Re: Is the job market really *that* bad? (long)

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

tgr -at- LanMinds -dot- Com wrote:
 
> Many of you have noticed how few staff and contract listings are
> posted on our website, and have written or called to ask 'is the job
> market really that bad?'.
> 
> The quick answer is 'yes, it's that bad'.

The quote article is true, but it's not the whole truth.

Yes, the job market is worse than last year. However,  with all the
media buzz about it, I think some perspective is in order: in many parts
of North America, the job market seems no worse than it was in 1997 or
1998. In other words, it's merely good, no longer insanely great.

And, yes, Southern California seems worse hit than many parts of the
continent. The basic rule seems to be: the bigger the dot.com boom in
the area, the bigger the bust now. However, even in Southern California,
people are finding work. It's not always trendy work, or work that
challenges their abilities, but they're finding it. However, the search
is taking longer: one to three months on the average, instead of as many
weeks.

If you're looking for work, don't expect to see many startups or
dot.coms. Many of the companies who are hiring are doing bread and
butter stuff: hardware, e-commerce, and manufacturing. A recent
Doonesbury cartoon summarized the change as being towards doing "dull,
boring stuff that people want." This sort of high-tech work hasn't
stopped because the glamor jobs are gone. But, if you don't look at the
dull, boring stuff, you're going to miss a lot of the openings.

Similarly, this may not be a bad time to try out contracting, the way
you've always wanted to. Companies seem to be saving costs by hiring
contractors instead of creating full-time positions. So, if you want to
work, maybe you have to change your ideas about what you're looking for.
Why not? It's not as if anything is very permanent anyway. Contract now
and plan on returning to full-time work when the market changes again.
Probably, you won't have more than a couple of months to wait.

Finally, my impression (confirmed by a couple of head-hunters I know) is
that one way that companies are cutting costs is by finding employees
themselves, instead of going through consulting companies or hiring
someone to go through the thousands of applications that posting to a
job site produces. That means that the people who are finding work the
fastest either have connections, or have fallen back on cold calls
instead of letting the head-hunters do the work. That could be one
reason why experienced people are having more success: not so much
because the market is tighter (I suspect that there are still more
writing jobs than qualified people to fill them), but because they have
connections, or know how to look for work on their own. 

-- 
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"And if I grow old someday I may rue
The loss of a dream soft and pretty
But they couldn't scare me with the fires of hell
And you can't scare me with pity."
-The Mollys, "Came for a Dance"

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