IT job market advice (job offer, employees, credit, unemployment)

[bchris02]

I have an Information Technology degree I completed last December. I didn't have any experience during college, but landed a job right out of college and worked 10 months until I was laid off due to the credit crunch. Now IT was a cool market even when the economy was good - it never fully recovered from the dot-com crash in 2000. I would think that today - given the current economic conditions, my chances of landing another job in IT will be very slim if even possible at all especially since I have relatively little experience.

How bad actually is the IT job market right now? What would be my best course of action to take now?

I am currently couped up living with my parents so I am desperate to find something, even if it means getting out of IT if thats whats necessary for this job market.

Thanks for any replies.

[djkkt6]

The IT job market isn't bad at all. It's certainly not as good as it was this time last year, in terms of number of open positions, but it's still a relatively safe industry.

I can't comment on the Fort Smith, AR area at all, but here in St. Louis things are good. Your lack of experience shouldn't be too big of a concern, provided that your salary expectations match up with the level of experience.

If you haven't done so already, do some research, find out who the top IT staffing firms are in your area, call in to them and ask to speak to one of their senior recruiters. More and more companies are hiring contractors rather than permanent employees. If you're in IT and you're anti-staffing firm, you're just setting yourself up for failure.

How long have you been out of work? What exactly do you do?

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by djkkt6

The IT job market isn't bad at all. It's certainly not as good as it was this time last year, in terms of number of open positions, but it's still a relatively safe industry.

I can't comment on the Fort Smith, AR area at all, but here in St. Louis things are good. Your lack of experience shouldn't be too big of a concern, provided that your salary expectations match up with the level of experience.

If you haven't done so already, do some research, find out who the top IT staffing firms are in your area, call in to them and ask to speak to one of their senior recruiters. More and more companies are hiring contractors rather than permanent employees. If you're in IT and you're anti-staffing firm, you're just setting yourself up for failure.

How long have you been out of work? What exactly do you do?

I have been out of work about two weeks. I was a mainframe COBOL programmer for a retail chain's HQ in Little Rock, AR. I've looked in the newspaper for jobs in regional cities, and all of them are wanting far more experience than I have.

Fort Smith, AR is a small rural retirement town where my parents live and its isolated far from any major economic center. I have no intentions on staying here, and even if I could, there is no IT in this area. Relocation is a must for me (which could be a problem in and of itself if employers don't like to hire non-local applicants).

[djkkt6]

Finding a COBOL job is going to be tough. It's a very outdated language that not many companies are using these days. And those that do usually hire the 50 year old people that have been developing in COBOL since it's conception. Which leads me to this question -- how/why did you go down the COBOL path to begin with?

If you're less than a year out of school, you might want to strongly considering going into something else within IT. C# is a hot skillset, though I'm not sure what the market is like for entry level people.

If you're open to relocating, that's a huge plus. You might have to take a contract position to start out. Or maybe several contracts. But I wouldn't be opposed to that at all if I were fresh out of school -- move somewhere, do work for 6 months, then move on to the next contract in another city? Sign me up.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by djkkt6

Finding a COBOL job is going to be tough. It's a very outdated language that not many companies are using these days. And those that do usually hire the 50 year old people that have been developing in COBOL since it's conception. Which leads me to this question -- how/why did you go down the COBOL path to begin with?

The retailer I worked for after graduating still runs their mainframes on COBOL. I planned on staying there for a long time as when they recruited at my school, they stressed job security. Little did they know how bad the economy was going to get. My other job offer was a help-desk position for an oil company in OKC. I would have made less money starting out, but looking back that would have definitely been my better choice.

I am open and actually would prefer to move away from COBOL, but is that possible being that my only experience has been in COBOL?

In addition in regards to contracts, I would prefer something permanent if at all possible.

[djkkt6]

You might have to take a step back in terms of compensation for a short bit -- but since you have only been working for 10 months, that shouldn't be a huge deal, as you probably aren't making much to begin with.

You really NEED to get away from COBOL. Seriously, it's an outdated technology and if that's all you can do in 10 years, you'll be searching for a whole new career altogether. I'm sure you took other classes in college -- go into something else that you learned. You're basically entry level though, and you'll be competing with other entry level people. So if you're asking for more than entry level money, you won't get anywhere.

Keep in mind that these posts are coming from a former recruiter/current account manager for an IT staffing firm. My perspective certainly isn't shared by everyone. But I've seen how things work in this industry; just offering my input.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by djkkt6

You might have to take a step back in terms of compensation for a short bit -- but since you have only been working for 10 months, that shouldn't be a huge deal, as you probably aren't making much to begin with.

You really NEED to get away from COBOL. Seriously, it's an outdated technology and if that's all you can do in 10 years, you'll be searching for a whole new career altogether. I'm sure you took other classes in college -- go into something else that you learned. You're basically entry level though, and you'll be competing with other entry level people. So if you're asking for more than entry level money, you won't get anywhere.

What would be considered entry-level salary? I was making $45,000 at my last job.

[djkkt6]

I'd say that's probably at the high end. With a degree, 40-45 seems reasonable. More depending on the area that you're moving to.

[RedNC]

Fresh out of college and they were teaching cobol? I thought they stopped teaching that in the 80’s.

[killer2021]

Originally Posted by RedNC

Fresh out of college and they were teaching cobol? I thought they stopped teaching that in the 80’s.

haha no joke! You would think. Just look at any CS course requirements and you will see it loaded with outdated programming languages. You'll be lucky if you pick up java, C++ or any of the modern programming languages. I am no longer a CS major myself since I pretty much hate all math above calculus and it seems 90% of CS is math. I think the major emphasis on CS is getting more of the theory down. Which I can understand, until you realize that every god damn employer on the block is looking for SKILLs not theory. Of course that means you have to be an over the top CS geek to ever perform well. That means you need to either go to a community college (which offers courses to learn those languages) or go to the library and study up on it on your own time.

I've also realized that every employer is looking for experienced hires, not recent grads. Unless you are coming out of Stanford or MIT you won't stand much of a chance considering no one wants to hire someone who is inexperienced. It was this realization that lead me to quit the CS field and move to a more reasonable field which was accounting. Oh yea and I was looking at job postings back in 2006, when the market was hot hot hot. Not like that anymore! I don't even want to know what they are looking for now.

In the accounting field at least you get can even get a crappy job with an accounting degree doing the books for someone. Oh yea and most of your entry-level staff accountant jobs (equivalent to your software engineer job) only requires a BA degree in accounting. To top it off, shortly after you get your BA you can go and sit for the CPA exam which is like the certification to be an accountant. In CS how many certifications are there? Like two thousand from each software vendor?

Anyways to the OP. At least you have SOME experience. You gotta use that to your advantage. In the mean time, I would just pick up ANY job, even minimum wage, to at least bring in some cash unless you are still living on unemployment. If that runs out though, definitely take anything you can get! I'd rather be making 150/week than nothing at all! In the mean time, just keep sending out those resumes. You might want to pick up a community college class here and there just to tell the employer that you were brushing up on your programming skills (ie. making good use of your time) while you were looking for a job.