"this economy" (was Re: [geeks] Ultra 2)

[Chris Byrne]

If you really wanna know how good the market is for experienced people in
the right areas just take a look at the listings on major job sies. Or even
better post your resume and see how many recruiters call.

I posted my resume on Irish sites only making it very clear that I was only
interested in working in Ireland, and I've had at least half a dozen
Virginia, North Carolina, California, New York, Boston, and Texas positions
emailed to me every workday since.

I've talked to a LOT of recruiters over the past month and almost to a man
they're looking for experienced and "good" UNIX admins and architects,
security admins and architects, DBAs, storage people, senior C/C++
developers and project managers, and Novell admins. I was surprised at that
one actually I thought all these guys had pretty good relatively secure jobs
that they'd never leave or get fired from. If the companies were going to
drop novell they would have done so already, and there's almost no totally
new installations going in.

Now the salaries arent what you'd be getting two years ago, the benefits are
back down to normal corporate america type levels, and they arent willing to
relocate people very much anymore, but the market is definitely very
healthy.

ALl that being said, companies are using the PERCEPTION that the market
isn't healthy to cover up for poor revenues, bad management etc...

They are using it as an excuse to get rid of higher paid people as well as
really low grade entry level people and the generally useless middle
management structure. That I can accept.

What I can't accept is that they're also using it as an excuse to really
lowball some very good people out there. Recruiters are being pushed out
listing with salaries that are honestly just far too low for the level of
experience they are wanting. A lot of companies think they can used the
percieved bad job market to pick up some bargains, and they are probably
right. Most people never really take a good look at wehat they are worth to
an employer and so when they get a number put in fornt of them, if it's
enough to pay their bills and make them comfortable, will take it without
negotiation, especially if they feel nervous about the market.

Just as an example, I've been seeing senior UNIX or full system+network
admin positoions with requested 5+ years experience with a salary on offer
of 35k. I made more than that in my first junior admin job. That's the
salary I'd expect to see a small city offer a mid level admin, not a good
sized company offer a senior one.

Chris Byrne

> -----Original Message-----
> From: geeks-admin at sunhelp.org [mailto:geeks-admin at sunhelp.org]On Behalf
> Of Fogg, James
> Sent: 27 April 2002 03:40
> To: 'geeks at sunhelp.org'
> Subject: RE: "this economy" (was Re: [geeks] Ultra 2)
>
>
> I'd have to agree that in some areas the economy is definatly biting the
> bag. Central PA is probably the worst. I'm a refuge (but not a
> native) from
> PA, and there are some others on the list from that area that
> have been less
> than fully employed. I really love NH, and wanted to live here
> all my life,
> but I didn't have any plans to jump out of PA until I found myself
> chronically unemployed.
>
> I'd agree that Waltham and the Route 128 and Route 495 belts in Mass are
> booming again. I can make it into Waltham in 1.5 hours, so if things puke
> here I'll commute so I can stay in NH. NH is one of the fastest
> growing tech
> areas in the country, but its growing from near zero (except for south NH,
> which is a totaly different mindset from where I live in the
> Upper Valley).
> I just pray I can hang onto what I got until things are more sure here.