Comments on: Study: 400,000 IT jobs lost since 2001

Nearly half of those jobs disappeared after the recession's official end, with San Francisco and Boston being hit the hardest.

[MyLord]

Weren't 500,000 lost in 2002 alone?

Different studies offer different results but are uniform in their bleakness. One amusing note was when California suggested banning state offshoring, one objection was these jobs were too high paying. I guess we only want to keep the low paying ones, ;-).

[MyLord]

Weren't 500,000 lost in 2002 alone?

Different studies offer different results but are uniform in their bleakness. One amusing note was when California suggested banning state offshoring, one objection was these jobs were too high paying. I guess we only want to keep the low paying ones, ;-).

[il2rb]

I know of several such cases!

I was one of several people that I know that have been laid off from an IT job, and could not find anything else. Eventually, most of my friends had to give up on IT positions and moved into other fields. Luckily most of them had actually come from different fields in the first place, before coming into IT several years ago.

For me, I was really stuck since I started out in the IT or tech field and that's where I've been for 16+ years. My only option was to take a much lower paying job that was about 4 positions lower then where I was at. There just isn't anything available for those of us that were in so called middle-management IT jobs or similar.

It took me over 6 months to find a job, which is the longest it's ever taken me! I had never been unemployed for more then a week prior to this (at that time I had been in the industry 15+ years and had worked for 6 different companies). It is getting very rough out there. Jobs are limited. Competition is incredible and cut throat. I lost out several times due to salary requirements. There are many out there that are much younger then me, with no family to support that were willing to take literally half the pay.

It's almost getting to the point where most IT positions no longer pay enough to support those of us who are older with families (unless you have a spouse who is rich or has a high paying job). And it was VERY clear to me in all of the interviews and jobs I went after that a) college degree meant nothing (so much for that BS degree I slaved over and am still paying on). b) Overall experience meant nothing, just experience on the latest version of product. c) Nothing else matters. All they seemed to care about was how much I knew about the latest and greatest product (which in my case with 16+ years of experience in this industry and having been in a management position for the last couple of years, my deep technology skills where a little light on the latest versions). They could care less even though I had the ability to learn the new version very quickly, just given the opportunity. They could care less that I had worked with numerous previous versions of the products for years on end. Experience with project management, people management, troubleshooting, etc, etc, none of that mattered. Why else would an 18 year old high school drop out with an MCSE win the job over me?? It?s just crazy!

This has been a very humbling and disappointing experience. My conclusion, IT jobs are no longer for the mature, experienced, family oriented professional. It's now a commodity open to the lowest bidder. It?s a real shame that the IT industry has come to this. I don't blame just outsourcing overseas for this new wave, but also corporations themselves and the push to save every IT dollar. They sacrifice experience and stability just to save a few bucks.

At 34, I feel like a dinosaur trying to compete in a market made up of nimble little carnivores that are much faster then I. Eventually, yes I did find a job. But I had to take a very serious pay cut to do so, as well as take several steps down in positions. I'm now at the same position level as I was 8 years ago, but that's all I could find. It is strange working for someone much younger and less experienced then me, but that?s the world we live in now. I know that I'm not the only one with this same experience. Several of my old co-workers have been through the same, as I mentioned earlier. Most of them had to leave the industry all together. Today one of them is a CPA, another is a restaurant manager, another is a store assistant manager for a Wal-Mart, another is a financial advisor (he had an MBA), and another owns his own food franchise business.

This whole thing has been a horrifying experience. And even though I have a job today, I don't know how long it will last or what the future holds for me. This past year has been a real test for my family and I. We went through some pretty hard times, loosing just about everything (retirement funds, house, kid's college funds, savings, car, almost my marriage, just about everything). It will take us years to get back to where we were financially, if ever.

The biggest goal for me now is to figure out how to leave the IT field. It's clear there is no future for me here, and I believe things are getting worse and not better. I am trying to figure out where else I can go, what else I can do. What other types of careers can an IT person change over to? I know that I have to find something different, and soon...

All I can say, it's a real shame what this industry has come to. Really a shame... And to those of you who are managers or responsible for hiring IT personnel, I urge you to look beyond the "latest and greatest" and look at the whole picture of a candidate. Just because I may not know Windows 2003 VERY deeply, my 16+ years of Windows experience and deep skills in Win2k is STILL valuable experience and I DO have the ability to learn things quickly so it wouldn't take long to learn Win2k3 as well...

For those of you in my position, I wish you the best and I hope you find something, and soon. For those of you thinking about going into IT... DON'T! Go be a Dr or lawyer or something else. I don't know what, but it's bound to be better then IT!

Best Wishes,

-----------------
HobNoggin Fodder, the best Blog on the web
http://hobnoggin.b-logging.com

[il2rb]

I know of several such cases!

I was one of several people that I know that have been laid off from an IT job, and could not find anything else. Eventually, most of my friends had to give up on IT positions and moved into other fields. Luckily most of them had actually come from different fields in the first place, before coming into IT several years ago.

