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Information Technology – from boom to burst!

When I first came to the United Statest in 1997, the demand for Information Technology (IT) professionals was so overwhelming. This was in line with Year 2000 conversion. In fact, an experienced techie can pick and choose the job they want, and they can even demand their prices. The trend continued on with the Dot-com boom. People in IT find themselves millionaires on paper as prices of these start-up companies soared sky-high at the stock exchange. Enrollment for IT courses was at all-time high. It was certainly the field to be in – where money is believed to grow on trees, and where endless work hours are matched with stock options worth millions.

Seven years into the future and the table has turned. Dot-com millionaires are now worth nothing – their stock options worthless. Worse, a lot of them are now unemployed! Students who took up IT courses are now in dilemma as to where they’d find the job when they graduate. Those currently employed are hanging on to their dear jobs. It’s a tough world to be in now, and it gets worse everyday. Layoffs continue to happen, companies have stopped hiring, benefits are being cut down. People are working as hard as ever – not because they have padded pockets, but because those that were laid off will never be replaced, while projects continued to pour in. Add to this the fact that companies outsource some of their IT functions to save, taking American jobs away.

You can say it’s stressful – stressful to think that you might be next in line. Stressful to think of what’ll happen to those who got the ax – people who have families, mortgages, bills to pay for, kids to send to school.

Where do you go from here? We can only hope that things will turn for the better. While employed, we must continue to look for other alternatives and educate ourselves on other skills, so when our turns come, we’re ready to shift. It’s sad… but IT boom is long gone. The bubble has burst, and we ought to deal with it and go with the changing times.