In Part I of this series, I described how Mike Luo’s NY Times article revealed that I was the exception among the co-founders in the Professionals Network of Florida. I had been continuously employed and my income level had increased since I was laid off before 9/11. I stated that this revelation caused me to seriously reflect on what my unique situation was. This led me to what I think are some very interesting conclusions about the industry I have worked in for my entire career. I listed extremely important employee attributes that would help anyone in any type of career. But I also stressed that a vitally important reason for my success is to a certain degree luck, the unique combination of the discipline and the industry I’m in: I am a software engineer of highly complex, safety-critical, world-class Department of Defense (DoD) products.

The DoD product industry combined with the software engineering discipline seems to offer unparalleled opportunities for experienced workers in this country. Yes, there have been layoffs in the DoD contractor sector, big ones too, but eventually available experienced workers seem to continue to get employment in this field and up until recently, have continued to get pay increases over time. Here are my observations:

• I got into this field early in my career and there has always been work. This industry has not been as vulnerable to economic fluctuations as others have been.

• The technology is owned by the Department of Defense and for national security reasons, a lot of work must be domestic rather than sent abroad.

• These products have a very long life-span, some around 40 years.

• Working on these products in many roles requires very specialized and highly developed skill sets.

• This type of work is not for everyone. A very meticulous process must be followed to minimize errors. In fact, it appeals to a certain perfectionist personality. Also, there is a long development time which involves the ruggedization and militarization of the technology, and a rigorous certification process applied to every new piece of technology and software used in the creation of these products. When the product is finally released in the defense sector, the technology is already obsolete in other sectors. So if you are geek for new technology, you may get bored in this industry.

• These products are very pricey and some are actually exported to friendly nations.

• The end products involve thousands of employees from multiple companies and countries.

• The tight schedules and success of the development of these complex products depend on past experience to a large extent and a significant level of employee experience.

• Most of the people I have ever worked for and within this field have been really good employees. They have all those important employee attributes I talked about in Part I: hard working, ethical, team players, good attitude, and pride in consistently producing high quality work.

• Some key people whom I have worked for had vision and conviction about what they were pursuing. Combined with very strong personalities, they had tremendous impact on certain parts of the industry, an influence that continues to this day.
NASA and NASA contractors share many of these attributes with complex DoD products. I also think the biotech and power industries may have more potential for experienced workers than average because of the complex nature of the products and demand. But that demand probably fluctuates with economic health more than many of the DoD industries. And what is to stop these companies from outsourcing to lower cost companies in other countries? These products are not a matter of national security to the extent that the DoD products are. Competition drives companies to relentlessly look for opportunities to cut costs.

Yes, employment and salary have been good for me even though I was laid off in 2001. But I do see the push in the past few years to hire more low cost employees for every highly paid, experienced one and it has finally encroached into my own little highly specialized niche. I hope to retain this employment until I’m ready to retire because I absolutely love this work. I used to be optimistic that I could count on this, but I’m now seeing that holding onto what I currently have seems to be getting more and more difficult, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there are involuntary interruptions in this employment for the remainder of my career. Because of this I am now taking steps to keep myself afloat should I get laid off again. I know, most people have been doing this for decades. But this is the point of my article. I’m in a very unique career situation.

The next installment of this series imparts some basic information about job hunting that I learned during my own job search back in 2001 and 2002. The company that laid me off paid a consulting company to help the workers they displaced find new jobs. This was an invaluable benefit. I also did a lot of my own research and have come away with solid set of recommendations that I would like to share.

Recently, I had the privilege of being one of several people featured in an article, Income Loss Persists Long After Layoffs, written by New York Times correspondent Michael Luo. Mike chronicles the effects of the economic recession on people’s lives around the country. Click here for Mike Luo’s bio.  He is also the reason Staingirlz.com finally got started.   

Mike had found an article written about a now disbanded group, Professionals Network of Florida (PNF). In 2001, I co-founded PNF to help educate and support displaced professional workers from 9/11. Mike interviewed some of the founding members to examine our financial and professional situation today compared with our pre-9/11 status. The result of Mike’s investigation revealed that I was the only one of the group to have actually surpassed my original income level after leaving my job of 19 years.

I really didn’t like that my name and salary were going to be on the front page of the New York Times for literally the world to see. But Mike convinced me that my experience was important since I was the one success story of the group that might give people hope. I still wondered if my success was mostly just extreme luck, and what other people could realistically take away from the article for themselves. Since then I’ve thought very long and hard about the real reasons for my success. What I’ve come up with is that unless you are an engineer who works hard with an interest in developing Department of Defense products, there may not be many similar opportunities in this country with the potential to sustain this level of continued employment.

I think a vitally important reason that I’ve maintained employment and increased my salary since I landed my current job in 2002 is the unique combination of the discipline and the industry I’m in: I am a software engineer of highly complex, safety-critical, world-class Department of Defense products. I should also clarify that I could have moved to stay with my employer and could have avoided being laid off in the first place. But at the time, moving away was not an option. I was contacted by several companies, but unfortunately they were not local. It took me about eight months to find the local position I now have. And it turns out that I’m working on the exact products and doing the exact same work I was doing at the company I left!

There are many reasons why this industry and work have continued to maintain opportunities for experienced workers in this country. This will be the topic of my next post. I also believe that employee traits are very important.

Here are some professional attributes that make highly valuable employees:
• Persistence, hard work, and going above and beyond the call of duty when it’s most important.
• Consistently producing high quality work in a timely manner.
• Maintaining professional integrity.
• Commitment to being a strong team player.
• Having an upbeat, enthusiastic, can do attitude.

These attributes will only help you in any job. However, I do tend to think that these qualities have less and less influence on employment opportunities in these strained economic times. Most of the people I have ever worked with have these virtues so I tend to assume that most people do and that these traits are nothing exceptional. But Staingirl Elle’s professional background is more varied than my own. Her perspective is that these characteristics do still make a very big difference for employees. I hope she is right because these are things that we CAN control.

Part II of this series will focus on what I think is a very interesting set of reasons for continued employment opportunities with Department of Defense contractors. Part III and beyond will impart generic job hunting strategies I learned while looking for a job after 9/11.