New! May, 2009 Edition of this newsletter just published!
Feb, 2009 Edition of this newsletter!
In This Issue:
- How bad is the current job market for high tech professionals? What will happen in the next 3 to 6 months?
- How to survive and beat layoffs?
- Should you go back to school to escape from Depression 2.0?
- What have we learned from current financial crisis?
- Industry/company analysis: ad network industry and Depression 2.0
How bad is the job market for high tech professionals? What will happen in the next 3 to 6 months?
The number of layoffs in the high tech sector has increased significantly since August. As of December 10, 2008, according to Tech Crunch, over 280 companies and 104,000 employees have been affected by layoffs. GeekMBA360.com’s Depression 2.0 Layoff Tracker has been one of the most popular page on the site.
Below are some observations about what will happen in the next 3 to 6 months, given the current state of high tech sector and Depression 2.0:
- High tech job market will get much worse before it gets better . As both domestic and international economy continues to contract in the next 6-12 months, the demand for high tech products and services will also decrease. It’d be interesting to see what kind of Q4 earning reports will come out of large companies such as IBM, Cisco, HP, etc. Additionally, high tech companies such as Apple rely heavily on consumer discretionary spending. As consumers continue to tighten up their belts, consumer electronic companies will suffer. All of these will result in hiring freeze, and/or layoffs.
- As investment banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions take huge financial losses, they’re cutting employees and capital expenditures. Large companies in other sectors (e.g. Auto, Manufacturing, Construction, etc.) are also making significant capital expenditure cut. The capital expenditure cuts have a 6 month to a year lead time — i.e. in late Q1/early Q2 next year, high tech companies will start feeling more pains as some of their largest customers spend significantly less on network equipments, enterprise software, and professional services.
- As more and more wealthy institutions and individual lose money, it’s likely that more and more Limited Partners will pull money out of Hedge, Private Equity, and Venture Capital funds . PE and Hedge funds have been already hit hard. And more Venture Capital firms will be impacted as well. This will result in less money available to start-ups.
- If a start-up doesn’t have a clear path to profitability, it’ll be in serious trouble . Capital is going to very expensive and difficult to obtain in the next 6 to 18 months..
- If you’re laid off, you need to be prepared that you will be without a job for 6 to 12 months — few companies are hiring these days, and the competition for jobs are fierce. By all means cut your expenses, and try to save at least 6-month of living expenses.
- One high tech sector that will be hit hard next year is online advertising, especially display advertising networks . There are way too many ad networks, and many of them have a hard time to differentiate from each other. Furthermore, as companies cut cost, they want to make sure that they can measure the effectiveness of their advertising dollars. This means advertisers will prefer to spend money on performance based marketing such as search, as opposed to display advertising. If you’re working for an ad network, you should be concerned about your job security.
How to survive and beat layoffs
- Ten things you should do before layoff
- Seven things you should do immediately after layoff
- Are you laid off? — A 5-day Personal Boot camp
- An inspiring story of starting a business during financial crisis and finding a way to beat layoffs
- Cover letter for laid off worker
- A book I always turn to when I look for a job
- Beat recession advice #1: Form a network of headhunter friends
- Beat recession advice #2: Cut expense, save money, and converse cash
- Control your own destiny when losing your job
Should you go back to school to escape from Depression 2.0?
- Seven lessons I learned from attending business school during recession
- Should you go back to business school to hide from recession (Part 1)
- Should you go back to business school to hide from recession (Par 2): 4 compelling reasons and 3 overrated reasons
- 7 tips to improve your chance to get into business school
- How to improve your GMAT Score from 650 to 730
What have we learned from current financial crisis?
- What lessons I’ve learned (so far) from the current financial crisis?
- Should you still put money into 401K now?
- A great investment book that teaches you how to think
Industry/company analysis: ad network industry and depression 2.0
- Adbrite layoff — is this the beginning of more ad network layoffs?
- What about affiliate networks? — Are they in the same situation as ad networks who are starting to lay off people?
Comments?
Please email regularguy@GeekMBA360.com or post your comments at www.GeekMBA360.com .
About Depression 2.0 Survival Guide and GeekMBA360.com
Depression 2.0 Survival Guide for Silicon Valley Professionals provides hard-hitting, up-to-date, practical strategies, analysis, and tips to help high tech professionals to survive and beat Depression 2.0. It’s published monthly. To subscribe to the Depression 2.0 Survival Guide and receive daily post update, please go to www.GeekMBA360.com to subscribe.
Founded in September, 2008, GeekMBA360.com provides hard-hitting and practical online content and services to help high tech professionals to Beat Recession, Grow Career, and Build Wealth.
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