional wisdom holds that it takes one month for every $10,000 in annual salary that a person wishes to earn to conclude a successful job search. At my preferred level of compensation that means it should take me at least a year to find a job. So far, all indications are that the time horizon is further stretched than that, if anything.

The most telling evidence of the state of the market is that recruiters are calling when they know they’re low-balling contract or salary demands. The one contract job I was offered came with an hourly rate that I exceeded (based on converting salary to hourly by dividing yearly earnings by 2,000, a not atypical conversion approach, though 1,000 makes more sense with what benefits cost when you cover them yourself these days) in 1984! Needless to say, I simply informed the recruiter that I wasn’t interested in the work at that rate of pay, and left it at that. The salaried position I was offered got me into the early 1990s given the 2,000 conversion value, but was still about 1/3 lower than I would be willing to start commuting for, were I  to accept such a position.

That’s the way it goes in the 2009 economy. Please share your war stories, too, and I’ll chime in again from time to time with status on this situation. It’s interesting, depressing, and potentially terrifying, depending on what other income streams you have at your disposal. In my case, I’m still staying busy enough as a full-time freelancer to keep the wolf from the door, but for others…well, you tell me: how’s it going out there?

When Job Fairs Aren’t Completely Fair Affairs

I heard a very interesting news story on NPR this morning about job fairs in the Midwest. As you might expect, attendance at such soirees among employers is down for the time being, while attendance among those seeking work is way up, especially for unemployed people. Check out the story by Adam Hochberg online: it’s entitled “Job Seekers Find Long Lines, Little Payoff At Fairs“

What suprised me was hearing that many companies currently attending job fairs may actually not have any positions open. Here’s the quote that caught me off-guard lifted straight from the tail-end of the aforementioned story:

And some of the firms accepting applications didn’t really have any openings. Rather, they were trying to improve the quality of their work force — by searching for people who might do a better job than the employees they already have.

Wow! Talk about a chilling signal of a buyer’s market for employment. Presumably this means that if some candidate were to present him- or herself at a job fair, and be significantly better qualified than a person currently occupying some particular position, then the current job-holder might be laid off or let go to create a space for that person to fill. The very notion sends chills racing up and down my spine.

I got one of my best-ever corporate jobs at a job fair, working for a company called Excelan as a networking consultant from 1987 to 1989, at which time the outfit was acquired by Novell, for whom I continued to work until 1994. I’m pretty sure that nobody was let go to make room for me during that downturn in the economy (we were coming out of a recession back then), but you never know. Kind of makes me rethink the whole politics of attending such events, but then, those who do attend them usually do so because they feel they must, rather than really wanting to go.