Magna Cum Unemployed

Date: Friday, May 09, 2003 9:43 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/story/0,10801,80657,00.html?nas=CAR-80657

Magna Cum Unemployed

By Donald Finley
APRIL 28, 2003

When I changed my college major from mechanical engineering to

computer science in 1998, I had few reservations about making the
switch. After all, the salaries of the two professions were comparable,
and IT seemed to be thriving.
Unfortunately, my graduation in December 2000 roughly coincided with
the crash of the dot-coms and a dip in the economy, which made job
searching much more difficult.

No fear, I thought, I have an academic record that will impress
employers and help me stand out among job candidates. I had graduated
magna cum laude, made the dean's list multiple times, won awards for
academic excellence -- and no one seemed to care. The liability of my
inexperience seemed to outweigh any advantage that a solid academic
background provided.

The slowing of the economy has left many experienced IT professionals
looking for jobs, and companies have their choice of workers with
proven track records. This means decreased opportunities for
entry-level programmers with resumes heavy on skills and education and
light on job history.

Illustrating this fact are the employers and headhunters who call to
express interest in the skills I have listed on my resume online. One
of their first questions is, "How much experience do you have?"
Answering this potentially damning question with honesty usually
ensures no future correspondence.

The lack of opportunities made me increasingly worried, and in
September 2001, I committed an act of desperation. I had been job
searching by myself and through employment agencies for almost eight
months when I accepted a knowledge management position at a government
agency in Washington, where living expenses are high and the pay is
low. The job was part intern/part employee and kept me on the periphery
of working with IT (checking e-mail was my sole interaction with
computers). After six months in the program, I decided to return home
and earnestly look for opportunities in software development, the area
of most interest to me.

Searching online job sites yielded few possibilities for someone with
my level of experience; I fared better by contacting hiring managers
directly. After three months of research and many phone calls to
managers, I landed a job as a Web developer at a struggling e-learning
company. But after being told almost every week for six months that the
office might not be open the following week, I was searching for
another job by December 2002.

During this time, I had also enrolled in a graduate program, thinking
that another degree might help me find a job. However, since starting
the program, I have considered the possibility that even this move may
not help, because there are factors affecting the job market that are
beyond my control.

For instance, the controversial H-1B and L-1 visa programs exacerbate
the situation by importing foreign IT workers, placing them in direct
competition with American workers for jobs. This, by far, is the most
disturbing discovery to me. Abuse of these programs is obvious, and
their necessity escapes me.

My heart sinks when I read stories about IT workers such as those at
Siemens in Lake Mary, Fla., who were replaced by L-1 visa workers and
made to train their replacements. The matter is compounded by the trend
of sending IT jobs offshore, as summed up in the ominous proclamation
of Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, when she stated, "We're trying
to move everything we can offshore," in an interview in a December 2002
Forbes article. Taking these things into account, I am convinced that
the IT industry is being undermined.

This point was driven home as I sat with the head of the computer
science department at my university and we spoke about the scarcity of
IT jobs. "I shouldn't be saying this, because I am from India," he
said, "but India has really prospered through this." I told him that I
was aware of all the outsourcing, but he explained that companies such
as Microsoft were going a step further and setting up shop in India.
Then he reassured me that creative IT jobs such as research would be
safe in the U.S., but he corrected himself midstream by saying that GE
was in the process of constructing a research center in India.

Finally, he punctuated his remarks by saying, "It's been a tough three
years," an understatement with which I emphatically agree.

Donald Finley is a computer science graduate student and a graduate
assistant in Tennessee.
Contact him at dcf1922@yahoo.com.

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