Recession Proof Technology Jobs?

Eweek posted an article yesterday which tried to go over a list of technology jobs or skills that would actually do well in a recession. The list of skills and/or job titles that seem to do well according to the article include the following:

1) Network skills
2) Business facing roles
3) QA Testing
4) Security
5) Consultants
6) Legacy programmers
7) Sys Admins
8) IT Managers
9) Help Desk

I think if you're in a recession almost nothing "does well" as the title of the article suggests. You may be less prone to layoffs but let's not kid ourselves. A recession is a recession. Salaries will suffer and so will certain positions.

Among the list I agree that you'll always need a good sys admin and a strong network team. You just might not need as many of them during a recession. That's what you need to be careful of. You always have to show your value especially in technology or you may get "marked".

Within IT you sometimes become invisible unless a problem that affects information systems of the company arises. Then you're in the spotlight (sometimes good, sometime not so good). The point is you need to be visible and I'm talking about the good visibility.

Things like business facing roles go a long way to show value. Having both technical and business savy will help make you less prone to recession cut backs. That combination is rare in the techie world.

Back to the list. I think that suggesting QA, Legacy programmers, and consultants are safe is a stretch. Usually when cut back happen consultants/contractors are the first to go, followed by help desk folks, and the rest depend on the ongoing projects the company is shifting focus to. Here's another hint... try to get on those projects that your company is shifting focus to.

BillP
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http://www.outervillage.com

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