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TIME FOR AA TO LEAVE SILICON VALLEY?
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:53:40 PM)

or two decades the computer industry seemed the Asian American railroad to surefire prosperity. A seemingly inexhaustible demand for tech talent, astronomical starting salaries, dizzying sign-up bonuses and stock options that doubled in value every month made an engineering or computer science degree seem like a license to print money.
     Now Silicon Valley reels from a relentless onslaught of bad news -- worthless options, hiring freezes, perpetual layoffs, bankruptcies. Graduates of top universities are pounding the pavement in search of jobs. Many AA are starting to think they've been suckered into investing the best years of their lives to buy a ticket onto a sinking ship. Some have already begun lookin into the prospects of mid-career changes.
     Is it time for the best and brightest AA to leave Silicon Valley for greener pastures? Or are we overreacting to a dip on the road to tech riches?

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WHAT YOU SAY

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Every industry has its cycles - expansion/growth and contraction/correction. When you are in it sometimes there is no way to figure it or predict the near term logically except to ride it out. May be its a case of having the technical indicators being so negative and against you even though you just know that the long term fundamentals are solid.

I was in the real estate industry in NYC in early 90's - some of the prices were 1/3 to 1/4 of what they were only few years before and yet even professional investors were so hesitant to buy - then of course in the past 10 years, the prices have gone up exponentially.

This week's Business Week (May 13) has good articles on comparable past boom-bust technology driven cycles.
NYhomeboy    Thursday, May 09, 2002 at 07:50:14 (PDT)
Hey all,
stick around...it's gonna get better by end of summer.
MLK    Friday, March 22, 2002 at 19:42:24 (PST)
The slow down here in SV is nothing to panic about. Its just a temporary condition.
Toughguy    Sunday, February 24, 2002 at 04:34:53 (PST)
You make it sound like AA have been tricked into being trained in the high tech fields.

Look this is not even an AA issue. This is an industry issue.

Isn't there a study that 70% of college grad get jobs outside their major.
AC dropout    Thursday, October 11, 2001 at 15:23:57 (PDT)
It is a Dip, a harsh one but it works to weedout the weak and unskilled. The Valley two years ago hired anyone with a little technical experience, it was a great place for recent college graduates. Currently, the Valley is concentrating on hire people with 5 years and more experience.

It just went back to the way it should be. Also, it makes you think twice before starting a business without a decent business plan.
Mimi    Monday, September 10, 2001 at 15:53:11 (PDT)
I'm not in the industry but one would think that the tech industry will always have a future as technology rapidly evolves. Maybe the "dip" was just a weeding out of sorts.
Me    Tuesday, August 21, 2001 at 23:44:49 (PDT)
To MLK,


While it is everyone's goal to find a job that is both satisfying and rewarding. The problem lies where a person, after working several jobs, does not find any of them fulfilling. If that person is married with toddlers running about.... well, his/her decision to meander through the career maze has amazingly come to a complete halt. Now, it becomes just a "job".

It can be argued that spending 8 hrs per day at work is tantamount to spending 50% of a person's life, while awake, at work. Ahhh, now, he/she realizes that they spend 1/2 of their lives at work..... Oh, now work has become very important in the charaterization of who they are or have become.

But, sadly, the mortgage, private schools, car payments, ballet lessons, etc..... create a situation where a person's job is no longer their primary means of identity. If anyone has ever taken a personality test --- they distinctly tell you to leave out your personality at work --- because that is just a conjured self-image.

There are two paths.... the first, where one finds a fulfilling job that will reward them endlessly into perpetuity. The other, where it's just a paycheck and they work to support the family. Unfortunately, most of us chose our careers in our early 20's -- when we were young and stupid.... so, it's most definitely more of the latter than the former. For those who have found the self-fulfilling jobs and are able to balance family versus work -- appreciate what you have because the majority of us working stiffs envy you!

P.S. The wife and children stay at home. Our choice was to have a role model at home that actually moves in 3-D and not of the likes of Sponge Bob (gotta have kids in order to understand who Sponge Bob is). And emotional support outweighs financial support by a wide margin - that I wholeheartedly agree.
Show Me Da $$$    Tuesday, August 21, 2001 at 17:38:50 (PDT)

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