The economy seems to be in the media spotlight and we are all sort of scared shitless. Yet, I wonder, how bad is it? They say you never really know till it hits home. Well, until recently no one I knew lost their job; actually most people I knew were getting new jobs (with much higher salaries). But alas, a friend of mine recently lost their job. However, within six minutes of telling me this, I was able to forward on more than half a dozen leads for companies hiring for their position within a two km radius of their apartment here in Bucharest. So, how bad can it really be?
If you work in the web space, they are hiring. And by they, I mean everyone! Heck, we just brought new guys in sales here at Attitude. From information architects to designers to developers, from copywriters to project managers and everything in-between, they are hiring! From small shops to large media corporations, they are all hiring!
This feels much more like a "reality check" than a "recession". For all those who are hard working, talented and work in an industry that thrives, there seems to be no worry, no lack of jobs. But for those that were lazy, didn't keep up their skill set, didn't strive to be better, stayed with the same dead-end company or those that thought "blogging" was a career path; this might just be a reality check more so than an issue with the economy.
Everywhere I look people are trying to point out the negative, but I have to wonder, are companies failing because of a bad economy or simply because of better competition? Are the layoffs really only a result of a bad economy? Doesn't better competition have a little something to do with these outrageous numbers? For many organizations with layoffs, many of their direct competitors are growing. Isn't there some Darwinism here? We have had presented to us the layoffs but are those numbers off set by the number of hires?
Digg has a 10% layoff while Mixx grows their team by almost 50%. Circuit City closes all of its stores while Best Buy opens many new stores. Microsoft is down by 5% while Apple has a $10 Billion Dollar year! Google goes down by 1% while search competitors grow significantly in the last year. The Financial Times struggles in print while Fool.com grows significantly online, even moving into a brand new headquarters.
Can the "economy" really be to blame? If you can't find a job, are you really even looking? Is everyone hiring, just not hiring you? Maybe it's not the economy, maybe it is you?
I don't mean to come of as insensitive and I very much feel for anyone who has lost their job recently, especially those with families. I just wonder where the disconnect is; if everyone is hiring, shouldn't the number of people looking for jobs be decreased; what happened to good old supply and demand?
