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New Techies left out of economic recovery

By Rachel Konrad
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 21, 2002, 4:00 AM PT


Mike Landolfi spends his morning watching the stock ticker and CNBC, and he knows the economy is poised for a rebound. But macroeconomic optimism hasn't trickled down to his level.

The former information technology manager of FleetBoston Financial has been unemployed since December 2000. Despite sending out resumes and meeting with recruiters and career counselors, Landolfi hasn't been able to finesse three decades of IT experience into a full-time, senior-level position within 35 miles of his home in Chelmsford, Mass.

"The longer I've been out, the harder it gets," said Landolfi, who took a night-shift stint checking tax returns for the Internal Revenue Service for $13 an hour after his severance expired. "The worst part is the waiting--you're in the job hunt and getting close, but then you don't hear anything. You go into a dark hole and wait and wait, and that's when it really gets to you, especially when you find out that the job just disappeared."

In addition to spending more time with his wife and recently adopted daughter, Landolfi comforts himself by knowing that he's got plenty of company among laid-off technology executives. Despite positive economic indicators and the Federal Reserve's indication Tuesday that it is less concerned about economic weakness, the job market remains mired in the doldrums. And it seems especially bleak for tech workers.

Historically the job market has lagged other economic indicators as the nation pulls out of recessions, sometimes by as much as six months to a year. In fact, many economists believe unemployment, which hit 5.7 percent in November, could increase to as much as 7 percent later this year--the highest rate since 1993.

That's much lower than the unemployment rate of previous downturns, including the 1990 to 1991 recession, when unemployment topped out at 7.8 percent. But unemployment in the tech sector, which was particularly stung during the downturn in 2000 and 2001, may remain higher than that of the rate for the population at large.

The unemployment rate for Santa Clara County, the heart of California's Silicon Valley, was 7.3 percent in February. The Association of Bay Area Governments is bracing for that number to hit as high as 8 percent in the upcoming months.

The situation isn't brighter in smaller tech hubs, including Boston; Austin, Texas; and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. Tech workers have also struggled in Colorado, which has a higher percentage of tech workers than any other state because of the concentration of telecommunications companies.

Jeff Petersen of Highlands Ranch, Colo., has been scraping by with consulting gigs on IT projects since a layoff last year from Teletech Holdings, which slashed his entire business unit. But even the consulting jobs have dried up since the third quarter of 2001.

Like many laid-off tech workers, Petersen says bright spots in the stock market and optimistic comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan do little to perk him up; the recovery will seem like a moot point until he gets a solid job.

"This job market has killed my self-esteem," said the 42-year-old father, who spends time with his baby daughter when he's not scouring job boards, networking or checking out local career management firms. "I cannot tell you the difference in my outlook on life from the time I was busy to now, with too much time on my hands."

Productivity gains, job market losses

Ironically, the high-speed servers and automated Web services that helped usher in the late 1990s boom also allowed companies to rely on fewer workers--particularly in customer service and other support functions. Career experts say the jobs in the tech sector will remain scarce because of the productivity gains that tech workers enabled.

For instance, Dell Computer slashed 7,000 positions in 2001 in a massive downsizing that included as many as 5,700 layoffs. Although profits dropped 43 percent, Dell shipped 18 percent more personal computers in 2001 than in the previous year--an increase in productivity that could lead hiring managers to question the need to rehire any of the people the company laid off.

Also, many executives say their companies cannot afford to purchase new hardware or software because they gorged on cutting-edge technologies in the late 1990s.

According to a March survey of 100 American and European chief information officers by Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich, 56 percent of CIOs said that "meaningful improvement" in IT spending would not happen until 2003. Although many acknowledged they'll purchase software this year related to enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management, 34 percent said they did not need more servers to run the new applications.

Another factor contributing to the hiring doldrums is venture capitalists' fear. They were among the hardest-hit investors when the bubble burst in the spring of 2000, and they're loathe to lavish cash on start-ups--unlike in the late 1990s, when funding encouraged bloated staffs. VC firms that are investing at all are usually offering "maintenance" rounds to keep the business afloat, not "expansion" rounds for new hires.

