RE: AS/400 job market -- MIDRANGE-L

Joe,

I am employed by a consulting company.  I was given a two-week notice by a
client at the end of November.  My last day at the client was December 13th.
My employer was finally able to place me at a new client this past Monday.
In my case, I was extremely fortunate to be working for a employer that
continued to pay me while I was on the bench.

As you are probably aware, December is historically a bad time to be looking
for consulting work.  In my experience (15+ years), most shops experience
people taking time off for the holidays, or otherwise just not starting any
new projects.  

IMHO, Y2K only extended this market slowdown.  While I had not noticed the
slowdown as early as this past summer like you had, certainly the market
began its decline in October and continued through December.  Our company
believed that, once January 1 rolled around, the phones would be ringing off
the hook; the expectation was that all the unseen / uncaught bugs would rear
their ugly heads after January 1.  That did not happen.  Apparently,
midrangers in our area were pretty well prepared for Y2K.  I also tend to
think that most shops in our area (Metro Detroit) use packaged apps
(although I have no basis for that except for my own experience) and,
therefore, were kept fairly Y2K compliant through upgrades.  In fact, the
client that dropped me in December migrated from an OLD package (DPS) to JBA
and spent most of last year implementing it across the company.

Two weeks before I was placed at my new client, my company finally, but
reluctantly, gave me notice to start looking.  In my brief job search, I
found several opportunities in my area, including one from a recruiter.
Another consulting company had two opportunities for a 6-month contract with
the option to hire; which also happens to be the situation at my new client.

I remain optimistic about the AS/400 job market, both in consulting and in
permanent hires.  IMO, January is slow because companies are still feeling
out the effects of Y2K.  Perhaps they want to get the January month-end out
of the way before feeling confident enough to start new projects.  But, as
time marches on in 2000, I think the opportunities will continue to greatly
improve.

- Dan
(I'm back!!!)

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Teff [mailto:joeteff@earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2000 7:32 AM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: AS/400 job market


A few months ago, there was a thread that discussed the lack of work
in the AS/400 consulting marketplace. I've noticed this since last
summer. As consultants came off of contracts, fewer and fewer were
being placed again. This got really bad in the 4th quarter. There were
many reports of consultants leaving the consulting business or even
being laif off. So far January doesn't seem to be reversing this trend.
I think it's due, at least in part, because of the former consultants
taking full time positions, thus reducing the need for consultants. I'd
be interested in hearing from others on thier thoughts, concerns and
expectations on this.

Joe Teff
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