 |
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
By Julekha Dash (IDG) -- Amid layoffs and corporate hiring freezes, employers and successful job hunters say that IT workers looking for positions need to polish their interviewing and other "soft skills," as well as investing in technology training. According to outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas -- the nationally recognized monitor of trends in dot-com employment, Web-based companies cut 9,216 employees in June, down from 13,419 in May. That brings to 74,199 employees laid off by dot-coms in the first half of 2001. And while John Challenger, the Chicago-based firm's president and CEO, says, "We are seeing more job cuts from well-known, brand-name companies" these days -- perhaps indicating a bottom in the dot-com layoffs tumult -- it's still clear that a lot of workers, particularly in the tech sector, are looking for jobs.
In fact, when techies.com surveyed 700 IT workers who have been laid off in the past 36 months, 65 percent of those who lost their jobs six months to a year ago said they're still looking for work. A second installment of this survey is gathering responses now. That part -- focusing on issues of relocation faced by many laid-off tech workers -- is open now for participation. Obviously, pink-slipped workers face a lot of competition in the job market and can help themselves only if they come to an interview with realistic salary expectations and a dose of humility, says Rebecca Dill, executive producer at New York-based Internet consulting and design firm Drumbeat Digital LLC.
A good perspective"The biggest problem we're seeing," among interviewees, Dill says, "is that most of the people who have been in the industry in the last three to five years have been in a bubble. The notion of what they want in a job is a lot higher than what's realistic." For some positions, business skills and those soft skills -- otherwise known as "people skills" -- may be more important than technical expertise. When several applicants are competing for an IT position, the one with good communication skills will often get the job. "Interpersonal skills win over technical skills," says Keith Vencel, a product manager at Sutter Health, based in Sacramento, California. The company's Web site currently posts 11 information technology job openings, several for application analysts. Because these positions involve determining end-user system requirements and end-user training, applicants need to be good listeners and attentive to customer service, Vencel says. In considering an applicant, Vencel says he counts how many times a prospective hire interrupts him during an interview. Staying in the knowVencel says he also likes IT workers who have taken an active role in shaping their own careers by attending conferences and getting training in areas of technology that interest them. Proactive technologists are more likely to constantly find challenges in their jobs at Sutter and therefore stay at the company longer, he says.
But keeping your technology skills sharp is also critical when you have been laid off because "you're not using those skills daily," says Bill DeCastro, who began working in June as a senior application developer at EquiServe LP, a Jersey City-based provider of corporate shareholder services. The 26-year-old was laid off in February from his job as an IT consultant at Sumitomo Bank, now part of Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., and said he treated job hunting as full-time work. DeCastro spent a couple of evenings per week at a bookstore reading technical articles and books to keep his knowledge of database and Visual Basic programming current. DeCastro also spent several hours a day taking advantage of free Ethernet access at the New York Public Library to search online job postings, research companies and send his resume to recruiters and employers. But even if you find a job, maintaining a good network of contacts is key in this economy, says DeCastro. Keep in touch with employers who interviewed you every couple of months, he advises. That way, "the next time [you're laid off], you'll have contacts," he says.
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top | |
© 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. |
![[watercooler]](/CAREER/images/icons/watercooler.gif){kind=icon}