2011 so far - How is everybody feeling about the IT job market?

[bg6638]

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manowar wrote:

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GraceH wrote:
Women can cry, whine, and ask for help.

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   Luckily for us, now we have John Boehner in charge!

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I'd rather have Boehner controlling spending than "Spare no Expense" Pelosi  ..............................................

[pennsyltucky]

Still grinding through the permie life.  I'm really starting to see why permies become so apathetic.  If you're working in a non-tech company, you're seen as not contributing anything to the profitability of the company.  I am a liability, not an asset.

Oh yeah, I'm also sick of reporting to Bob the janitor who fought his way up through the ranks.  Some of the senior ranking IT people that I have to work under have no college degree and little up to date training.  I have literally seen people promoted from warehouse workers to IT positions higher than my own.  It really makes me wonder if my $80K of college loan debt was worth it.

I should have been a doctor...

[idm]

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pennsyltucky wrote:

Still grinding through the permie life.  I'm really starting to see why permies become so apathetic. 

Working as a permanent full-time employee tends to make people risk adverse. Hence, the apathetic behaviour. Unfortuantely, for consultants and contractors who try to make the transition to permanent full-time employee status such people drive them away. Consultants/constractor mindset is much different than permanent full-time employee mindset.

If you're working in a non-tech company, you're seen as not contributing anything to the profitability of the company.  I am a liability, not an asset.

IT staff are viewed as an expense, do not foll yourself, even in technology-heavy organizations.

I should have been a doctor...

Morticians have better long-term career stability and job security is practically guaranteed. Medical doctors depend on people getting sick and injured whereas morticians always have a steady-supply of clients.

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[0xFFFFFFFF]

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pennsyltucky wrote:

Still grinding through the permie life.  I'm really starting to see why permies become so apathetic.  If you're working in a non-tech company, you're seen as not contributing anything to the profitability of the company.  I am a liability, not an asset.

Oh yeah, I'm also sick of reporting to Bob the janitor who fought his way up through the ranks.  Some of the senior ranking IT people that I have to work under have no college degree and little up to date training.  I have literally seen people promoted from warehouse workers to IT positions higher than my own.  It really makes me wonder if my $80K of college loan debt was worth it.

I should have been a doctor...

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Your message is a keeper.

Just finishing a contract gig this week, declining the extension cuz the project is chaos and probably will be cancelled and why, cuz the people involved lack all skills right up the mgmt chain, it's like watching some six year old kids building a rocket to Mars.

So the big news is they are finally filling the mgmt slot that has been empty halfway up, with some long term guy, I'm sure that's lovely, but I'm also sure he's as bad as the rest of them, not to mention, of course, Indian.

ps - friend yesterday was saying, private math tutors for gradeschool kids, getting $180/hr.  if you can do long division with a pencil and paper instead of a calculator, I think you're qualified.  I'm gonna seriously consider this.

[manowar]

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idm wrote:

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Morticians have better long-term career stability and job security is practically guaranteed. Medical doctors depend on people getting sick and injured whereas morticians always have a steady-supply of clients.

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 Hindu morticians have an edge though, because of repeat business from reincarnation.

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[Kujo2020]

I'm seeing a lot of job postings in IT (at least in Toronto, Ontario).   A lot of them are contract jobs, which is an unfortunate trend that makes me hate this profession.  I got one pre-screen interview today.  I'll find out within two weeks if I get called in for an interview.  

I've pretty much refused to do contract jobs up till now.  As I get closer to the year mark of being unemployed, I may have to bite the bullet, and go for one.  I guess it's too much to ask for stable employment opportunities in IT.

[NewHavenITguy]

One man's meat is another man's poison. I'd never do anything BUT contract. I had one gig lasted 6 years

[hoapres]

2011 is starting off pretty bad in Silicon Valley.  Recruiters are  being laid off due to the lack of production as projects are claimed to be on hold.  More than one recruiter is getting a pay raise by filing for unemployment.  More than one agency owner reluctantly admits that "Yes you can claim us you told us that the January 2011 hiring was not going to happen and you have been proven right".

Here we go again.

Just like 2010, 2009.  The project is on hold for at least 3 months.  The end result is nobody gets hired on the project for all of 2011.

[nobody]

For me, rejections are up.     Just this week I recieved two email rejections from companies I applied to last summer and never heard from.

Since I'm in a contract gig now, I re-emphasized my OpenVMS background on my resume and reposted it to Dice.  A couple days ago got a call from a recruiter that my DH answered.  When he relayed the message to me, he said she had a VMS job.  I called her back yesterday:  she said it's a security administration job.... on unix...  and requires programming skills... (obviously reading from an old copy of my resume) you have PHP, Cobol, and assembler, this sounds like a good fit for you.  I politely declined.  Too many flaming, flapping red flags.  Security administration that includes programming?  Cobol on Unix?  She clearly had no clue what the words meant but was reading from a script.  The sad thing is that she was not an Indian recruiter, sounded American.

Oh, and I had to explain to her what VMS was.  All the tricks that Hoapres warns us about, right?

[Jadedea]

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Baltar wrote:

- Not even a month in....2011

1) Each day I hate going to work

2) No promotion or chance for moving up

3) Constant failure in multiple face to face interviews and blatent racism (carrying over from late 2010 until now)

4) Suicidal thoughts are running through my head each day

I have been thinking of possibly doing contract work in the Middle East or joining the military since my CS degree is worthless. Maybe I will get hit be an IED if I am lucky.

IT...I do it for the insurance coverage....

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join the navy and you can avoid those ieds.