We all know about the economic crisis. You’re a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), or maybe even you have advanced Microsoft certifications such as MCSE, MCAD, MCT, or MCA. How does the economy affect your career?
First of all, you need to consider Microsoft itself. Their stock is currently at a 5 year low, but so are plenty of other companies, so don’t worry about that. There are two key things that you need to understand about Microsoft to realize that they are going to come out of this just fine. The first thing is that they are a cash rich company, with about $23 billion in cash on their balance sheet and about $6 billion in equity investments. In contrast, the companies that are getting hit the hardest by the economic crisis are the companies that are cash strapped and rely on lines of credit to operate. The second key thing to understand about Microsoft is that practically since their inception, they have dominated the market by buying up smaller companies with good technology, and integrating it with their already existing products and then creating the right pricing and the right marketing spin to crush the competition. So in an unstable market with many smaller companies going bankrupt, it will provide excellent opportunities for Microsoft to buy smaller (or failing) companies with great technology at a bargain price. The weak get weaker and the strong get stronger.
Microsoft’s current market share is huge — in the ninety percent range for desktop O.S. Microsoft is not going away any more than computers themselves are going away. In fact, Microsoft is continuing to expand into new markets. For example, the Health Solutions Group (HSG) is currently a startup business within Microsoft, developing innovative software solutions for the healthcare industry.
When the economy turns tough, consumers look for value solutions. Microsoft Software, running on either Intel or AMD hardware, consistently provides a value solution. For example, a high end Unix server such as IBM’s power 6 p570 running Oracle DB on AIX will cost at least $500k (probably closer to a $1M if you include software and maintenance costs and if the hardware frame is fully populated). 99% of all businesses don’t need something that powerful and could achieve cost efficiencies with a Microsoft value solution. For example, a Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise version running on Windows Data Center edition on high-end (more than 8 cores) Intel or AMD hardware would most likely be a 2x better value than the above Unix solution (i.e. half the cost). In the mid range, (servers wth 5-8 cores), the Microsoft solution is going to be a better value than the comparable unix solution by an even bigger factor (3x or 4x).
So how does all of this affect you? If Microsoft is strong and continues to grow and innovate, and if the company provides value solutions that are more cost effective than the competition, then there will continue to be a plethora of career opportunities for professionals with Microsoft centric skills who can provide implementation and support expertise.
Next time we’ll continue this discussion with some specific job hunting and career advancement tips that can help you in a tough job market.
