What's wrong with the market?

[Tony Hammitt]

I think that the market is probably picking up, but it has a long way to go.

Someone in Hal's linked article said that the situation is Darwinian and that's
about right.  What isn't surviving are unfit projects more than unfit people.
Let's face it, some of these projects that are terminating are because they are
completely unworkable.  ION is the posterboy here, 3000 employees, 4000 clients????

I wish I had a bigger budget, because I have an enormous amount of work to do
but I can't hire anyone else.  I could pick up another really good person and
reduce my workload a little, but we don't have the money (or the space, but
that's another issue).  We even have a really cool Linux project coming up, so
boredom isn't a problem.  Maybe I can hire someone next year, after the project
is done...

I think I got about 50 resume's for a one-day, two inch ad in the Star that I
wouldn't have run at all if I would have remembered the job situation of one
of the LUG members...

So, those of you feeling cynical about the state of the market are certainly
justified.  The current economy is having second and third level network effects
and now there's no more extra money floating around because everyone else is
tightening their belts.  This country only works if we all buy stuff from
each other.

However, I think that the market was markedly worse a few months ago.  I hear
that consumer spending is going up, but it hasn't caught up with the retail
channel overstocks from the disappointing holiday seasons, so it probably won't
help all that much for a while.  Kind of like the Gulf war, we fought with
parts and munitions out of stockpiles and didn't replenish the supplies, so the
economy didn't benefit (neither did the political situation in the Gulf...).

I'm kind of rambling, but it seemed like you wanted to discuss things and my
boss is off today, so I'm taking a break.

See some of you tonight,

	Tony

Bradley Miller wrote:
> 
> >BTW... what's wrong with the market?
> 
> Anyone want to explore this question further?  KC Star Careers section is
> down to four or five columns in Sunday paper for IT jobs.  Sad.
> 
> -- Bradley Miller