Technology a Dead End Career? No Way!

Technology a Dead End Career? No Way!!

According to the US Labor Department, the demand for IT professionals has returned to levels last seen in 2000 at the height of the dotcom boom. Concurrently, the importance of information technology as the underpinning of corporate life has become obvious even to the most strident corporate Neanderthal. More organizations like Google are seeing that technologists with good technical underpinnings and business savvy can create wealth.

At the same time this is going on, fewer computer science graduates are coming out of America’s universities because students learned through what happened to their parents in the last recession that technology was no longer the fast and secure path to happiness, prosperity and wealth. That’s what happens when all those stock options became worthless and hundreds of thousands of IT professionals lost their jobs and new ones were created overseas.

O unless more people enter the labor force, more jobs will shift overseas to lower cost centers and America’s intellectual capital and advantages and technology advances will expire in a fit of outsourcing not caused by cheap labor but by lack of talent sources.

A number of things need to occur concurrently in order to stem the tide and get US students back in the game.

1. Every child in every classroom in America must have a computer or Internet accessible device with full features to help them learn and explore. We all know the stories of the music protégés and young athletes who took up the game very young and were able to achieve greatness because a violin or tennis racket was put into their hands when they were very young. Let’s have kids learn computer basics as they learn to read and play age appropriate online games until then.


2. Make computer science a required course for every major in the universities. Te Despite George Orwell’s fears, technology has become a liberating path


3. Why can’t students spend an additional year in universities interning between their junior and senior year? It makes more sense to me than the programs that send students abroad to study at foreign colleges. Social work students spend 20 hours per week doing field work at social work agencies, providing a source of cheap labor. Why are university students in computer science incapable of providing a comparable contribution?


4. “Code monkeys” or people who program in a vacuum are a dying breed. Make sure that even the most junior staff learns the importance of programming in the context of a line of business.


5. Finally, and what may be most important, the industry has the reputation for drudgery—for being the modern day equivalent of factory work. We have to re-think the industry and make it fun again!

Tick. Tick. Tick. Time is running out/ unless we take action in the next few years that lack of supply will send all the jobs overseas . . . and once that happens, what had been US businesses will follow.

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.com.

To subscribe to Jeff Altman’s Search e-zine, send an email to jeffaltman@cisny.com and write EZINE on the subject line.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Demand for IT Specialists to Shrink

Demand for IT specialists could shrink as much as 40 percent within the next five years according to a Gartner study.

The study says that specialist roles will shrink and that the growth will be in finding people with business acumen.

New York's Job Growth

New York’s Job Growth Led by Wall Street

Staffing in New York has brought employment to levels not seen since the last recession began in August 200,

Wall Street led trhe way, this year, increasing payrolls by almost 15%.

Positions are being increased across the board.

We already anticipate improved bonuses this year. Next year, we can expect hire wages for new hires based upon increased demand and reduced supply of talent.

Jeff AltmanConcepts in Staffingjeffaltman@cisny.com© 2005 all rights reserved.Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.comIf you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

November 2005

November, 2005

I just read the latest government report on the labor market. It said that job creation in the US was half of what was anticipated (approximately 43000 new jobs created in the last month. It led to a concern that the recovery was slowing down.

The press is one of the worst sources of analysis on this subject available. The data they analyze comes from the government whose means of data collection consists of polling large companies. It excludes data from smaller firms and does not include you folks who became self-employed consultants.  In other words, it misses a lot of people, just like the  they are unemployment numbers miss a lot of people (you are only considered unemployed if you are collecting unemployment; otherwise you don’t exist to the government).

Ask people you know what it’s like in the job market. They will tell you that they are getting interviews with large companies and small companies. Many will tell you that they are receiving more than one job offer and that they are at good salary increases.

And if you ask employers, you will find more of them are finding it difficult to locate staff level professionals. They are starting to sponsor H-1b professionals because it has become hard to find staff. Why? No one was hiring beginners from 2001 to 2004. So the seeds were not sown to permit them to find staff with a few years of experience. It bodes well for older workers to be able to get consulting assignments.

As I look ahead, I see and economy slowing under the weight of government spending on the War in Iraq and on social programs; I also see that job creation will continue for some time again in IT.


Jeff AltmanConcepts in Staffingjeffaltman@cisny.com© 2005 all rights reserved.Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.comIf you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Government statistics suggest slowdown

Only 56,000 U.S. jobs were created in October, about half the number expected, the Labor Department said.