09 Feb How to find a great IT job in a bad economy
John Senne is one of the lucky ones. He got the news that his team at Torex, a global point-of-sale systems provider based in Chicago, was being eliminated in mid-January. Senne, who supported the sales group by building demos of POS systems for potential new accounts, went home that night and logged onto his Facebook account. “Damn, damn, damn,” he wrote. “I’m getting laid off at the end of the month.”
The following morning, an e-mail marked URGENT was in his inbox. “It was an offer from my former boss at FTD to come back and work for him,” he said. Although his new job at the flower delivery giant has not yet been defined, Senne knows he dodged a bullet. “I’m not going to miss a single day of work,” he said. “I feel a little embarrassed talking to people who have been laid off and have no prospects, but it shows that if you work hard and keep up a good rapport with people, that it pays off.”
Many aren’t so fortunate. After holding its own despite the economic turmoil plaguing other industries, IT employment finally plummeted in December. According to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses, which tracks these numbers every month, the economy lost 34,000 IT jobs in November — a drop of 0.87 percent, representing the most serious monthly decline in more than three years. “The fact that IT employment continues to outperform the general employment marketplace is small consolidation for those who have been affected,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of the NACCB.
So, what to do if you’re one of the ones unlucky enough to have been tapped to leave the building? Here’s some advice from people in the trenches.
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