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> I think that one of the repercussions of the current economic
> bust is that companies are taking this as an opportunity to
> replace higher-paid, more experienced people with less
> expensive, less qualified employees.
I don't think that in general, companies are looking specifically to hire
"less qualified" employees. This doesn't make sense for most businesses.
Hiring less qualified employess that wind up being a drain on company
resources isn't very smart.
Rather, I would suggest that since it's now a buyer's market, companies are
looking harder for a perfect match, or for highly-qualified applicants that
ask for less money (or can demand less money due to lack of experience.)
I think what this means to technical writers is that we need to buff up on
all areas of our expertise. Whereas a weakness in one area two years ago
might not be so important, today it may be the deciding factor.
I definitely agree with you that the economy is likely affecting the way in
which companies hire / look for new help.
> I recently contacted a DSL company to inquire as to their
> pricing. The person I spoke with (after being kept on hold
> for 15 minutes) did not know what a fixed IP address is.
Well, I wouldn't expect a sales representative to be able to tell me the
differences between dynamic and static IPs. Plus, maybe you didn't use
terminology that the sales rep understood. I've not often heard "fixed IP"
used to mean "static IP" and while _I_ can recognize that the two are the
same, a sales rep might not.
Another effect of the tightening economy is that people qaulified to work in
one field are looking for work in others since there are less total jobs
available. The sales rep you spoke with might not have had a background in
the telecom/ISP world.
-Chris Grant
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