If IT is dead and gone, where else can one go with those skills or

[2Design]

what else can one do to make good money????

[Deja Q]

1. I'm looking into management...

How to balance all of those outsourcing projects and how to deal with people from other cultures as a cost-saving measure because they cost less and money means more than our country's stability and status. :eyes:

That or nursing, but as president apostate* nixed overtime, you'd be workin' 12+ hour shifts with no overtime. x(

[2Design]

3. How do you manage people you can see or understand and

if you are a woman?
Nursing has a lot of 'crap' to it. And with having to lift patients and other tasks of that sort, not the best for an aging person....I couldn't get pass the part of diapers and other crap.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Learn Hindi or Urdu,

move to India, and become an outsource worker.
(Sorry to be cynical. These are cynical times.)

[GAspnes]

4. become a 'colloquial English' teacher in India?

Or whatever spot is currently hottest.

That's about my only marketable skill anymore.

[The Straight Story]

5. Porn Star!

But really, I don't think IT is dead here yet, just more specialized. I work in the IT field, and we have hired probably 50-60 people this year alone in my area (I have interviewed and hired 15 myself).

Tech has hit a downturn in some areas, will stay that way a while and it is not surprising or necessarily all bad. During the dot com boom many companies were over hiring people (including two I worked for) at high rates. One example from a company I worked at, the sale dept (which rented a downtown office for 10k/month so they could have a downtown address) had one server in their office. They hired someone making $60/k a year to manage that server (which only had about 30 gigs of sales data on it) on site - whereas I was 10 minutes away from it at my office (and I managed a whole call center, 24x7, all the servers, data bases, programming, etc by myself for less money). This was not the only sales office doing this, we had about 40 of them, all with one server (although a few had two as they felt the need to spend 20k+ on a print server for 10 people). Eventually they went under, all those tech people were out of jobs due to the idiots who ran the company into the ground by throwing investors' money out the window.

Perhaps the good in all this is that companies are being (some) more prudent, which will help them stay in business longer. The obvious downside is that some people still cannot find a job in the tech field.

[2Design]

8. you are in Ohio and you are hiring????? so that is good news for ohio!

[The Straight Story]

12. Columbus

We have a lot of tech oppurtunities here - nationwide hires a lot of folks off and on, bank one, ashland, and many other large companies here. Cincy is doing so-so from what I hear. I have gotten quite a few resumes and interviewed folks from northern Ohio who have not had much luck (hired one of them).

That is not to say all is well for everyone. RCA Thompson in Circleville is laying off/has already a few hundred people (no one seems to need big picture tubes thesedays) and some of the other small towns south of us have been hit hard.

[Deja Q]

13. $60k/yr to manage 30gb worth of data is peanuts!

Especially when the one managing it gets fired if there's even one single problem.

Now look at counselors who sit there and tell you the obvious in a shiny happy way and how they get $60k/yr and wince. Then look at the sports players who catch a ball and wiggle their butts when they carry the ball 300 feet and scream 'bloody murder!'

[The Straight Story]

16. Well

If the data was something critical perhaps :) This was mostly duplicated sales power point slides which I also housed at my site. When they shut that sales site down and moved to a smaller officer they got rid of the tech and wanted me to drive over and manage things. I made em a better deal. Give me the server for my own development use at work, install a t1 to your office, and I will put all your data on one of my network appliances and manage it for them.

Being we were a telecom company and sold t1 lines and such it would not cost them much to have the line (which they had planned on anyway for connectivity to our live data for reports). I copied all the data and got it set up, and then cleaned the whole mess up for them by making a common area for all the sales stuff (instead of individual home folders which all had the same things), saved myself some space, got a server out of the deal which I turned into a mssql server, and saved the company money all at the same time.

The customer data they each had was ported to a data base with a web front end and cleared off most the rest of the space (which was comprised of excel sheets, access data bases, notepad, and pictures they got in emails).

It was all moot though. Things were doomed. We would later learn more about the back room deals which had sunk us before we started (costing over 5000 jobs total). The quick and dirty rundown: Company X was another company which had made some money in similar field (and a few others). The owner was buddies since high school with the ceo of our company (and other high ranking officers). Our company went billions in debt buying up equipment, licenses, real estate, and other assets while barely able to operate (and lying about that, and I think Janus was turning a blind eye to it all). In the end we went bankrupt and sold out to company X for $40 million plus $60 million to be paid to debtors. Stock holders and employees got screwed, the new company got billions worth of stuff which they later sold most of and got many times more than they paid in.

When we first filed we got a new cfo, another buddy. He promised the sky and a retention bonus, anything to keep us working with a skeleton crew. He left the company, no one told us until we read about in a business journal later. The new company said screw you on the retention bonus (even though bankruptcy papers said we get full amount if we were sold all at once instead of payments every 6 months). They all bailed and took their cash while telling us what a great opputurnity we had if we stayed.

