What's wrong with the market?

[Dustin Decker]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, mike neuliep wrote:

> ----- Message Text -----
> Heh I'll tell you what's wrong with the market:  I'm a highly certified   
> and experienced network engineer and unix admin.  I have solaris admin    
> cert, ccnp cert (working on ccie) and many other certs.  Combined with ten
> years experience I should in theory be employable just about anywhere 
> within an IT organization.  In reality I've been out of work since 
> January, only been on three interviews, everyone thought my salary 
> expectations were too high at 60k/year when in fact at my previous job I  
> was making closer to 80k/year.  Companies don't like to hire the 
> unemployed, they'd rather hired away from another company.  The longer I'm
> out of work the more it is going to hurt me in the job search.  I am 
> seriously starting to think this whole industry is for the birds.
> 
> So at this point if someone calls and offers me a job, that's great, but I
> don't realistically expect to get an IT job this year in the industry.

While I haven't nearly the level of certifications that you have Mike, I 
can certainly sympathize with you on this.  I found myself out of work 
three days before Christmas about four years ago, and remained without 
work until March.  What I had to do in the end was make a lowball salary 
request in the mid 40's and get my foot in the door.  I've enjoyed 
salary increases of 15% like clockwork every year since then, although 
this year might be a different story.

It might be too quick to decide to cut and run, moving into math.  This 
is obviously a personal call - if you love math and can deal with the 
pay cut, I say go.  If you love IT however, it might be advantageous to 
push your "I give up" dates a little further back and see what happens 
if you lower your salary requirements by say $10K.  (God, what a 
terrible thing to have to recommend - I wish we weren't having this 
discussion, it makes me nervous!)

I wish I could see the future - of course we all do I guess.  I'd love 
to know where my career will be in the next five years.  I certainly 
wouldn't care, however, if I knew of a stock that would return 125% or 
better in a few months.  <grin>

Dustin

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