Forum Moderators: mack
It does not really give much encouragement for future financial stability for an individual especially when it comes to purchasing your home etc. How do IT people really cope? The only usefulness of knowing IT is that perhaps you could start up your own business.
Surely, it must affect yourself esteem if you dont really have business initiative skills and need to work for a company of which their contract with another company is always brought into question about further renewal.
I would like some comments please
Flo from london.
I was at home on a weekday and all i saw on TV between the talkshows were advertisements for these 'colleges' which i've never heard of to get your degree to become a 'animationer' ;)
"If you're good at what you do and really skilled you'll have a job"
I'm not convinced. As Flo pointed out, sometimes these things are influenced by external factors (Market demand, the skill of the sales/marketing team in the company you are in now (if you are in a delivery role), etc. I agree that "if you are good at what you do and really skilled" it improves your chances, however that is not enough, and sometimes that is not even the most important. What is sometimes more important are things such as your customer service, flexibility, commitment, how you work with customers or team mates, etc.
When it comes to contract vs permamnent, I don't think it really makes that much of a difference to job security in today's climate. If the company is doing well, and you do a good job, contracts get renewed. If the company is not doing well, then having a permanent job means nothing.
"...it must affect yourself esteem ..."Before I had my own company, I never measured my self esteem based on the overall performance of the company I was working for; just based on my own performance. So if I or my team delivered high quality, and the customer was happy and we brought in lots of revenue, then I'd feel great. If I stuffed up and made a customer unhappy, I'd learn from it, try to fix it. But if the company was performing poorly because of stupid marketing strategies that I had no control over, no way would I let it affect my self esteem.
Shawn
NO.
No additional comment necessary. If you think your job is secure your deluding yourself.
Everybody underneath this is moving with the market forces that be.
I have had clients come to us with websites done for a six-pack of beer or simply for free because a brother in law or nephew told them it is so easy to make an excellent website. In looking at the code I just scrap everything and start over. Not to mention everything else that goes with a website such as SEO etc and etc.
Then there is the problem of so much work going overseas for 1/10th the pay and no benefits to asian programmers. Pretty hard to compete with that. I see the future of the american worker: it is living in mud huts like much of the rest of the world while the select few live in their mansions with overflowing bank accounts. Look around you. That is the basic trend over the last 25-years and it is only getting worse. These days, an excellent job in America often has barely a livable wage - and that is if you are a single person, never mind raising a family and buying a home. Did you know that right now 10% of Americans own 90% of the wealth? Its true!
Nope - If I were younger and just starting out I would not go into IT. You know what is hot? Its the medical field. With an aging population medical care will always be in growing demand. More importantly, it will be difficult to pimp out medical care to other countrys such as India or China or Mexico as happens to IT work. This means your medical related skills will always be in demand right here in the United States.
Did you know that right now 10% of Americans own 90% of the wealth? Its true!
How is this unusual? :)
I find there's a lot more security in working for a small but established company (they really depend on you and likely won't outsource overseas) than working for yourself or for a large corporation.
Frankly, I'm sick of working altogether.
Seriously though... I think the discussions re "...the problem of so much work going overseas..." and "...the american worker ... living in mud huts..." is a bit out of place in this forum. Flo is describing her experiences in London, and my guess is Caine is from the UK too. I am from Sydney. Paul is from South Africa. I had a customer in the Philippines, an offshore outsourcer of software development, similar to the many Indian companies, and he has had to make a whole lot of his staff redundant. The down-turn in the economy is global, and is not limited to IT.
Shawn
As a career civil servant (27 years) I can confidently state that there is no longer any security in civil service. I have been forced to relocate to maintain a job 3 times in 5 years. I'm really getting too old for this. Ready to take a pension and do some contract work on the side for supplemental income.
NO job is secure, and no benefit package is guaranteed. But, if you are doing something that you enjoy, it is hard to consider it work. Choose your livelihood because you enjoy it, not because it offers wealth or security.
WBF
I'd been looking for web development/design work in London since January of this year, but didn't even get a look in for interviews until I started volunteering in the web department of an organisation. Once this practical experience was on my CV, I started getting interviews for every job I applied for. Now I've been offered a paid position. Volunteering shows commitment to the industry in uncertain times. Also, don't limit yourself to specific web DESIGN positions - try other roles that will give you a foot in the web door - such as web administrator, web editor, web marketer etc. Remember to check out the Guardian on Mondays and Thursdays, as well as online job sites eg Monster, Jobserve and Spring.
All the best,
O.
Thanks for that comment. But can you tell me what sort of pay do they tend to pay webdesigners and/or web programmers. I understand that they dont earn as much as they used to.
Flo from London
Thanks for that information.
Flo from London
