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.
### Get your Daily Bruce! ###
How bad is the market for programmers? When will it turn around?
Categories
Web
Comments (1)
Read More Entries by Bruce A. Epstein.
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