* Conduct "active" job search, don't rule out alternative IT careers
Layoffs seem to be coming fast and furious these days, with thousands of jobs expected to be lost at companies like Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch. At HP alone, 24,600 layoffs are in the cards.
Obviously, many of these layoffs will leave IT workers without jobs, so how should newly unemployed tech pros go about searching for a new position? To get some advice, I interviewed Janice Weinberg, a former IT pro and career consultant based in Westport, Conn., who recently wrote a book called “Debugging your Information Technology Career: A Compass to New and Rewarding Fields that Value Computer Knowledge.”
Weinberg said her most important piece of advice is to conduct an active job hunting campaign. While this may seem obvious on the surface, Weinberg says many job hunters are content to simply answer job ads and wait by their phone or computer for a response that might never come.
“The competition is going to be so keen that I don’t believe someone should use that method to any significant extent, because it’s not likely to produce results,” she says. “We’re essentially in a recession, even if the official gross domestic product numbers don’t indicate it. In a recession there are going to be fewer jobs.”
First, make sure to do some serious networking – reach out to former colleagues, anyone you know and update them on your availability and any skills you have acquired since last talking to them. When answering a job ad, make the initial contact by telephone, and don’t just call the main number.
“The active job hunter will initiate contact by telephone with the executive that he or she will have determined in advance, through some research, is likely to be the decision-maker for the job that person is seeking,” Weinberg says.
IT pros have one advantage over workers in just about any other industry – they’re needed everywhere. “IT people can really work in any industry,” Weinberg notes. So you should consider targeting industries that are at least somewhat resistant to economic turmoil, such as healthcare, government and education.
Healthcare in particular is an especially attractive industry for IT pros today, because “there has been a very strong emphasis on computerization” with electronic health records and computerized physician ordering systems, Weinberg notes.
If you’re looking for a job now, do some research on industries and companies that may remain strong during a recession. One online database that can help with this process is ReferenceUSA, a subscription-based product that is sometimes available to patrons at local libraries.Once you’ve identified potential employers, Weinberg says to give them a call even if they’re not advertising job openings. Develop a written script to answer objections. If the employer says the company is fully staffed, say something like “I can certainly appreciate the fact that you’re fully staffed. However, in case you suddenly lost a member of your team and needed to replace that person quickly, perhaps you would find it useful to know of a qualified backup candidate.”
While this approach may not pay immediate dividends, it’s a way of differentiating yourself. “The strategy here is you want to distinguish yourself from the people who might be contacting the executive only by sending letters and resumes,” Weinberg says.
Weinberg decided to write her book, which describes alternative careers for IT professionals, a few years ago when offshoring seemed to be hitting a peak. “I thought it was only a matter of time before I would see some coverage in the media about the alternatives for people in computer professions, those who lost their jobs due to outsourcing,” she says. “I didn’t see anything, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
The alternative careers she writes about in her book leverage IT experience while offering a different challenge than a typical IT job. Examples include product management and sales account executive positions in the IT and telecom industries.
