Last one out, turn out the lights? 1

[dilettante]

Has anyone else noticed a bit of a downturn lately?

I'm having more trouble getting new projects, and one client just canceled a follow-on project to something I did for them last winter. Several people I've collaborated with in the past have gotten out of IT altogether.

The local chapter of a software professionals' association is thinking about folding its tent because membership is way down. The issues seem to be money and the fact the long commutes to new jobs are leaving people too strained to attend meetings and participate in projects or other activities on their own time.

Two IT training companies have closed offices here in the last year.

I would suspect this to be a localized geographic phenomenon, but it seems that over the past 6 to 8 weeks even forum postings are down. This seems to be true here and elsewhere. Then again, maybe interest in waning in the technologies I'm most interested in.

I hear the economy is "booming" but there must be quite a lag factor. Things were doing much better just last January. Is this the "calm before the storm?"

Anyone else seeing this? Anyone seeing things picking up already where you are?

 

[lionelhill]

yes, that's fair comment. I've been appreciating Microsoft's kindness in not changing format too much recently. Word95 was the last big shift, if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[jwenting]

it was, and that was required because the old format was too restrictive to support expansion.
All current versions will work together, you just miss out on the added features like hotlinking inside Word to Outlook address books that were added later on.
The document will work right, but you just won't see the new stuff (which most people don't use anyway).

 

[dilettante]

It's been awhile since I got back to this thread. Sort of surprised it's still alive. ;-)

Things seem about the same here, but I'm in an area that was highly reliant on manufacturing. The current recovery seems to be more about job increases in the transportation of goods, warehousing, and retailing them. Maybe that's why things are slow here because our core "economic engines" locally are going, going, gone in so many cases.

As far as a "job costing the same no matter who does it" though, I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing.

Within a local economy there is only one legitimate justification for a higher cost: higher value. A contractor or employee with more experience and education may cost more per hour but should be able to accomplish correspondingly more and/or with higher quality per hour. Sometimes it comes down to who can meet a fixed deadline.

There's another thread here someplace about "getting what you pay for." As long as that is kept in mind, by all means get a barber college haircut if it meets your needs.

My own role in the market is a little different though. Much of my business involves fixing botched haircuts for somebody who tried to "cheap out" (whether on internal staff of cheapie contractors). So clients requesting I use "cheap associates" to fix their cheap-induced problems is a little frustrating.

A botched IT job can be as hard to remediate as a botched haircut. Usually you can't just glue on some extra hair in either case.

When clients bemoan the cost of "having the job done twice" all I can say is "call me first next time." The lure of getting a deal often overcomes their good sense time after time though.

 

[chiph]

When clients bemoan the cost of "having the job done twice" all I can say is "call me first next time." The lure of getting a deal often overcomes their good sense time after time though.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink"

Chip H.


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[lionelhill]

I think what I meant about same job costing the same is that when I catch the bus, I don't expect to pay extra because Michael Schumacher is driving it: the bus should be driven well and safely anyway, and I didn't ask for Michael Schumacher's extra skills, and don't really need them (don't even want them! Can you imagine a London double-decker at that speed??).

The same job, done the same way, to the same standard, should cost the same, even if it's done by someone who's slumming it and could be doing something much more complicated.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Although I understand the bus analogy, I don't it quite applies. Consider this, you hire a younger, less experienced programmer at $40/hour to build an application. It takes that programmer 100 hours to build the job, and can expect higher long term maintenance costs due to a lower standard of quality. On the other hand, you can hire a $100/hour programmer to do the same job, but it only takes 50 hours to get the job done. Not only to get the use of the application sooner, who have lower long-term maintenance costs because of the quality of the production code. Sure, it's a higher front end cost, but the long-term savings more than make up in a relatively short period of time.

Let me try to put into your bus analogy. Part of what you're paying for is the reliability of the bus to get you from point A to point B in the prescribed period of time. If Bus #1 is being maintained by Joe's down the street maintenance garage, and Bus #2 is being maintained by Schumacher's pit crew, regardless of who is driving, there is a reliability factor in play, and that is worth something.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[jwenting]

I somehow doubt Schumis pitcrew would do a good job maintaining a bus for long endurance.
After all, they never have to prep a vehicle to last more than 3-4 hours at most from the time the engine is started

 

[sln007]

jw,

It was an analogy as to "Schumis" expert qualities.....jeesh.

 

[strongm]

That's the problem with analogies - they often get stretched too far...

 

[lionelhill]

like threads...

 

[jwenting]

irony == slightly made of iron???

 

[johnherman]

There appears to be good demand for professionals in the Phila/Balt/DC area. Esp. people with database skills.

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John Herman is available for short and long term data warehousing consulting and contracts.