Tech Employment Down, Not Out

8/8/2019 Tech Employment Down, Not Out

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JOB SEARCH

Even for an industry used to ups and downs, the current slump is a big one. But there arestill bright spots in certain sectors of the tech market.

Tech Employment Down, Not Out

By Kevin Fogarty

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS have oneadvantage over people from other disciplines in an econo-

my in which layoffs are common and jobs arent: Theyre used

to it.

The technology sector is more prone to bubbles and busts

than most others, for one thing. And even in good times,theres always a chance youll be laid off for being associatedwith the wrong generation of technology.

In the technology world, theres always another opportunitycoming in over the horizon, often crushing the previous op-portunity and ousting the people whose jobs relied on it. IBM

and Microsoft, for example, have each announced layoffsof more than 5,000 workers, but each also has thousands ofopen jobs for which they continue to hire. The new jobs areoften not in the same technology area as the old jobs, however,

a technique IBM executives describe as adapting companyresources to match the requirements of the market.

Of course, no technology and no technology skill is ever

completely obsolete, no matter how dead its declared bythe next generation. Every new technology builds on andborrows from its predecessors, so skills can migrate.

And few obsolete systems never completely disappear.No matter how old or clunky the technology, some company

somewhere depends so heavily on it that theyll pay what ittakes to keep it running and keep people on staff who know

how to keep the system from dying altogether.

So the basic advice recruiters and career coaches are giv-ing is the same guidance they always give during dips in IT

spending or employment: Make sure your skills are current;focus on the ones that can cut costs or increase revenue; anddo your research to gure out not only which companies are

hiring but which industries are expanding and increasing theirreliance on technology.

Medical IT jobs on the rise

The medical industry is automating; modernizing; andupdating its slow, complicated systems so quickly that thedemand from medical companies for IT help is far above that

of manufacturing, for example, according to Dave Willmer,executive director of RH Technology, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based IT division of recruitment giant Robert Half Interna-tional.

Overall demand for full-time positions in IT is not asstrong as it was six to 12 months ago, thats true. And com-panies are looking more to contracting to complete their IT

projects to try to manage overall budget and headcount,

Willmer said.

IN THIS PACKAGE:

Hired! How Software Consultant Found Full-time WorkPage 2

Hired! Persistence Pays off with Data-Storage Job Page 3

In a Cool Economy, Where are the Tech Hot Spots? Page 5

Interviewing Skills for Technology ProfessionalsPage 5

Editors note:This article was originally available to attendees of TheLadders technology-industry careerevent held in New York on Mar. 10, 2009. For information on future career events from TheLadders,[email protected].
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Page 2 Tech Employment Down, Not Out

Lindsay Olson, partner and recruiter at Paradigm Stafng

of New York, which specializes in technology and market-ing/sales/PR, agrees but shes still optimistic.

[Demand for IT jobs] is down, but were seeing a lot more[stafng needs] in the technology sector than in fashion mar-keting, for example, said.Olson. There is still targeted hiringgoing on out there.

Its true that technology hiring is ongoing. Yet thenumber of full-time IT positions for which compa-nies are actively recruiting has dropped 80 percentcompared to 2007, according to a survey conductedin December by the Computing Technology Indus-try of America (CompTIA).

The survey showed that in 2007, responding com-panies had an average of four open IT positionsfor which they were actively recruiting. This yearthey had only one. CompTIA conducts the surveyevery other year; the most recent edition, which surveyed 710

companies, will come out this month.

On the other hand, the overall unemployment rate forsoftware engineers is under 2 percent, Willmer said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent employmentdata shows monthly job losses for IT workers that averagearound 3 percent. That percentage is dwarfed by the some-times-double-digit drops in employment in other industries,but thats small comfort to individual job seekers.

The average overall unemployment rate was 7.6 percent inJanuary, up from 7.2 percent in December and 4.9 percent a

year earlier.

And, unlike in some harder-hit specialties, declines in payfor technology jobs attened out during the fourth quarter of

last year, according to the Yoh Index of Technology Wages,which has tracked IT pay scales since 2001.

