Think Your Skill Is Marketable? Don't Get Attached to That Idea

 '"We're on the precipice': The tech industry is bracing for a historic slump amid VC pullback, looming layoffs, and plummeting share prices" - Insider, May 7, 2022.

The immediate takeaway is this: There are no longer any "safe harbors" in professional life. Skills that used to bring on the job/assignment offers and nosebleed compensation - e.g. software anything - can become devalued.  The language used in the Insider analysis of tech's slide into a downward trajectory range from "unlearing" to "what the market is teaching (painfully)" to ""overstaffed."

That is exactly what is hardeneing into the new usual throughout tech. Meta gained global attention in the way it is laying off. That is, brutally.  Much more carnage is expected in the tech sector, both traditional and Web3. Regarding the latter, bitcoin isn''t doing so hot. Neither are the NFTs. Even the Bored Ape has taken a hit.

Anyone in denial that tech skills are no longer gold (and tech startups are no longer being chased after by the VC crowd) should do time travel. By 2009, the official count (the unofficial one through stealth layoffs was probably significantly higher) of reductions in force in the legal sector was at 6,000. 

Not long before the ticket seemed to be a law degree. At least from a top law school.

Some of those lawyers thrown out on the street, yes, had golden credentials. By time the recovery kicked in those still unemployed (most were, at least in terms of landing another job in the legal sector) were old-news. As hiring ramped up that focused on laterals who had managed to create brandnames despite The Great Recession or the fresh crop of graduates from elite law schools. The media covered how those former lawyers had to stuggle to put together another way to make a good living.

A similar scenario can play out for those with software and other tech skills once so prized. They are glut right now. They coud be unmarketable once the tech industry "learns lessons" from the market and recovers. 

Reflection: In the mid-1970s, there was little demand in college teaching for my Ph.D. in the Humanities. By time the market bounced back somewhat my degree work had been considered "dated." Thought leadership had moved on. Takeaway: Don't assume anything about investing in any one career path. Slo-mo or abruptly it could go poof. Buddhism recommends non-attachment. 

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

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