For me, I was really stuck since I started out in the IT or tech field and that's where I've been for 16+ years. My only option was to take a much lower paying job that was about 4 positions lower then where I was at. There just isn't anything available for those of us that were in so called middle-management IT jobs or similar.

It took me over 6 months to find a job, which is the longest it's ever taken me! I had never been unemployed for more then a week prior to this (at that time I had been in the industry 15+ years and had worked for 6 different companies). It is getting very rough out there. Jobs are limited. Competition is incredible and cut throat. I lost out several times due to salary requirements. There are many out there that are much younger then me, with no family to support that were willing to take literally half the pay.

It's almost getting to the point where most IT positions no longer pay enough to support those of us who are older with families (unless you have a spouse who is rich or has a high paying job). And it was VERY clear to me in all of the interviews and jobs I went after that a) college degree meant nothing (so much for that BS degree I slaved over and am still paying on). b) Overall experience meant nothing, just experience on the latest version of product. c) Nothing else matters. All they seemed to care about was how much I knew about the latest and greatest product (which in my case with 16+ years of experience in this industry and having been in a management position for the last couple of years, my deep technology skills where a little light on the latest versions). They could care less even though I had the ability to learn the new version very quickly, just given the opportunity. They could care less that I had worked with numerous previous versions of the products for years on end. Experience with project management, people management, troubleshooting, etc, etc, none of that mattered. Why else would an 18 year old high school drop out with an MCSE win the job over me?? It?s just crazy!

This has been a very humbling and disappointing experience. My conclusion, IT jobs are no longer for the mature, experienced, family oriented professional. It's now a commodity open to the lowest bidder. It?s a real shame that the IT industry has come to this. I don't blame just outsourcing overseas for this new wave, but also corporations themselves and the push to save every IT dollar. They sacrifice experience and stability just to save a few bucks.

At 34, I feel like a dinosaur trying to compete in a market made up of nimble little carnivores that are much faster then I. Eventually, yes I did find a job. But I had to take a very serious pay cut to do so, as well as take several steps down in positions. I'm now at the same position level as I was 8 years ago, but that's all I could find. It is strange working for someone much younger and less experienced then me, but that?s the world we live in now. I know that I'm not the only one with this same experience. Several of my old co-workers have been through the same, as I mentioned earlier. Most of them had to leave the industry all together. Today one of them is a CPA, another is a restaurant manager, another is a store assistant manager for a Wal-Mart, another is a financial advisor (he had an MBA), and another owns his own food franchise business.

This whole thing has been a horrifying experience. And even though I have a job today, I don't know how long it will last or what the future holds for me. This past year has been a real test for my family and I. We went through some pretty hard times, loosing just about everything (retirement funds, house, kid's college funds, savings, car, almost my marriage, just about everything). It will take us years to get back to where we were financially, if ever.

The biggest goal for me now is to figure out how to leave the IT field. It's clear there is no future for me here, and I believe things are getting worse and not better. I am trying to figure out where else I can go, what else I can do. What other types of careers can an IT person change over to? I know that I have to find something different, and soon...

All I can say, it's a real shame what this industry has come to. Really a shame... And to those of you who are managers or responsible for hiring IT personnel, I urge you to look beyond the "latest and greatest" and look at the whole picture of a candidate. Just because I may not know Windows 2003 VERY deeply, my 16+ years of Windows experience and deep skills in Win2k is STILL valuable experience and I DO have the ability to learn things quickly so it wouldn't take long to learn Win2k3 as well...

For those of you in my position, I wish you the best and I hope you find something, and soon. For those of you thinking about going into IT... DON'T! Go be a Dr or lawyer or something else. I don't know what, but it's bound to be better then IT!

Best Wishes,

-----------------
HobNoggin Fodder, the best Blog on the web
http://hobnoggin.b-logging.com

400k IT jobs lost...

With the loss of 400,000 IT jobs goes 20+ billion dollars of income and 10 billion or so in tax revenue. The replacement jobs, often service-related, don't make up for the loss of income, for either the individual or for the governments which rely on income tax revenue.
The result is bigger deficits; and a tax burden that is shouldered by fewer and fewer. And as long as we have tax-breaks given to the top 1%, the disproportionate burden falls on those who can afford it the least.
Yes, services and goods will be cheaper, temporarily, but the long-term affect is to convert the US' economy into a third-world economy, where a large portion of the population cannot afford even the less-expensive things.

400k IT jobs lost...

With the loss of 400,000 IT jobs goes 20+ billion dollars of income and 10 billion or so in tax revenue. The replacement jobs, often service-related, don't make up for the loss of income, for either the individual or for the governments which rely on income tax revenue.
The result is bigger deficits; and a tax burden that is shouldered by fewer and fewer. And as long as we have tax-breaks given to the top 1%, the disproportionate burden falls on those who can afford it the least.
Yes, services and goods will be cheaper, temporarily, but the long-term affect is to convert the US' economy into a third-world economy, where a large portion of the population cannot afford even the less-expensive things.