Information technology as a career used to mean a bright future. It may be for some really brainiac people out there, but if you look at the job listings it seems that whereas years ago you could have a certain experience level and a technical aptitude, and a willingness to learn, it would take you far. Now, and maybe it's the job market, you need all sorts of very specific experience. It's not just the experience but the depth and breadth of it as well. My friends and I marvel at some of these job ads. For example, you would think that someone who programmed in x number of programming languages could learn to program in one that is not on his resume, but they want people who know... everything. Have you looked lately? I have seen positions go unfilled for well over a year. On top of this, the pay has stagnated and they just push and push until people crack.
I have watched crack programmers, older men who were at the dawn of modern computing but still too young to be put out to pasture, become unemployable due to things like age discrimination in the information technology sector. This happens while these corporations lobby the government for cheap offshore labor and H1-B visas for gues technology workers from places like India and China, who, surprise, work for a much lower wage. The false job listings are just a way to appear like they can't find people to fill these positions while they lobby the government for cheap labor. So, the domestic IT sector has been commoditized and gutted. Crack programmers will always be in demand, but anyone except the most genius people will be pushed to the sidelines or forced to work for almost no money.
The only choice that these marginalized workers have is to reinvent themselves, American style, and find other ways to earn a living. Now, they either go offline or online, but they have to do something. Sitting around sulking is not an option.
Some ideas for the down and out IT worker. Since you are good with computers and technology, there are options if you can hustle.
Online auctions - buy and sell goods online for a profit. The goods can be bought and sold totally online or gathered and bought locally to be sold online. There are people making a complete living doing this sort of thing.
Coding - there are contracting sites where you can trade your coding or other technical skills for money. Everything from hard core programming to SEO and creating WordPress blogs can be bartered online. You can even buy a web hosting reseller account and be your own web hosting provider. Piggyback that with website design and you have a full fledged business.
Crafts - If you are good with your hands, you can create craft type goods and once again sell them online via auction or sites like Etsy. You can even have your own website or Amazon store front for these goods and use the auctions or classified ads to get leads and publicity.
Marketing - Something that can be very lucrative is online marketing, internet marketing, multi level marketing. There are variations of this in the offline world but it exists online too and with the entire internet as a customer base you have a huge market comprised of niches of people looking for various products and opportunities.
Product Design - There are sites like Cafepress that allow you to submit graphic designs to place on shirts and all sorts of goods. You place these in a virtual store and you get a percentage of the sale price.
Adsense and Advertising - There are many content sites that are written for specific information niches and they host ads that are tailored for the content on the pages. The webmaster gets a percentage of the ad revenue from visitor clicks - or the receiving end of the pay per click model.
So there you have it. There are probably more ideas out there. Get creative and never ever rely on a job, on a boss, on a corporation for your survival. Take the bull by the horns and go out there and make something happen for your future.
I have watched crack programmers, older men who were at the dawn of modern computing but still too young to be put out to pasture, become unemployable due to things like age discrimination in the information technology sector. This happens while these corporations lobby the government for cheap offshore labor and H1-B visas for gues technology workers from places like India and China, who, surprise, work for a much lower wage. The false job listings are just a way to appear like they can't find people to fill these positions while they lobby the government for cheap labor. So, the domestic IT sector has been commoditized and gutted. Crack programmers will always be in demand, but anyone except the most genius people will be pushed to the sidelines or forced to work for almost no money.
The only choice that these marginalized workers have is to reinvent themselves, American style, and find other ways to earn a living. Now, they either go offline or online, but they have to do something. Sitting around sulking is not an option.
Some ideas for the down and out IT worker. Since you are good with computers and technology, there are options if you can hustle.
Online auctions - buy and sell goods online for a profit. The goods can be bought and sold totally online or gathered and bought locally to be sold online. There are people making a complete living doing this sort of thing.
Coding - there are contracting sites where you can trade your coding or other technical skills for money. Everything from hard core programming to SEO and creating WordPress blogs can be bartered online. You can even buy a web hosting reseller account and be your own web hosting provider. Piggyback that with website design and you have a full fledged business.
Crafts - If you are good with your hands, you can create craft type goods and once again sell them online via auction or sites like Etsy. You can even have your own website or Amazon store front for these goods and use the auctions or classified ads to get leads and publicity.
Marketing - Something that can be very lucrative is online marketing, internet marketing, multi level marketing. There are variations of this in the offline world but it exists online too and with the entire internet as a customer base you have a huge market comprised of niches of people looking for various products and opportunities.
Product Design - There are sites like Cafepress that allow you to submit graphic designs to place on shirts and all sorts of goods. You place these in a virtual store and you get a percentage of the sale price.
Adsense and Advertising - There are many content sites that are written for specific information niches and they host ads that are tailored for the content on the pages. The webmaster gets a percentage of the ad revenue from visitor clicks - or the receiving end of the pay per click model.
So there you have it. There are probably more ideas out there. Get creative and never ever rely on a job, on a boss, on a corporation for your survival. Take the bull by the horns and go out there and make something happen for your future.
