

A Bad Time to Be A Professional - tokenadult
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2009/05/a_bad_time_to_b.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

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cma

        Yikes! These numbers are scary. A 10% decline in
        engineering occupations in just 8 months?
    

The 10% decline was in "Engineering and architecture occupations," it would be
nice if the two were separated out. We had a massive housing bubble and
construction boom. It popped. In light of that it is hardly surprising that
Architects had a major fall off.

~~~
myth_drannon
"‘Engineering and architecture occupations’ (actually the BLS reverses the
order) is roughly 67% engineers, about 10% architects, surveyors and the like,
with the remainder engineering and mapping technicians"

So the majority of 10% decline are engineers.

~~~
hc
no offense, but that makes no sense whatsoever

~~~
krschultz
It makes perfect sense, if the entire decline was in architects then there
would be 0 architects left.

Though I'm a mechanical engineer and my company hasn't really been affected,
and my brother is an architect and his company has shrunk from 15 to 3. So I
imagine the OP is right that a large chunk of the decline is from
architecture/construction related jobs, but certainly not all.

~~~
hc
i agree that the entire decline couldn't have been in architects, but remain
mystified as to how (someone would conclude) this implies the _majority_
wasn't in architects

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tptacek
All the evidence available to me suggests that, however bad things may look
for long-term employment in IT and CS, the market for freelance talent is
strong --- enough so that we've been left wondering for the past 6 months if
our business is countercyclical.

~~~
zackattack
The freelance talent market is strong, really?

You have any friends looking for a LAMP hacker?

~~~
tptacek
I'm looking for HTML/CSS work right now. I'm having trouble finding one of my
usual sources that isn't booked up.

~~~
zackattack
I may be able to help you out. zackster@gmail.com

~~~
smanek
For what it is worth, if you are actively looking for work a more professional
email address would be better. Ideally, it should be something like
'zburt@mydomain.com' (or zach.burt, zach, etc) where mydomain.com hosts your
resume, professional blog, portfolio, etc.

If that isn't feasible, even your school email address would be pretty good (a
free domain isn't a deal breaker, but would rank pretty low for me) - but the
local-part should be more professional than 'zackster' or 'zackattack.'

Nothing wrong with using nicknames/handles for personal stuff, but I would shy
away from doing so while actively asking for work.

~~~
sachinag
I make an exception for Gmail addresses when it comes to non-professional. I
know that you can get free Google Apps and all that, but I'll generally trust
someone on Gmail. Doesn't mean you can get away without a live blog/portfolio
site, however.

~~~
smanek
I would definitely agree. The 'gmail' part didn't strike me as out of place so
much as the 'zackster' part. I believe Zackattack's name is 'Zachary Burt',
which would make 'zackster' an informal (and, in my opinion, somewhat frat-ty)
nickname.

The only situation I could imagine that would make 'zackster' appropriate for
someone looking for a job would be if his first name were Zack (or Zachary, or
some other derivative) and his last name were 'Ster.' Since I doubt that is
the case, I suggested he set up some other address for soliciting business

Since Zack is just graduating it will be (relatively) easy for him to make the
change now. It will likely be more difficult in a few years once his
name/email get out there.

~~~
sachinag
Agreed. I have a personal account and a professional Gmail account. My
professional Gmail account isn't mapped to my URL; it's just my full name @
gmail.com; the personal is this username at Gmail. Not quite as informal, but
still not business appropriate.

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YuriNiyazov
I know that personal experience is anecdotal, but I have a full-time job and a
wide choice of side gigs that I can pick up. I don't even say this to gloat,
it just seems like the news outlets are blowing it out of proportion (as
always)

~~~
patio11
What you said.

My little slice of the Japanese countryside is heavily invested in
manufacturing. There are 6,000 Brazilian factory workers in my town. About
5,000 of them are out of work right now, and many have taken a government
offer where they'll pay for your plane ticket if you leave the country and
promise to not come back.

Meanwhile I'm in an air-conditioned office, just got a positive performance
evaluation, will receive my bonus on time this summer, and have job security
that the Pope would envy.

We don't even know how good we have it some days.

~~~
gustavo_duarte
Historically, our job security beats the Papacy hands down. Even excluding the
early Popes who were martyred in quick succession, the average papal tenure is
under 8 years, with a fair number of murders and alleged murders. Check it
out: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes>. So I think you're right
about the Pope's envy :)

Regarding the job market, I do contract work in Colorado and have had no
problems either. My programmer friends in the US, Europe, and Brazil are all
gainfully employed. I think there's a chronic shortage of good programming
talent that's not going away anytime soon.

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enjo
Yet we had tremendous trouble hiring a solid developer (Denver/Boulder) a
month and a half ago. We had a bunch of applications from the barely
qualifieds, but it seems that those with a strong skill-set are still in
demand.

Hell, I still get 2 or 3 queries a week from headhunters, and I'm not actively
looking.

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pierrefar
I want my seasonal variation.

