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Good observations - remember Frontpage and Access skills going for $100k+? Chief Technology Officer positions straight out of college? Know how to do a powerpoint presentation and use technical jargon....you're hired!

Now those people try to get real jobs and they find they don't have the skills or experience - they just got worked to the bone and dropped went their company stock tanked. "But I'm an IT professional...." so are lots of other folks with solid credentials. It's competitive out there nowadays.

The biggest fools were the investors who thought they were tech-savvy, but we all paid the price.

Sounds like you weathered the storm.

The biggest fools were the investors who thought they were tech-savvy, but we all paid the price.

Sounds like you weathered the storm.

*sigh*, Oh, I avoided the worst of it, basically because I am so damned OLD, and have seen booms and busts before, but a couple of my 401(k) funds were invested more heavily in dot.bombs than I realized, and got "adjusted" to the extent that I can pretty much forget a traditional retirement. Ah well, I don't fish and I am bad at golf.

But I feel I am truly blessed for this reason: I love my work. (What if I _hated_ it and was in this position?!!)

"Paging Doctor Kevorkian!"

That's market economics as demonstrated in IT. I first really saw it in the early 90s when folks were getting 80K (10 years ago) to maintain a simple Novell LAN. New LAN OS technology and LAN administration tools made those jobs doable by the admin assistant or by an entry level tech in the 30K range. To get that kind of money as a network tech these days you have to have to be into many things that didn't even exist in 1993.

And certainly we are all subject to the business cycle; and we are more vulnerable to that cycle when it is distorted by events like the technology bubble of the late 90s - an abnormally higher flight often guarantees an abnormally deeper decent.

My own place in IT is much earlier than the implementation and operation/maintenance described in most of the preceding posts. I'm a business process analyst and work across multiple technologies, creating or redesigning business processes and writing the requirements for enabling technology. One of my most valuable skills is a command of the English language. I know what things mean and can clearly interpret what folks want and need in a new process and system. I've had my share of unemployment too but am doing well as an independent consultant right now.

Remember Frontpage and Access skills going for $100k+? Chief Technology Officer positions straight out of college? Know how to do a powerpoint presentation and use technical jargon....you're hired!LOL LOL LOL! Yeah, it's ridiculous. I got into the field on that kind of scam - got tired of working in slave pits but didn't have the patience for more school, so I bravo sierra'ed my way into IT. Now I've got a few years' real experience, and I'm sitting pretty at a consulting company that is actually expanding its market share.

Just goes to show that education is fine, but in Americs, Bravo Sierra can get you much, much farther.