Are there jobs for people with experience in Information Technology? In one word, how would you describe the job market? (San Antonio: living)

[Deelightful]

I'm curious. I've been looking at job boards, and I do see jobs posted. I know that every state is having its share of problems with jobs. I've heard that Austin is different...depending on what you are looking for.

I looked at a post on the San Antonio thread. They said that Help Desk is thriving. I definitely don't want to be a Help Desk person. I'm looking to utilize SQL...maybe even take my career in a dfferent direction w/in Information Technology.

I'd like to know if there's a demand for people who have computer knowledge and skills. I know at one time Austin was thriving....some called it the next Silicon Valley. Has this changed dramatically? Would I be able to find a job when I get there? If you could tell me in a word or one sentece...how would you describe the job market in Austin?

Thanks...Deelightful

[HappyTexan]

Here's your one word for IT work - stagnant.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Here's your one word for IT work - stagnant.

That's good. Stagnant definitely fits. How about uncertain? (depressed, diminished, slowing, tepid, uneven, those would all apply as well).

Most of the big tech employers (Freescale, Dell, AMD, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, IBM,) are on hiring freezes with furloughs and layoffs as well. The City of Austin, UT, and most State agencies have hiring freezes as well.

There are some smaller players (particularly those who are not suppliers to the bigger companies) that are doing okay and some are hiring but it is not a great market, any company that manufactures anything is hurting right now.

The "real" Silicon Valley is in even worse shape right now!

[hoffdano]

For the OP - there is always some demand for people with computer knowledge and skills in Austin. However - it all depends on what skills you have.

There is a vast group of people with "computer skills." They range from people who think that using MS Office is something special to people who know how to program for DB2 in mainframe assembly language.

I think Java is very ordinary now and there are 100s or 1000s of people in Austin who are Java programmers. .NET is probably more unique and valuable today. Skills in both would be very good to have. And SQL might be useful, especially if you understand good SQL vs. bad SQL.

If you are a programmer type - I think the most satisfying work will occur with a company that develops software for a living. I mean vendors or companies that produce software for profit. That is so much different than working for a bank or state agency where IT is an overhead item.

[nomore07]

If you're referring to networking, network management, servers, systems administration, infrastructure etc., forget it. There are some companies here which do systems and hardware development, but they hire straight out of UT and A&M, and most are branch offices. IT jobs here are not very stable.

"IT" here means business IT. Java, web pages, and databases.

[ILikeSmartHippies]

I haven't had as many calls as I expected since moving here in Feb, for myself, experienced software architect / kernels / firmware ($100K+). I've had about 3 recruiters per week send email or call me though for "Test" positions in town. So I get the feeling there are more "test engineer" positions right now than "architect" positions.