By the end of the third quarter of 2008, IT salaries hadsunk to their lowest levels since 2006, according to Yoh. Theydropped another 2.4 percent during October and Novem-

ber. But by the end of the fourth quarter, they hadrecovered enough to nish out one quarter of one

percent higher than they were at the same timein 2007.

That slight recovery may indicate good things forIT salaries during the rst half of 2009, according

to Yoh, though that trend is still uncertain.

However, this apparent bit of good news concealsa darker truth: Companies trying to save money on

IT salaries just laid people off instead of reducingtheir pay, according to Bill Yoh, president and CEO of the

research company.

The latest data continues to emphasize uncertainty in themarketplace, he said.

VoIP and security jobs opening up

Still, despite the tetchiness of the economy overall, some ITskills remain hotter than others, especially those connectedwith revenue generation or cost savings, Willmer said.

Projects focused on virtualization, voice-over-IP systems,and Web-site management or enhancement are going greatguns, Willmer said.

Willmer

With manage-

ment consulting no

longer viable, Bill

Thomson returned to

his love of marketing

and management ata midsized software

tech frm.

By Karl Rozemeyer

BILL THOMSON KNOWS thatalmost no industry is shieldedfrom recession, even one as vital

and resilient as software develop-

ment. And when youre a consultant,your position may be among themost exposed.

The software developer turnedmarketer was a management con-

sultant at an Atlanta-based heating,ventilation and air-conditioning con-tractor, but work dried up when newbusiness began to slow and severalclients put projects on hold.

Thus, after years of freelance work,Thomson found himself trying to

nd a full-time job in software just as

software jobs became hard to nd.

Not surprisingly, he was worried.

His goal: a permanent job in mar-

keting that drew upon his years as asoftware coder. Optimally, that com-

pany would be in a relatively stablemarket and large enough to with-stand the pressures of an economicdownturn. And on the personalfront, he needed to nd something

near his home in Pompano Beach,Fla., where his daughter is still nish-ing high school.

How Software Consultant Found Full-time Work

HIRED!


3/6

Page 3Tech Employment Down, Not Out

CURTIS BREVILLE GOT A NEW JOBwhen he wouldnttake no for an answer.Looking through job listings on TheLadders last fall, he

came across a position that had detailed requirements for asenior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, a datastorage company in Boulder, Colo. I had just about every

one of those requirements nailed, he said. So I lled outthe application form and attached my resume. Two dayslater, I received an e-mail saying essentially, Thanks, but nothanks, he recalls. The letter said, After looking at yourresume, your experience does not meet our needs. It kind of

ticked me off, he said, laughing.

So the SalesLadder member sent a letter back to the recruit-er that read, After reviewing your needs, Ive determined my

background is very much what you are looking for. He also

Persistence Pays off with

Data-Storage JobCurtis Breville was rejected once for his perfect job, so

he came back armed with the data he needed to score

the position.

By Patty Orsini

The caveat is that many companies are willing to use

contract help to complete those projects, rather than hiringpeople full time, he said.

Security a perennial chart-topper in IT skills surveys is

also in high demand. A 2008 IT skills survey from CompTIAshowed three-quarters of companies surveyed in nine coun-

tries, including the U.S. identied security, rewalls and dataprivacy as being the skills that will be most important to theirorganizations during 2009. Only 57 percent of those organi-zations said they already had enough of those skills in-house.

Theres more in corporate technology and business-to-business type services than in consumer, Olson said. Thereis a lot of interest in Web 2.0 tech, social media, digital mar-keting than in some other areas.

This is not a great market in which to be looking for a job,Wilmer and Olson agree. There arent as many opportunitiesas usual, and there is a lot of competition for the jobs that are

being lled.

If youre focused in your search and up to date in yourskills, though, youre in a much better position as an IT

specialist than people laid off in the rest of thecorporate meltdown.

Stay active, professionally, Willmer said. Do volunteer

work, training online, whatever you need to do. The last thingyou want is to end up competing against someone you wereequivalent to six months ago, but that person kept up hisskills and you didnt.

Thomson had moved from software

coding to software product market-ing in the mid-1990s after seeing toomany great products developed withno business or sales plan in mind.

Via SalesLadder, Thomson wascontacted by ASG Software Solutionsof Naples, Fla., where he is now vice

president of solutions management.

