Everyone is Hiring!
The economy seems to be in the media spotlight and we are all sort of scared shitless. Yet, I wonder, how bad is it? They say you never really know till it hits home. Well, until recently no one I knew lost their job; actually most people I knew were getting new jobs (with much higher salaries). But alas, a friend of mine recently lost their job. However, within six minutes of telling me this, I was able to forward on more than half a dozen leads for companies hiring for their position within a two mile radius of their apartment here in Washington, D.C. So, how bad can it really be?
If you work in the web space, they are hiring. And by they, I mean everyone! Heck, we just brought on a new designer here at nclud. From information architects to designers to developers, from copywriters to project managers and everything in-between, they are hiring! From small shops to large media corporations, they are all hiring!
Just looking around in my own neighborhood, every design agency here is hiring, including:
- Browser Media
- Phase2 Technology
- Rockcreek Strategic Marketing
- Viget Labs
- Interactive Strategies
- Three Spot
- AKQA
- Navigation Arts
- Siteworx
- ForumOne Communications
- Pappas Group
- Janmedia Interactive
- Free Range Studios
- DBC Public Relations
- Discovery Communications, Inc.
- National Geographic Society
And these were just the organizations I could think of off the top of my head. And every single one of them has an opening for a talented individual working in the web space.
This feels much more like a “reality check” than a “recession”. For all those who are hard working, talented and work in an industry that thrives, there seems to be no worry, no lack of jobs. But for those that were lazy, didn’t keep up their skill set, didn’t strive to be better, stayed with the same dead-end company or those that thought “blogging” was a career path; this might just be a reality check more so than an issue with the economy.
Everywhere I look people are trying to point out the negative, but I have to wonder, are companies failing because of a bad economy or simply because of better competition? Are the layoffs really only a result of a bad economy? Doesn’t better competition have a little something to do with these outrageous numbers? For many organizations with layoffs, many of their direct competitors are growing. Isn’t there some Darwinism here? We have had presented to us the layoffs but are those numbers off set by the number of hires?
Digg has a 10% layoff while Mixx grows their team by almost 50%. Circuit City closes all of its stores while Best Buy opens many new stores. Microsoft is down by 5% while Apple has a $10 Billion Dollar year! Google goes down by 1% while search competitors grow significantly in the last year. The Financial Times struggles in print while Fool.com grows significantly online, even moving into a brand new headquarters.
Can the “economy” really be to blame? If you can’t find a job, are you really even looking? Is everyone hiring, just not hiring you? Maybe it’s not the economy, maybe it is you?
I don’t mean to come of as insensitive and I very much feel for anyone who has lost their job recently, especially those with families. I just wonder where the disconnect is; if everyone is hiring, shouldn’t the number of people looking for jobs be decreased; what happened to good old supply and demand?
- February 5th, 2009
- 5comments
- I am a proud member of the 9rules network
In simple economics, that’s exactly what a recession is. Capitalism requires what Schumpeter popularized as “Creative Destruction”. When innovation occurs, it tends to take down the giants of the past who couldn’t keep up. Hell, sometimes the destruction itself leads to innovation.
Think of the economy as a forest. Sometimes a forest needs forest fires to clear out the dead brush to allow the living to better thrive. The real problems occur when we get our stupid government throwing good money after bad when it tries to save the obsolete institutions. That’s like trying to prevent every single forest fire. It works for a time, but when a fire finally comes, it tends to burn everything down.
I think the recession is a good thing (as long as our government doesn’t screw it up), because our economy needed the reality check. We needed companies to start producing useful, quality products and services again. We need people with useful skills and talents.
I think the problem that a lot of people are having in this recession is not that they didn’t keep their skills up-to-date, but they never really had an useful skills to begin with. A B.A. is not a skill.
If you have actual skills in development or design then you’ll be fine. Your skills directly impact a product or service. Those skills are valuable. Engineering is another field desperate for talent. A lot of current engineering talent is tied up in the baby boomer generation who are going to retire in the next five to ten years. We just don’t have the younger people to replace them at this point. If you have engineering skills, you’ll be fine in any economy as well.
Adam,
Wow, thank you for the insightful comment; perfectly said.
First of all, well said, Adam. I definitely agree with your comment.
Secondly, Martin - Did you know your feed doesn’t have a title? I just subscribed in Google Reader and got “Untitled subscription“.
Wow, glad to see companies hiring… Here in the Midwest we’re not seeing that yet, but I’m hoping you guys out East are an indicator of what will soon happen here. (Incidentally, I’ll be out in Maryland next week…)
Thank you!