Techies Still Cling To Current Jobs
from the not-really-sure-about-this-economic-pickup... dept
During the bubble years of the late 90s, it often seemed as though people looked down on you if you kept a job for more than a year. Everyone was job hopping, often moving up a level with each hop. However, following the bubble burst and the recession and all those layoffs, it appears techies are still very, very cautious about switching jobs. A new study shows that only 8.9% of tech workers willingly left their jobs last year, which the researcher says is the lowest number since he started the study in the 1980s. On the involuntary side, many should be happy to note that the number of people who left their job via layoffs also has dropped significantly as things seem to be stabilizing. Of course, you could question the study, as it only follows a group of "the world's best-known tech firms," which is likely to leave out many startups and other firms where job hopping is more popular.
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I remember once I got in where I am now (a large health care organization in Canada) that while I felt lucky to have a foot in the door (without experience), I was missing out on the great opportunities of the dot.com boom. Many of my friends went to the states, many of my less-skilled but better connected graduates were making substantially more here in startups than I was. 7 years later, I'm still in the same organisation, my salary has almost tripled, my job is (somewhat) secure.
Without exception the people above I'm talking about are either working in fast food or on unemployment (some for more than 2 years).
I think what we're seeing isn't so much as a dearth of IT jobs, we're just seeing the flushing of the dead weight...ie: the ones who got into it for the love of money instead of the love of the work.
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Job hopping was good?
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Job Hopping
Then the market tanked. I took a $10k pay cut and went through a few rounds of layoffs and lean times. Now I've been at the same job for more than 2 years now making more money than I ever have, and I have no intention of leaving any time soon.
If another bubble arises, I'll probably stick with this job. As a 35 year old family man, I'd rather stay here and work 40 hours a week, than make another $25k at a startup and work 60+ hours a week.
My wife is also a programmer, and her experiences mirror mine very closely - most of our programmer friends have travelled the same path as well.
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Re: Job hopping was good?
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Re: Job Hopping
I just turned 30 and I'm happy to be sticking with the current job for the last 4 years. 40 hrs/weeks are great compared to the late nights of old. Although I have some worry about future job market. Just keep up my job skills I guess.
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Re: Job Hopping
A good percentage of people hopped from one company to the next because of money (lots of consultants), but there were a bunch that hopped for the different challenges that presented themselves once a project was completed. A lot of technical people remind me of the stereotypical surfers, the ones always searching for the best "ride". But instead of waves, these people are looking for the challenges that technology offers and the companies that can fund the projects.
Good times.
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Re: Job hopping was good?
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continuity
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Re: continuity
A lot of the people still having such a hard time finding jobs today are people who really didn't have any technical skills to begin with - managers, marketers, and other low skilled dime-a-dozen workers who just had an undeserved field day during the late 90's. Those are the kinds of people who made up the BS business plans and got the funding that ultimately burst the bubble in the first place.
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