Thread: How bad is bad

  1. #1
    Registered User caroundw5h's Avatar
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    How bad is bad

    I keep hearing the market is bad, but this article just seems to make it worse and worse. Have any of you been a victim of loss of employment? Is it really this bad?
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  2. #2
    train spotter
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    yes lost employment due to a shift in the market.

    Also got more work in other areas.

    IT is not as good as it once was but it is what I want to do (until I can afford not to do anything)
    "Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
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  3. #3
    unleashed alphaoide's Avatar
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    I have the impression that it's improving, no?
    source: compsci textbooks, cboard.cprogramming.com, world wide web, common sense

  4. #4
    It's full of stars adrianxw's Avatar
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    I have now been unemployed for over 2½ years. My in box gets several hits a day from "matches" to my online CV, but most of them are hopeless, and how they "matched" is beyond my comprehension. One I have had several times is as a buyer for childrens toys for a supermarket chain - go figure that one out!

    I think the recruiting firms send progressively more and more fringe relevent jobs to show that they are at least doing something, and that sending nothing for a couple of weeks would have people calling them to find out what was wrong.

    The colleges and universities churn out inexperienced newbies. These are cheap to employ and some find work, for the rest, they are generally not encumbered by mortgages and other trappings of middle class life, so a "temporary" excursion into burger flipping or table waiting doesn't impact.

    Firms that have a project, recruit consultants and contractors that they can be rid of when the need goes away. With the global economy so slow, firms are not investing in new IT systems. They are struggling to survive themselves as demand for their products is slow. Thus service industries like IT suffer because the client firms "make do" with what they've got until the market picks up.

    The market has been said to pick up in 2-3 quarters, the wise men that say that have been saying it for some years now. It's a bit stale.
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  5. #5
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    I was out of work for 8 months before I landed this job. Hooray.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by adrianxw
    I have now been unemployed for over 2½ years. My in box gets several hits a day from "matches" to my online CV, but most of them are hopeless, and how they "matched" is beyond my comprehension. One I have had several times is as a buyer for childrens toys for a supermarket chain - go figure that one out!

    I think the recruiting firms send progressively more and more fringe relevent jobs to show that they are at least doing something, and that sending nothing for a couple of weeks would have people calling them to find out what was wrong.

    The colleges and universities churn out inexperienced newbies. These are cheap to employ and some find work, for the rest, they are generally not encumbered by mortgages and other trappings of middle class life, so a "temporary" excursion into burger flipping or table waiting doesn't impact.

    Firms that have a project, recruit consultants and contractors that they can be rid of when the need goes away. With the global economy so slow, firms are not investing in new IT systems. They are struggling to survive themselves as demand for their products is slow. Thus service industries like IT suffer because the client firms "make do" with what they've got until the market picks up.

    The market has been said to pick up in 2-3 quarters, the wise men that say that have been saying it for some years now. It's a bit stale.
    This is exactly the reason why I've chosen to go into engineering instead of computer science. I figure, if I get a degree in a harder major, and do at least SOME research (I'm setup to be doing a project with voice recognition software using Neural Nets, because one professor was impressed with some of the other stuff I was doing) I'll have a better chance of getting a job I want, with the proper benefits and reasonable salary.
    Last edited by Darkness; 11-10-2004 at 04:13 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darkness
    This is exactly the reason why I've chosen to go into engineering instead of computer science. I figure, if I get a degree in a harder major, and do at least SOME research (I'm setup to be doing a project with voice recognition software using Neural Nets, because one professor was impressed with some of the other stuff I was doing) I'll have a better chance of getting a job I want, with the proper benefits and reasonable salary.
    Engineering is harder? Why is this? What makes it so much harder?

  8. #8
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darkness
    This is exactly the reason why I've chosen to go into engineering instead of computer science. I figure, if I get a degree in a harder major, and do at least SOME research (I'm setup to be doing a project with voice recognition software using Neural Nets, because one professor was impressed with some of the other stuff I was doing) I'll have a better chance of getting a job I want, with the proper benefits and reasonable salary.
    I have an engineering degree. If the jobs aren't there they aren't there.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Govtcheez
    I have an engineering degree. If the jobs aren't there they aren't there.
    This was my belief. It is my opinion that the jobs aren't there in any field really, except medicine maybe(i have heard there are jobs in this, nursing, pharmacy, etc).

    I mean your chances of a job with a degree in English, or say Psychology are pretty slim also. My best advice to the original poster is to do what you want to do and try not to do it just for the money, unless of course you are ok with that. I mean this is something you are going to be doing every single day of your life. If you can find something you REALLY love then you are in great shape The hard part is finding what you really love to do.

  10. #10
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SourceCode
    Engineering is harder? Why is this? What makes it so much harder?
    Because instead of being a code monkey you actually design real world things. It's quite a bit more difficult than someone just saying "write this"

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Govtcheez
    Because instead of being a code monkey you actually design real world things. It's quite a bit more difficult than someone just saying "write this"
    Interesting viewpoint thanks.

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    I have an engineering degree. If the jobs aren't there they aren't there.
    If you have a degree already then granted you know more about the situation than I do. But it still seems it's in a much better condition than the IT industry.

    edit:
    Few questions: which field of engineering? What job? When did you get the degree? Anything else about it/the situation you might like to add.

    edit1:
    On the flipside, having a degree in engineering might not always be helpful, as companies pay more for engineers and may often have a harder time affording them.
    Last edited by Darkness; 11-10-2004 at 06:46 PM.
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  13. #13
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    > which field of engineering?

    Computer Engineering

    > What job?

    Right now I'm just programming; in Access, no less. Beats the hell out of working at Blockbuster, which is what I was doing.

    > When did you get the degree?

    December of last year, Kettering University.

    > Anything else about it/the situation you might like to add.

    College was cool, working sucks.

    > may often have a harder time affording them.

    Any company that can't afford a couple extra grand a year probably isn't going to be a company much longer.

  14. #14
    Arggggh DeepFyre's Avatar
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    there are a lot of jobs being lost and thats because india and other countries have IT proffesionals that are just as good as the people over here but only get paid like 10000 a year, which is a lot of money over there. and you cant really expect companies not to outsource jobs, when they can pay wages (legally) that are below what is considered minimum here.
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  15. #15
    train spotter
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    >>and you cant really expect companies not to outsource jobs

    Once upon a time in a land far, far from here there was a company with social responsibility.
    A company that did things out a motive not associated with increasing its profit.
    "Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
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    "I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars......the rest I squandered."
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