I was able to ride the tech. bubble so “landing in the job” was not too hard. Keeping my job is another story. “Off Shoring” is much easier for IT workers than it is factory workers. A company doesn’t need to wait 3 months for the ship to deliver code as they do with physical products. Half my department is now in India.

My degree is in electrical engineering so my schooling was not a big helped. I started out doing end user support for a growing company. Whenever someone would need something developed or a technical problem solved I’d step up and say “I can do that.” So I gradually volunteered myself in to the jobs I liked to do. Even though most of the time I had no clue how to do what I said I could do. Luckily in my case my management never initially asked how I was going to get the job done.

Right now I’m helping to create a Java sign signon process to link our companies Portal to another sight. Never messed with Java before but I’m getting it done.

I would suggest getting your foot in the door of a small company “on the grow” and then maneuvering yourself to the job you want.

Job hopping is a much faster way but I was never much for radical change.