Most of us knew better, but at the time there was not many other places to go to. I got a new job two weeks before my meager severance was to run out (I got 3 weeks total, but I worked one of them closing down the place).

[Zero Division]

6. As someone who graduate with an MIS degree last year...

I'm wondering about the same damn thing. I really can't imagine myself getting into that field at this point in time. The fact that the only programming language I know is a little bit of Java (most of which I've forgotten) also has me thinking about finding a very different career direction for my BBA.

I'm really wishing I hadn't gotten into MIS at this point, or that I would've at least taken it more seriously by getting an internship while in college.

I think that being so focussed on getting a degree for the sole purpose of financial security was a huge mistake on my part. What a horrible irony it's turned out to be, since the jobs are now scarce as it is.

[2Design]

10. ok I have 7 courses in MS in IT finished and wonder....do I

finish.....I currently teach adjunct at a college...to get on full time takes Master degree......but still no guarantee...something will open up...
they have 68% adjunct now....

[Zero Division]

14. So you're close to a Masters degree and willing to teach?

I guess if I were in your shoes I'd go for it. Seems like eventually a teaching position for MIS would open somewhere, might have a much better chance for that than an actual job in the field. But mind you, this is just the opinion of a very inexperienced 25 y.o. Ha, I ought to be the one asking questions, really.

[2Design]

15. 25 yo has optimism still....and believes a job will open.....

a 50 + .....is cynical....and not sure anything will ever open up again..

[The Straight Story]

17. What area you in/williing to relocate?

My company is always looking for new people, and not just in ohio. Having a degree can help, but not when I interview people :) We have had some bad experiences, but I try to not let them color my vision too much.

One of the guys working with us had a masters, and about 5 certifications. He was young, never worked in the field, and was a jerk. I ran circles around him in the tech area (as did a few others in our dept) and he eventually quit before something worse occured. Several others from his college came in at the same time, all with the same problem - could pass a test but couldn't handle real world problems. They had gotten into the field for the money, and had no real love of IT at all. He could not understand why a high school dropout was running the show at our location while he had a degree and was a lowly tech. It was all about attitude to me, and his was poor (at that point in time, I was not doing the interviewing). I have hired guys with no degrees who the love the field and will do anything to be around big systems like we have, and they kick butt when the chips are down (we handle over 500 servers from sun 6800's on down, and there are only 12 of us for this center, our entire operational group has hundreds across the US).

I need good MIS people, so does my company. Drop me a private message and I will see what I can do to help you out in a search for some work that may fit your needs. Some of the key areas off hand I know we look for people in are- data centers (managing the hardware and such), java, perl, unix (aix and solaris), oracle, mssql, veritas, iis, web sphere, enterprise help desk (which pays well), and more that I can't think of off hand.

Find something you love, do it with a passion, and you can get where you want to be - because there are plenty of folks out there who do things that they don't really like or care about and when someone comes along that does love to do it they will excel far above them. A degree is a good first step though (not knocking them!) and shows you have the desire to pursue knowledge and the discipline to do what is needed to accomplish your goals.

Good luck and if I can be of any help please let me know!

[TroubleMan]

7. I have to do the IT mixed in with my other job

Selling parts is my primary task, but I also manage the IT side, and the Nortel phone network.

It's sorta like my boss gets two workers in one. So I use it as a bonus. I will do the regular work that you have, but I can also fix any computer problem you have, and keep them from occuring (I also can program the Nortel phones).

I don't know how the job market is now, but I couldn't find a job in IT, and I had 8 years military experience, three certifications (MCP, CCNA, A+), and even a Navy Achievement Medal for computer work. I looked for over a year. To be fair, I do have a felony conviction, so it's a lot harder for me.

Try the Northern Virginia, DC area....I hear they still need IT jobs there. IT is completely dried up here in South Florida.

[2Design]

9. so are you able to make the money you were making in IT

you said you sell parts????/
and do IT????

[TroubleMan]

11. Well....it's a lot better than military pay

But I don't have any non-military pay to compare it to.

Yes, I sell air compressor parts (on Thursday I sold $12,000 worth of parts, lubricant, and pumps), manage our network and computers, and program the Nortel phone system we have.

Lot of hours, but at least I have a good job.... and you need one with a wife and two kids in a Bush economy.

[BiggJawn]

18. Find a University...

And sell them some of that ol' Dot-Com razzle-dazzle about how all the GOOD schools of the 21st Century are totally wired, get yourself hired as VP of IT, then gobble up everything that uses a wire under your umbrella (including the Video Department), "right-size" the managment structure (bring in all your failed Dot-Com boomer friends to build their resumes for a few years and make some serious coin while they're at it), build "Data Silos", start "Data Mining", spend a billion dollars building a VR "holodeck"....

Need I give you any more ideas? Go, get to it!