ASG builds software products andservices to help businesses manage in-

formation and operations. ASG seemsa perfect t for Thomson. He is able

to apply both his product-marketingexperience and software savvy. The

location, directly across the Floridapanhandle, allows him to keep hisfamily home while he commutes or

borrows his in-laws part-time home

in Naples. He likes ASGs size 1,300employees and its strong positionwith Fortune 5,000 customers, as wellas a growing international business

fueled by strategic acquisitions. Ihave worked for larger companies andsmaller companies, and the mid-size

[rm] seems to be a really good t for

what I can contribute.

Thomson said ASG is focusing

marketing and operations on custom-ers in a variety of verticals, with helpfrom a substantial direct-sales force.Many times we need to understand

the companys issues, and the compa-nys application of technology and thespecic problems that industry might

have. Thus, he recommended that

anyone interested in moving into salesor marketing of software solutionsseek out a company that is looking tobranch into vertical industries: There

is a great opportunity to try to makethat transition.

Thomson, a graduate of the Ste-

vens Institute of Technology and

Rutgers, learned the business oftechnology early in his career. With

an undergraduate degree in computerscience, Thomson began develop-ing compilers, operating systems anddata-communications software. But

while many of my peers were gettingmore and more into the details of thesystems they were developing, I found

4 See BREVILLE Next Page

HIRED!


4/6


myself trying more and more tounderstand why I was building whatI was building.

He soon found himself gettingincreasingly frustrated with managerson the front end of the process who

instructed him to develop productsthat failed to sell successfully. The

business side of technology in-trigued Thomson and so he crossedover to the business side and fo-

cused on product management andmarketing. And I have pretty muchstuck with that ever since then. I nd

a general-management kind of role

very suitable to my personality: I like

thinking strategically and implement-ing tactically. I like the technologybut also understand the implications

on the business. I like the variousdimensions of the job and essentiallytaking technology and applying it toreal business problems to help them

add value.

created a table that listed its requirements and across from

that, his experience.

For each of their 30 different requirements, I wrote my ex-perience, he said. I fully expected them to say, This guy is

a jerk, but I felt I had to stand up for myself. I was qualied

for this job. The next day, Igot a request for an interview.

And after I received a joboffer, my new boss said thatmy letter proved to them howmuch I wanted the job.

Breville said he had neverdone anything like that beforebut believes it was his experi-

ence in his previous positionthat gave him the condence

to push back.

He had been working fora small, French storage-management company asthe North American sales

manager. I was saying topeople, Hey, weve got aproduct from a small, French

company that youve neverheard of and not getting anyinterest, then trying again and eventually selling it. Once youdo that, it gives you a lot of condence in your ability to sell

something. I had the condence to push, and back up what I

was pushing.

Breville had been working at the companys Denver ofce

for just a year when, this past fall, he suspected it was havingnancial difculties. When the paycheck isnt in the bank

when its supposed to be and expense reports are not paidon time, you see the writing on the wall. Two weeks after

my paycheck wasnt there, I took some proactive steps to x

the situation.

In late October 2008, he started looking for a new job. He

found the job on TheLadders the rst night he looked at the

listings, accepted an offer in November and started his job inDecember.

Breville; his wife; and three children, ages two, four and 11,

had moved to the Denverarea just six months previousso he could work for his pre-

vious employer. Not wantingto uproot his family yet again,Breville made the decision tolimit his search to the Denver

area. A lot of the data-stor-age companies that I wouldlook to for employment are

headquartered here or havemajor ofces here. Plus, we

love Denver; we love beingclose to the mountains. We

wanted to stay in this area.

He was still working for hisprevious employer when he

began his search. And whilehe was a bit nervous aboutthe economy, after doingsome research, I saw jobs that

needed people with my qualications, and that calmed my

nerves.

According to Breville, data storage is a safe eld of em-

ployment. There is never a lack of need for storage, hesaid. No matter how bad things get, companies need tobuy storage. Every company uses it every time a store or

restaurant rings you up, thats a transaction they need to backup. Every day, millions of transactions take place that have tobe saved. Every company that does business is saving its dataI went into this area because I thought it was a high-tech

growth market.