"A lot of companies are still cutting work forces, or at least holding them stable," said Deepak Kamra, a general partner at Canaan Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif. "I don't have a crystal ball, but I'd say that you'll wait at least a quarter for companies to do more hiring--and that's if the stock market picks up. I'd be surprised if we ever got back to the job market of the first period of 2000 on a sustained basis."

VC bleakness is bad news for Scott Hazen Mueller, an Internet operations manager who was laid off from a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet service provider in July 2001. Three months after that layoff he accepted a job as a project consultant, but that dried up after five months. He's been unemployed ever since, watching his savings dwindle and going into debt.

"It's been pretty ugly, especially the Web job boards," said Mueller, 38, who lives near Modesto, Calif., and originally began looking for jobs in the Silicon Valley. "I've sent out something like 500 resumes, and in the last seven months I've had one interview...I'm willing to go wherever it takes. I'm talking to one recruiter for a job in Columbus, Ohio, and another in the Los Angeles area."

Mueller's spirits have lifted in the past few weeks because his phone has started ringing with calls from recruiters. Although none have resulted in interviews or offers, he's happy they're at least returning his calls.

"I've seen the most activity in the past week as I've seen in the past seven months," said Mueller, who boosted his salary by switching jobs three times in the past five years. "Maybe things are rebounding. At this point, I only want to go to work for a solvent company where I can stay there for a good, solid five years. I'm ready to settle down."


lincoln
"Four score and seven years ago, I had a better sig"
New On the other end of the experience spectrum
Our school career office is struggling to find entry-level positions for our graduates. The majority of positions are looking for 5-7 years experience.

Tom Sinclair
"Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
New That's the problem I'm having.
I'm trying to make the jump to software development - and everybody wants a MINIMUM of 3+ years experience IN THE FIELD YOU'RE TRYING TO WORK IN. If not, tough shit, don't bother applying.

So, basically I've spent a lot of money getting a degree just in time for it to be worthless. :P
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
New Me too, sort of
I have 4 and a half years at a previous job as a developer and 5+ years at the other jobs. But Despite having 5+ years in VB and ASP, they want that darn 4 Year degree and my 2 year degree doesn't cut it. Before the big market crash all they wanted was the 2 year degree or 3+ years of experience.

I cannot get most of the companies I have talked to to call me back, is this normal this time of year, or is my former employer (the law firm) saying nasty things about me so that I won't get hired anywhere else that has decent pay?

I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
New Being nasty
Most of the managers I've talked to are very cognizant of the fact that they can be held legally liable for saying "Nasty" things about a former employee. I think things work a little differently than you suppose. The way to "get back" at an employee is to either not provide information about the quality of the work, or provide information that gives faint praise.

So instead of saying either (a) you suck; or (b) you rule, the manager will simply say (c) yes, you worked here; or (d) I don't have time to discuss this. In this age of legal liability, (a) is not really an option, but (c) & (d) can easily be interpreted as meaning the same thing for those looking for subtle clues. In not going out of their way to talk about an ex-employee, the person on the other end of the phone reads between the lines and builds their own impressions.

New As a non manager
what restrictions are on me?

Let's say there is an ex-employee (or soon to be, on
his own volition) .

This person has causes me HELL, and will continue to
be painful for years to comes based on his idiocy.

He tells a good story, but hires idiots and leaves
huge chunks of "almost" working code behind. He jumps
ship 2 weeks before a project is due (after pushing back
the deadline MANY times), and we see that the past 2
years is almost a total waste.

If I "stumble" across his new employer, what I am allowed
to say?
New Thank him profusely for taking him :)
TAM ARIS QUAM ARMIPOTENS
New Hang on there, Thane.
A product development organization generally includes a test department. So, your testing experience should count as development experience. You should be truthful and say you didn't write the product code. But, you certainly understand the development process. That has relevance and value!
Alex

"Never express yourself more clearly than you think." -- Neils Bohr (1885-1962)
New Find an intern spot.
The best scale for an experimental design is ten millimeters to the centimeter.
New I did that
I got a degree in Petroleum Engineering - scheduled to finish it in 87 but the oil market crashed in 85 which had me in no hurry to finish college. Instead I joined a couple rock bands and had a great time playing around the Albuquerque bar circuit until my parents got fed up and insisted I finish any degree - marketable or not.

