By Jason W. Eckert
The title of this post says it all – for the past month, I can’t count how many times this topic has come up in my circles (I teach IT at triOS College in Southern Ontario – http://www.trios.com).
At present, I see little slowdown in IT hiring within Southern Ontario. That doesn’t mean that it won’t happen – however, I think it is too early to worry about it. Although mass media reports a severe economic downturn in the U.S., they are vague about economic downturn in Canada and the associated effects.
More importantly, if we have a moderate economic downturn in Canada, it will be difficult to tell how it will affect IT hiring. In poor economic times, wise IT spending is key to generating and maintaining business – in today’s society, this often means spending money on IT projects that augment business processes, which in turn creates IT opportunities. It is difficult to tell whether these IT opportunities will create entry level IT jobs, or jobs for senior IT professionals – we will just need to wait and see.
Overall, I think that worrying about the effects of an economic slump on IT simply adds unnecessary stress to our lives. Periodically observing the overall state of the IT job market in Canada is probably a good idea, combined with the constant skill upgrading and certification that us IT professionals are accustomed to already. If times do become rough in the future, it may then be time to brush up on job search and interview skills.