4BREVILLE

4 See BREVILLE Page 6


5/6

Page 5Tech Employment Down, Not Out

Recruiters report that there are still IT jobs out there

but you need to demonstrate the right qualifcations in

the right locations and industries.

By Kevin Fogarty

THIS ECONOMY IS NO PICNIC FOR TECH TALENT but recruiters told TheLadders there are still seats at thetable for candidates with the right skills who are in the rightlocation and the right industries.

For best results, be or become a qualied network architect,

manager or administrator, telecommunications or databasespecialist all of which are in demand, especially in compa-

nies working on VoIP and Web enhancement projects, saidDave Willmer, executive director of RH Technology, the

Menlo Park, Calif.-based IT division of recruitment giantRobert Half International. Virtualization, project manage-

ment and data-center skills are also hot, especially for candi-dates who can realize cost savings from data-center consoli-dation projects.

Look in industries that are moving comparatively quicklyon the IT front: healthcare, professional services, businessservices. Be willing to relocate to take a job or look in areas

where IT jobs are particularly common right now, according

to Willmer.

Raleigh-Durham, N.C., is unusually hot right now, and isunderappreciated as a technology center, Willmer said. Texas

(especially the Dallas/Ft. Worth area) and some parts of NewEngland (mainly Boston) are also stronger than most.

Get up to speed not just on social networking but the tech-

nology behind it. Knowing how to build and maintain a goodcommunity site and support social-networking marketingefforts and Web 2.0 projects can land you a job, said LindsayOlson, partner and recruiter at Paradigm Stafng, a New

York company that specializes in technology and marketing/sales/PR.

Be careful to verify whether companies are approaching

you for full-time positions or contract gigs, Willmer said.Many companies are relying on contract hires during theselean times.

Thats not necessarily a bad thing; a lot of people are get-ting through a period of unemployment with a string oftemporary contract jobs. By working with former employers,

current colleagues or recruiters, skilled IT professionals cannd contract work that could last anywhere from a few days

to several months, Willmer said.

THOUGH THE OLD STEREOTYPE of a socially awk-ward, poorly dressed techie no longer dominates,recruiters say that, even at the six-gure level, residualeffects remain.

Speaking in tech-ese, or using too many technical termsin an interview with people who may not share their back-ground, was a common recruiter concern for candidates insearch of technology jobs. A lot of them know their stuffbut need guidance as to their interpersonal skills. Some arejust used to interacting with other technology profession-als, but are now in roles that make it necessary for them to

interact with everyone. Even with cutting edge technologyskills, they still need to learn to speak in plain English tonon-techies, said Harold Laslo, a stafng specialist at theAldan Troy Group in New York.

Its no secret that technology evolves rapidly. In a eldwhere staying on top of the latest technology changes anddevelopments is essential, Laslo says that he will always askcandidates how they plan to stay up to date. They may haveskills with a technology that reached its peak two, three orfour years ago, but a candidate can be left behind if theyhavent adapted their skills since then.

Interviewing Skills for Technology Professionals

In a Cool Economy, Where Are the Tech Hot Spots?


6/6


Initially, Breville was looking for a position in either salesor marketing. And he saw several jobs in that area. But whenhe saw the listing for the analyst position at EMA, he saw ajob where he could use all his experience: technical, customer

relationship, management and sales.

All that experience comes together in his new position, inwhich he looks at trends to predict where the market will go

and what customers will be asking for. People are paying for

your opinion, he said. Vendors of storage products con-tact them to hear me talk about their products and provideinformation that might help them produce or market it better.

Im helping companies rene their messages, let them know

if they are on target for what the market is asking for. I helpthem with research and development, so they can start com-

ing up with new products and solutions.

He also works with consumers who use his company asindustry technology experts. Were not selling hardwareor software; were just helping them gure out the types of

products they need.

In the end, Breville said he is happy he made the change.His former company is still in business, but he feels better

working for a bigger, more stable company. His previouscompany had a terric product, it was sorely overlooked,

and it got hard hit by the economy. The company is stillaround; it restructured, and is now about one-quarter the

size they were before I left. If I didnt have young kids ifthey were older and had moved out and if I didnt have amortgage, I could have taken a risk with paychecks coming in

late. But right now, Im at a time in my life where I couldntdo that.

4BREVILLE

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Tech Employment Down, Not Out