When the “down-turn” hit, most everyone in the tech community just froze… like a deer in head lights. Some had to move jobs because their companies laid them off or failed completely, but they quickly went to the side of the road and took the 1st safest job they found. Not a bad survival strategy actually. However now that it seems like things are getting better you will start seeing a lot of changes. I expect, and this article below confirms that there will be a mass job shuffle in the coming year as people move out of jobs they really aren’t happy with to jobs that are more interesting; I’ve already seen this start to happen. Salaries on the other hand have not followed suite in their rise… yet. People are 1st going to take jobs that are interesting to them and then they will worry about the 5-10% increase in pay. I expect salaries to rise again in 6 months. Along with all of this the tech job pool is expanding so people that have been on the sidelines are starting to come back in as well. One of my recruiter friends said that for the 1st time this year she actually has to recruit developers because she has more roles than people.

So what does this mean? If you are an employer you better identify your key resource assets, sit them down, talk with them and make sure they are happy with the type of work they are doing. If you’re an employee its time to rethink if you actually are happy at your job, brush up your resume (should be already) and starting sniffing around.  Let the games begin!

Studies: It’s the Fall of Our Employees’ Discontent

EDIT: I couldn’t resist…

We’re looking to hire a full-time Senior .NET Developer  for one of our clients in SoCal. It’s a brand new start-up with a great idea, experienced founders and initial funding. You will be the 1st engineer on staff and will work with us to develop an amazing new application suite. Local candidates only and no recruiters please. If you’re interested and meet the job description; email us your resume at biz@tadlockenterprises.com.

EDIT

This position is filled.

I’ve been playing a recruiter lately so I thought that I should get up to speed on the current salary market. In my super scientific test, I came up with some initial figures and ran them by several of my peers at various companies in SoCal for feedback. Obviously these are a starting point as each offer is different and has many attributes besides salary. Start-ups will tend to offer lower salaries but make up for it with a larger equity stake, larger companies will have bonuses, ESPPs and other items. I would love your feedback on these figures!