Microsoft, Amid Dwindling Interest, Talks Up Computing as a Career

New York Times ^ | March 1, 2004 | Steve Lohr

[dfwgator]

When I read stories like this, I am actually encouraged, that means there is going to be less competition, and all of the pretenders and wannabes will be long gone. Eventually there are going to be so many IT projects, that there is no way that even offshore resources are going to be enough.

What we had was a glut of projects in the late 90s due to Y2K and the growth of the Internet. It was inevitable that it was going to scale back after 2000, on top of that the dot bombs. The downturn in the overall economy meant that projects that were on the table were cut back, unless they had some ridiculous ROI to justify it. There have been a tremendous backlog of projects and as the economy improves more and more will be approved, by then managers will be begging people to come on board. Keep the faith, I love what I do, and that is why I stay in the game even in the lean times. Sometimes I have to give away my work, and consulting for free. That's the way it goes sometimes, and in any entreprenuerial venture (and like it or not, we are all entrepreneurs now) you have to plan for the down times, and save during the good times.

[dirtboy]

Had a choice. And you're gonna lose it when I tell you what programming langauage is involved. Foxpro 2.6. Yep, there's money to be made in them thar legacy systems. A company needed someone to code some changes and, even more important, test everything because their QA Department doesn't do DOS any longer. The coding's the easy part - I can do that in my sleep.

I would have passed up the contract if it was just programming - but this way I can be responsible for the entire QA process without a bunch of nitwits imposing QA processes that aren't relevant. And it's a highly mission critical system, so I've gotta get it right.

[Poohbah]

When I hear some of the folks I worked with during the 1998-2000 timeframe complaining that they can't get work, I must admit that I fail to see the problem.

These folks were the ones you made sure stayed the hell away from a production machine.

[FoxPro]

And you're gonna lose it when I tell you what programming langauage is involved. Foxpro 2.6.

Losing it, 498y2qcpo987qtcybp9oayn2p9!!!!!!!!!!

Do you also get hit by lightning once in a while?

I have sent out 20,000 resumes in the last year, nothing. I have given up. I have $25,000 squirreled away, I am waiting this one out. I can go another year on that. Hell, I can eat quite well for $5 a day.

I am doing a lot of writing now. I have a piece running in the Washington Business Journal next month, about, you guessedit, outsourcing. I also have a couple of systems being developed in Moscow. Thats another $10,000.

I am actually thinking about writing a book about outsourcing. Not the economics of it, but a book on how it is actually done on a real world basis.