How CCIEs can survive these economic hard times

July 15, 2008, 08:08 PM — 

We have all heard the bad news about high gas prices, the mortgage crisis, recession scenarios, pandemics and layoffs. None of us are immune to the economic blues, but CCIEs are able to cope if they stay on their toes.

I would like to share some of what I have learned about how CCIEs can better survive and even thrive in this economic turbulence. Here's what my Career Diva, Eve Tahmincioglu has to say about the current economic climate and how it might affect you: "If we think the sky is falling we may be apt to make rash career decisions right now. We may be convinced to accept less pay or benefits because everything is falling apart, and oh, aren't we lucky that an employer has offered us a job at all." (See her complete article on the current state of things on her blog.)

I have recently been contacted by CCIEs who are feeling threatened by the economic downturn. It's true that Retail, Mortgage, Securities, Real Estate, Banking, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, and some global partners have been affected by the economic strife. A few months ago several large financial institutions hurt by the Mortgage crisis began downsizing, and several CCIEs contacted me when they were told they would be losing their jobs.

Even this past week I had calls from a few more CCIEs who were on the cutting table from a major pharmaceutical and they were worried about the future. The stories are mostly the same. The size of the companies they worked for made them feel secure in their positions, after all enterprise network engineers are essential to any enterprise IT department.

Some of the CCIEs had been lulled into a false sense of security because of their roles and the size of the enterprise they supported made them feel secure. Several were actually contractors who had contracted for just a few months and found themselves still on the site 3 to 5 years later.

I asked questions like; "Why did you wait so long to get your resume together?"; "What have you done to prepare for some unemployed time?"; "Do you have a job search plan?"; "What are your career goals?"; "Have you let this situation change any of your career plans?"

It comes as a real shock to be told you are being let go, especially if you have been with the same company for a few years, but don't let it get you down! Not everyone is prepared to hit the job market with a fresh resume and some rainy day money.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

I like it!
Close

On Twitter now

CCIE

Powered by Twitter
You are logged in | Sign out
Sign in and post to Twitter

What are you thinking?

Cancel Tweet sent

On Twitter now

Post a comment
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
peer-to-peer

jfruh
Apple syncing patent can't come soon enough

pasmith
New Twitter features borrow from 3rd party clients

Esther Schindler
Open Source Changes the Software Acquisition Process

mikelgan
How to set up continuous podcast play on the new iTunes

David Strom
Five important Windows 7 mobility features

sjvn
Guard your Wi-Fi for your own sake                        

Sandra Henry-Stocker
Grepping on Whole Words

 

Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325

Join the conversation here

The Daily Tip

The Daily TipQuick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.

Hot tips:

Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.

Newsletters

Subscribe to ITWORLD TODAY and receive the latest IT news and analysis.

I would like to receive offers via email from ITworld partners.
By clicking submit you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in ITworld's privacy policy.
Featured Sponsor

AISO founders envisioned a Web hosting company that was environmentally friendly. While the company employed energy-efficient innovations like solar panels, its infrastructure produced unacceptable power and cooling requirements. Find out how AISO leveraged AMD technology to overcome their challenge in this case study white paper.

In this whitepaper, Scalar explores the opportunity to change the landscape with respect to mission critical databases built around Oracle. Leveraging technologies such as Linux, high-end commodity processing power and Oracle RAC technology to architect, design, build and maintain database infrastructure that delivers maximum availability, reliability and performance at a fraction of traditional cost.

On a typical day, weather.com, the Web site for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, serves up between 15 million and 20 million page views. But in September 2004, when back-to-back hurricanes ransacked Florida, the peak traffic on one day more than tripled: over 70 million page views by more than 7 million unique visitors. Read the full success story now.

Marketplace