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The state of the Bay Area economy
Articles like Silicon Valley mood worsens seem designed to depress job hunters, especially with quotes like"For the grizzled, experienced CEOs in Silicon Valley who have seen every downturn, this is by far the deepest. Time will tell if this is the longest" and "the job market resembles one with 12 or even 15 percent unemployment. He's seen laid-off engineers applying for jobs that pay $8 an hour, and people in their 40s competing with teen-agers for entry-level positions".
The Economist has a more balanced article, Still Fizzy, with different conclusions. The bust is real, as are the Bay Area's three biggest problems: astronomical housing prices, mediocre to terrible public schools, and traffic. However, the Bay Area still "has an unusual number of America's most productive industries; it also has many of the better companies within those industries; and it boasts the best-educated workforce in the country...it would be hard to describe the Bay Area's mood as disconsolate. Most people seem to realise that the dotcom extravaganza was not going to last."
I find the Economist's article truer to my own experieince. It can be pretty depressing if you are looking for work now. Anecdotal stories abound of hundreds or even thousands of resumes sent in reponse to job ads. One person told me "I heard that nobody will post jobs on Craig's List any more because when people post jobs, their servers go down from the load of email that they get in response." (Not true, although there certainly are a lot less jobs posted on Craig's List than there used to be.) I always thought that the dotcom boom was too good to be true, I just didn't realize how far the economy had to fall.
I find that I need to remind myself that some companies are still hiring, startups are still forming, and that there is always a demand for people who are good at what they do, and I'm very good. The company that needs my services is out there, I just have to find it or create it.
In the meantime, I am having a blast being a father, learning by teaching myself Perl and PHP, and amusing myself acting as an amateur journalist here at www.geodog.us. I am putting some of the energy I would normally put into working into weblogging. It's fun and blows off steam. I always wanted to write -- now I don't have to worry that it doesn't pay much :-) And the Bay Area is still a great place to live, except for the fog.
Thanks (I think) to Scott Loftesness for the links.
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