How to Stay Up in a Down Economy

It doesn't take a $250 visit to a psychotherapist to confirm what you feel in your gut each morning when you wake up -- it's depressing out there. With market volatility, economic instability, pink slips and the ongoing threat of yet another round of IT layoffs -- no wonder you feel like diving back under the covers.

If you've been let go, you might worry that you'll never work again. If you've escaped a layoff, "it's very discouraging when you see colleagues leave, because these people were your friends," says Beverly Lieberman, an IT recruiter and career coach and president of Halbrecht Lieberman Associates Inc.

Employees may feel trapped in a company where "they're sort of grateful to be still working, but they're insecure," she says, because virtually no employer is making any guarantees about IT or any other kind of job.

"Everybody is saying you can write off 2009 because there are no indicators it will get any better," Lieberman concludes. "We're praying for 2010."

But that doesn't mean you have to spend the rest of the year as an emotional cellar dweller. It's not easy, but it is possible for tech pros to nurture themselves and even bolster their professional credentials during these tough times, whether you're laid off and looking, or left behind and overworked.

So how exactly do you go about staying up in a down economy? Computerworld gathered tips from a quartet of IT career experts, including Lieberman; Boston-area career coach and author Naomi Karten; IT career expert, author and Computerworld columnist Paul Glen; and Nagesh Belludi, a professional software engineer and program manager at a large multinational company who also regularly counsels IT professionals. Here's their advice:

1. Return to Your Roots

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