So I finished the PE degree and promptly spent 1.5 years doing menial jobs until I broke into a programming gig after a year taking heat for screwball hackers on a help desk.

College is only useful as an objection killer as its an arbitrary filter that gets used by HR doing a first cut on a stack of resumes. What you learn is usually not that valuable. A quick survey of adults out of college more than 5 years shows that maybe 10% are working in the field they studied in college.
The average hunter gatherer works 20 hours a week.
The average farmer works 40 hours a week.
The average programmer works 60 hours a week.
What the hell are we thinking?
New Difference is...
...I have a wife hounding me to produce some income. :P Otherwise, I'd take a few years off, join a band or two... :)
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
New If I hadn't married in my 5th year of college...
...I'd probably still be going to college. I'd have probably never had the motivation to actually get a piece of paper saying I had a degree. Of course, once I got out of school, I found that being in the jobforce was actually less work than studying. :-)
New keep applying
The 3 years (it used to be 2 I think) is a number recruiters pull out their ass to mean "not entry level".

Write up all your work experience - send in your resume - you might conveniently leave your grad date off.

FWIW, when short time, emphasize accomplishments - do a topical set of things you've worked on and where you worked on them, then make a tiny little minimal chronology at the bottom.

The idea is to divorce time spent from experience gained.
The average hunter gatherer works 20 hours a week.
The average farmer works 40 hours a week.
The average programmer works 60 hours a week.
What the hell are we thinking?
New So I'm a ten percenter?
A few of my computer courses in college basically taught me the proper names for things I'd already figured out on my own, such as linked lists.

Darrell Spice, Jr.

[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore

New Techies?
The 2 people whose former positions are actually mentioned in the article were mid- to high-level managers.
New Re: Techies left out of economic recovery
There is no 'all at once' recovery any more than there was an 'all of a sudden' recession

Events impact on each other. Generally the economists note the recession 6 months after it starts and see recovery 6 months before it starts as they look at 'technical indicators' not at experiences of individuals

IT is likely to be one of the last sectors to recover in an economic upsurge
First companies will have to feel that profits are rising, then make projections of long-term growth and only then will they start re-investing in IT

A
Play I Some Music w/ Papa Andy
Saturday 8 PM - 11 PM ET
All Night Rewind 11 PM - 5 PM
Reggae, African and Caribbean Music
[link|http://wxxe.org|Tune In]
New Techies overrepresented in the upside
Lest we forget, the previous four years were pretty fat. I'd say all 'round this is a long-due accounting.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?

   Keep software free.     Oppose the CBDTPA.     Kill S.2048 dead.
[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|http://www.eff.org/...a_alert.html]]
     Techies left out of economic recovery - (lincoln) - (16)
         On the other end of the experience spectrum - (tjsinclair) - (12)
             That's the problem I'm having. - (inthane-chan) - (11)
                 Me too, sort of - (orion) - (3)
                     Being nasty - (ChrisR) - (2)
                         As a non manager - (broomberg) - (1)
                             Thank him profusely for taking him :) -NT - (boxley)
                 Hang on there, Thane. - (a6l6e6x)
                 Find an intern spot. -NT - (Silverlock)
                 I did that - (tuberculosis) - (4)
                     Difference is... - (inthane-chan) - (2)
                         If I hadn't married in my 5th year of college... - (ChrisR)
                         keep applying - (tuberculosis)
                     So I'm a ten percenter? - (SpiceWare)
         Techies? - (Arkadiy)
         Re: Techies left out of economic recovery - (andread)
         Techies overrepresented in the upside - (kmself)

I bumped into a dot.
94 ms