A post over on LinkedIn got me thinking, which got me writing.
No, I don’t.
I’ve been working in tech for 35 years, in all that time, I’ve never observed very many people having a real sense of “job security” – as in, the feeling that nothing could or would go wrong with their company, their team, or their role that wasn’t under their control; or at least that they wouldn’t have visibility into if things changed.
There have been wonderful times, and hard times, and times in-between. There have been hot spots in the country, or in the industry, where companies couldn’t find enough IT folks or hire them fast enough; and areas (both geographic and professional) that were “about to die” (looking at you, Mainframe).
35 years, 17 companies (and counting.)
I’d say “job security is a myth” (and I’d mean it) but it would sound bitter, or cynical, and I don’t mean it either way. It’s just that, like the “we’re like a family here” line, it’s just that – a line. It doesn’t bear out against the lived experiences across time and businesses.
That’s not to say that every tech job is on a knife’s edge; nor am I disagreeing that RIGHT NOW, things are about as unstable as I can recall (although, as I blogged about last November (https://www.adatosystems.com/2023/11/13/lessons-from-a-6-month-job-search/) it’s still better than 2009, or 2002, let alone 1975. And that’s not “you kids don’t know what ‘hard times’ mean”, it’s just saying that the doom-and-gloom, “this is the worst it’s EVER been” is kind of overblown. ) but for all the churn, there’s still a lot of hiring going on too.
And I think that’s the key point. Yes, a lot of companies are cutting a lot of people for a lot of reasons (some of them reasonable, a lot of them less so). But there are a lot of jobs on the market.
By way of example, the weekly job list that will go up tomorrow over on AdatoSystems.com will have over 150 jobs on it. And that’s just the stuff that’s come across my personal email, slack, and discord THIS WEEK. Last week was a good week too. I’ve got no reason to think next week will be different.
Of course, it might be, and that’s the nature of the business.
Do I remember a time when things – companies, technology, salaries, or jobs – were stable? No I don’t. Do I wish they were more stable than they are today? Of course.
Do I think things will settle down (at least for a little while)?
Absolutely.
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