Face of the Underemployed IT Pro
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When IT professionals contend that finding a well-paying job is hard, despite evidence of a strengthening business-technology workforce, think of Bea Dewing. |
IT jobs are plentiful, if you believe government statistics. IT employment is at a record high, and many CIOs complain they can't find qualified professionals to fill business-tech jobs in the United States. Yet, whenever such facts are made public, we're inundated with e-mails and postings from business-technology professionals who contend that a combination of offshore outsourcing and the hiring of foreign nationals on visas are stealing jobs from American citizens.
In an article entitled The Declining Value of Your College Degree, the Wall Street Journal tells the story of Dewing, who was earning $89,000 annual as a data modeler for Sprint Corp. when she was laid off in 2002. According to article:
When recruiters called, she would usually put her expected salary at something close to her old salary. As time went by without an offer she lowered it steadily, to $60,000. She found herself competing for jobs with employees of outsourcing firms brought over from India on temporary visas, such as the H-1B.
A few months ago, Ms. Dewing got a call from a recruiter calling on behalf of Wal-Mart. Company officials pressed her during her interview on how she had kept up her data-modeling ability during her six years away from the specialty. She noted that while at Sprint she had revived the Kansas City chapter of a data modelers' professional association and, long after being laid off, continued to attend its seminars where invited experts would describe the latest advances. She even cited her short-lived Internet cafe [she had owned] as evidence of how she could solve diverse problems.
When she landed the job [at 20 percent less than her Sprint salary, adjusted for inflation], she says, "I felt, 'All right, I'm a professional again.'" Even so, Dewing has a newfound appreciation for how insecure any job can be and how little a college degree [she holds two, including one in computer science] by itself stands for. "There is enough competition for entry-level positions that employers are going to ask, 'What else have you done in your life besides go to college?'" she says. "And in information technology, a portfolio of hands-on experience with programming is a really good thing to have."
Do you think that Dewing represents the struggle many IT pros face? Add your thoughts to our Reader's View discussion, Why the Disconnect Around IT Employment Numbers? or comment below.
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