[Novalug] Employee turnover rates

[Stephan Greene]

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 1:57 PM, <ethan at 757.org> wrote:

>
> LOL. This is America. Just offshore it all, it will be cheaper and there
> will be more money for executive bonuses at the end of the quarter. Who
> cares if the company goes under in a year, as long as the executives and
> key shareholders get a lifelong supply of money now, they've got
> nothing to worry about.
>
> I live in the Norfolk, VA area where jobs are mainly unchallenging boring
> gov't contractor gigs. There are a few gems in the rough. I'm a huge
> follower of the housing bubble, and with it has come the realization that
> my region isn't very good... and the DC metro area or Raleigh might be
> where I want to relocate in the future.
>

Maybe you need to find the challenging non-boring government contractor gigs
(they do exist), just as there are unchallenging and boring commercial
assignments.  (Offhand, I've worked approx 1/3 private and 2/3 gov't).  As
to stability, I left ahead of layoffs at 2 commercial jobs, was laid off by
3 more, and would have been laid off at one contractor job due to contract
loss (but saw it coming and left a month ahead of the inevitable).  The
conclusion I draw from this is maybe my mother in law was right about me not
being able to hold a job (after all, HER husband was a dentist from the day
he graduated Tufts till the day he retired) and engineers really are
overeducated migrant labor.

At least in Tidewater and DC area, most government-related jobs are
resistant to going offshore because of that "US citizenship required" clause
in the contract.  That doesn't make them resistant to changes in budget, new
administrations (although DoD's need for IT isn't going away regardless of
who wins in November), losing the re-compete, the crazed customer from
"Heck" who says "I don't want to see that person on this contract one more
day" (happens in the commercial world as well), or some senator or
congressman trying to relocate your customer and all their support to West
Virginia, Pennsylvania, or Alabama (analogous to corporate reloc, at least
you don't need a passport and work visa to follow the job).

Contractors continue to hire slowly but they want very specific skill sets
and appear quite willing to continue to look for the near-ideal candidate
rather than hire the first "close but not quite what we wanted" that comes
along.

Depending on your financial situation and what you are looking for, real
estate in NoVA is becoming a lot more reasonable.  My very limited data set
(Reston Town Center condos) suggests some pressure on rents and a lot of
offshore investors who expected to flip their properties and are now stuck
and underwater.

None of this answers the OPs question about turnover in IT in general or
linux-oriented IT.  It's my opinion there is little difference between the
two now.  Unfortunately, I don't have data to answer the OPs question.

Steve
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Steve Greene  ks1g04 at gmail.com  <kay ess one gee zero four>@gmail.com
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