Le Chant

Blatant Thread Hijack -sorry!

Congrats on the impending....maybe a wetting of head's called for then?

Nt016

thx mate wetting of head sounds like a good idea... When are you next in my neck of the woods? Possibly swap mobile numbers in PM and either txt me next time ur in St Math/Angers or when i'm in Saumur i'll let you know!

Nt016

just a quickie - dont move to Angers - my company is just getting rid of everyone!!!

Le Chant

Wouldn't be NEC would it mate? We saw it on the news and in the papers!

Nt016

it might be - now looking for a job asap

criodain

bloody hell. so it's not looking good in France at all. Looks like I'll have to grin and bear it. While at least I have a job at the moment, I really want to get back into technical writing and feel if I don't do it soon, this year, it may no longer be an option as I last did it in 2005.
A few years back I was turning down opportunities because of other commitments.
Now I'm mad for road, and there's no work. Great stuff by me!!

Le Chant

Just announced in our local paper that 69 jobs are being shed by France Chapignon in a local village. While it's not a huge number, it still represents a large dint in the local economy.

Andrea50

I well remember being a speaker at a conference on recruiting students to ICT related subject areas over 10 years ago, and warning people that the bubble would burst one day and that smart students would choose another subject area and bolt ICT onto it. If they subsequently moved into IT as an actual career, fine, but that they would be mad not to have a second area of expertise available which could be developed into an alternative career quickly when that bubble did burst.

My smart students did business, graphic design, sciences, languages and other subjects and bolted their ICT/computing onto it. I know for a fact many of those went onto become IT professionals, but I hope they are now glad that they did not drop their other subjects entirely, as picking up and re-developing a subject into a career at a later date is a whole lot easier than starting from scratch in your 40's or 50's.

The key thing in any recession is to have more to offer than one area of expertise and be flexible and adaptable. And not to let the IT skills lapse if one moves into an alternative career for a few years, as it may well pick up again later on and the smart people will not lose those skills and be ready to move back into the field when it improves which they won't be able to do so readily if they have "lost it" as IT moves on very very fast and one can be left behind in less than a year.

Happy Tuesday to all!