I'm a multimedia programmer and consultant by trade. I specialize in Macromedia products such as Director, Flash, and Dreamweaver. In the summer of 2000, every consultant I knew was flush with business. We couldn't find a programmer with 2 or 3 years of real experience for less than $80,000/year (in the NJ area).
By January of 2001 the market had tanked, and by summer almost 75% of my colleagues were unemployed and the remainder were underemployed. Today I stopped to get gas and the attendant asked what I did. When I said I was a software developer, he said that he was too. Earlier this year he was a middleware programmer integrating PCs and mainframes. Today, he was pumping gas to pay the rent. He says he submits resumes to various online places but gets no responses.
Update Dec 1, 2001: I was at a gas station and the attendant noticed my Macromedia T-shirt. He asked if I used Macromedia products. Turns out that he was a student at a local multimedia training program, also pumping gas to pay the bills.
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I think the market is very uneven right now. The market still seems strong for Flex and ActionScript developers, at least in the greater NYC area. I think you just have to pick a technology that you expect to be strong for the next few years. Ruby on Rails seems to be another area where a qualified developer can find work.
Unfortunately, there is no real recovery that is going to happen anytime soon. We might not see things get back to where they were for 10 years for software developers. When the economy is good you will see more developers land jobs in the US and less overseas. There will always be competition for US jobs simply because people in other countries dont have such a high standard of living. Is that such a bad thing? It might be with something as fluid as the software industry.
Anthony L
Lead Recruiter
Employment Strategies, Inc.
Ha, this article was published in 2001. Eight years later, and the job market is even worse for IT. Funny, those companies that are laying off U.S. and European workers are still hiring in India and China.
There's no point in getting a degree in C.S. Cut your losses now. America's has lost the software field. It will get manufacturing and mining jobs back before software development jobs.
Literally, half the developers I know have been out of work for months, some over a year.
Listen, the market is terrible..not just within the field of programming. Everything is interconnected within business, if one aspect is doing poorly, everything is. The recession should end around 2010 and the market in general will improve. Until then, it is hard to find a well paying job that is stable. With costs so high, companies are not looking to expand. If you dont have a job now, you just might have to wait.
Alex K
Professor of Business Economics
New York University