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Newsletter – 26 March 2009 – Guinness, Recessions and Warren Buffet.
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Hi,

Belated St Patricks Day Joke
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Paddy walks into a bar in Dublin, orders three pints of Guinness and sits in the corner of the room, drinking a sip out of each pint in turn.
When he had finished all three, he went back to the bar and ordered three more.
The barman says, "You know a pint goes flat soon after I pull it ... your pint would taste better if you bought one at a time."
Paddy replies, "Well now, I have two brodders, one is in America and de odder in Australia and here I am in Dublin .
When we all left home, we promised dat we'd drink dis way to remember de days we all drank togedder."

The barman admits that this is a nice custom and says no more.
Paddy becomes a regular customer and always drinks the same way ...
ordering three pints and drinking a sip out of each in turn until they are finished.

One day, he comes in and orders just two pints. All the other regulars in the bar notice and fall silent.
When he goes back to the bar for the second round, the barman says,
"I don't want to intrude on your grief but I wanted to offer my condolences on your sad loss."

Paddy looks confused for a moment, then the penny drops and he starts to laugh,
"Oh no," he says, "Bejesus, everyone is fine! Tis me ... I've quit drinking!"

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IT Jobs in a Global Recession
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As most of you know we are experiencing a global recession.
The IT industry has proven to be pretty resilient over the years, but it is not immune from what is going on.
This particular recession is about the worst I’ve known in over 20 years of IT contracting.

I have many friends here in the UK out of work with one or two in quite dire straits.
Friends in Australia are telling me similar stories, although Australia so far is standing up rather better.
Reports from the USA are also full of doom and gloom.
There are still jobs out there but they are becoming more difficult to get, with so many candidates on offer.

One result, which always happens in a recession, is that the job specs get longer and more detailed.
If you recall, in last week’s newsletter I mentioned that degrees were not a bit issue when applying for a job.
Well guess what? The number of jobs requesting a degree is rising.
The crazy thing is – they don’t really want degrees at all; they just want yet another way of being able to whittle a long list of candidates down to a respectable number.

 The same thing is true of requests for lots of paper qualifications, MCSEs and the like.
So what can you do?
You really only have two options; skip that job and look for another or try to fake it.
The only thing you can be certain about is that if you don’t have what they are asking for, you will be on the discard pile.
Faking it is generally not recommended as you can very easily be sprung. But when times are desperate…………..

So are there any “green shoots” in all this gloom?
Back in 2001-2002 we experienced similar conditions, yet within a year things were more or less back to normal.
A few pundits are saying that this one is a special case, while others are saying it’s the normal business cycle.

So when times are hard lots of people will suffer.
But once the recovery starts the demand for talented experienced staff at all levels will accelerate.
In the meantime we all have to treat this temporary setback as an opportunity to prepare ourselves for when the good times come back.

Famous investor Warren Buffet goes into buying mode when everyone else is selling.
Although his company has made large recent losses, he is still optimistic about the coming upswing and is making strategic investments.

So what “strategic investments” can we make?
The main ones are education and experience. If you are working, use the time to prepare for your next move – and hang in there!
If you are not working, use the time to learn new skills or do some voluntary work for friends or charitable organisations.

Our e-book “Jack’s Guide to Lot$ More Money” (available at www.icanraiseyourincome.com  ) lists many strategies to accelerate your career.
It goes into this topic and much more, and shows how to work the system to get the well paid job you deserve.
It points out which are the “power” skills you need to get, which give you the best return for your investment.

For our full list of publications see our websites at www.jacksguides.com  www.icanraiseyourincome.com 

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Previous newsletters.
In response to several requests, we have published many of our older newsletters.
You can find them at http://www.jacksguides.com/news.html 

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This newsletter is published by Kevin Ramsey for Jack's Guides. Copyright (c) 2001 - 2009, all rights reserved.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted without the express written consent of the publisher or contributing editors and or writers. DISCLAIMER: We disclaim any liability for the use of Any contributed information contained herein.

I hope you've enjoyed this issue of our newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions, suggestions or requests.

Enjoy and prosper in your chosen career. (even in a recession)
Till the next issue.
Kevin Ramsey
Founder of Jack's Guides