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  Director Mitch, 2 Dec 2003 @ 2:11pm

  
  

  Companies Shot Selves in the Foot During Bust

  Like many readers of this site, I lost my job during the tech bust and spent time job hunting. And one thing I will NEVER forget are those companies that treated me with contempt while I was job hunting - lack of returned phone calls, no feedback whatsoever after inverviewing in person - everyone who was unemployed (or are still unemployed) knows what I am talking about.
  
  AMD was the worse - the HR director in Austin called me a "liar" when they couldn't verify one of my previous jobs. I had a piece of paper in front of her 24 hours later signed by the VP HR of this previous employer that stated that AMD's research was incorrect and that my tenure at the previous company was valid, as I stated. The Austin HR Director's response? "Well, we don't want you working here anyway!" (CYA?)
  
  At any rate, I know a lot of people who took jobs where they could and now that the tech sector is picking up, I think a lot of companies are going to see huge turnover.
  

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    dorpus, 2 Dec 2003 @ 4:35pm

    
    

    And they will shoot themselves again

    When the economy booms, companies will rush into bad projects run by clueless, prejudiced managers who only want to be surrounded by their "positive thinking" (i.e. wishful thinking) groupies.
    
    I think the real problem isn't the economy, but the abundance of antisocial people in high tech. Antisocial people scare away more compassionate or better leaders, so it feeds the cycle. There are other professions (such as health care, law enforcement, etc.) where the rule is to cover for each other, help others. Some techies may respond to this by posting some angry tirade about how I am "clueless" or whatever, but that really just goes to prove my point.
    
    
    
    
    

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      Anonymous Coward, 2 Dec 2003 @ 5:10pm

      
      

      Re: And they will shoot themselves again

      Ah, Dorpus, you always make me laugh.
      
      You can find wishful thinking groupies surrounding CEOs in every company in every industry, including surrounding top law enforcement officials and even politicians (yes, it's true). Clueless managers are the rule, not the exception accross industries, and even eras.

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        Anonymous Coward, 2 Dec 2003 @ 6:07pm

        
        

        Re: And they will shoot themselves again

        As a matter of fact, your cynicism is typical of antisocial techie behavior. What we don't hear is the attitude that we should do something about it.
        

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        dorpus, 2 Dec 2003 @ 6:07pm

        
        

        Re: And they will shoot themselves again

        And the last post was by me, somehow it's not taking cookies like it used to.
        

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          eeyore, 3 Dec 2003 @ 4:54am

          
          

          Re: And they will shoot themselves again

          If you aren't the poster child for antisocial techies then there isn't anyone qualified for the post. The problem during the tech boom wasn't antisocial techies, it was the tremendous amount of unqualified people hired into programming jobs. A lot of the people who were laid off when the bubble burst and who are still out of work are people who never should have been hired in the first place because they lacked the necessary skill sets. Hiring somebody because they know Java but otherwise have no real job skills was a mistake then and now. People I know were making six figures three years ago as programmers but they had no clue as to how to develop or manage a project and now they can't understand why they can't get another six figure gig. One friend worked for an insurance company where three consecutive database projects he worked on crashed and burned in spectacular fashion and yet he doesn't understand why this last time the company laid off the entire project team. Maybe the fact that in five years they had burned up tens of millions of dollars and never produced anything? The days of "burn rate" are over.

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            dorpus, 3 Dec 2003 @ 7:38am

            
            

            Re: And they will shoot themselves again

            Again, why do techies allow themselves to be led by people like that? We would not conceive of nurse's aides ordering doctors around, or volunteer firemen telling real firemen what to do. The big techie hang-up on "deregulation" and "libertarianism" comes to mind.
            

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    LittleW0lf, 2 Dec 2003 @ 5:54pm

    
    

    Re: Companies Shot Selves in the Foot During Bust

    "Well, we don't want you working here anyway!"
    
    Hmm.... Director Mitch, did you get a lawyer? This sounds like illegal discrimination if I've ever heard it. Would be interesting to see what AMD would say if this stuff ever appeared on their desk, since it sounds to me like you were unjustly refused employment. I suspect they would ask the Austin HR Director to start packing up their desk, because they "wouldn't want them working here either."
    
    Calling you a liar, then stating something like this would definately get the state Equal Opportunity Employment office in a tizzy.

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  Chris, 3 Dec 2003 @ 8:19am

  
  

  The real source of the tech bust

  Actually the source of the problem was the insane amounts of money thrown at business ventures that never had a snowballs chance in hell of becoming self-sustaining. All those companies with lots of cash bid up the price for programming talent and created a shortage, thus the 90K a year recent college grad in 2000 who know some HTML and javascript.
  

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