Remember When Tech Had Great Job Security? I Don't

A post over on LinkedIn got me thinking, which got me writing.

No, I don’t.

I’ve been working in tech for 35 years, and in all that time, I’ve never observed very many people having a real sense of “job security” – as in, the feeling that nothing could or would go wrong with their company, their team, or their role that wasn’t under their control; or at least that they wouldn’t have visibility into if things changed.

There have been wonderful times, hard times, and times in between. There have been hot spots in the country or in the industry where companies couldn’t find enough IT folks or hire them fast enough, as well as areas (both geographic and professional) that were “about to die” (looking at you, Mainframe).

35 years, 17 companies (and counting.)

I’d say “job security is a myth” (and I’d mean it), but it would sound bitter or cynical, and I don’t mean it either way. It’s just that, like the “we’re like a family here” line, it’s just that – a line. It doesn’t bear out against the lived experiences across time and businesses.

That’s not to say that every tech job is on a knife’s edge, nor do I disagree that RIGHT NOW, things are about as unstable as I can recall (although, as I blogged about last November. It’s still better than 2009 or 2002, let alone 1975. And that’s not “you kids don’t know what ‘hard times’ mean”; it’s just saying that the doom-and-gloom, “this is the worst it’s EVER been,” is kind of overblown. ) but for all the churn, there’s still a lot of hiring going on, too.

And I think that’s the key point. Yes, a lot of companies are cutting a lot of people for a lot of reasons (some of them are reasonable, and a lot of them are less so). But there are a lot of jobs on the market.

By way of example, the weekly job list that will go up tomorrow over on AdatoSystems.com will have over 150 jobs on it. And that’s just the stuff that’s come across my personal email, slack, and discord THIS WEEK. Last week was a good week, too. I’ve got no reason to think next week will be different.

Of course, it might be, and that’s the nature of the business.

Do I remember a time when things – companies, technology, salaries, or jobs – were stable? No, I don’t. Do I wish they were more stable than they are today? Of course.

Do I think things will settle down (at least for a little while)?

Absolutely.

Also published here.