Sales

: the sucky alternative"> Name: Withheld by request
Previous job: Managing Consultant in a division responsible for Business Intelligence Solutions involving schema and integrated systems
Laid off: October 2001, in "anticipation of the downturn in business due to 9/11"
New position: Sales of software that supports Document Management and Workflow at the enterprise level EWEEK.com: Would you recommend Sales as a career alternative for other IT professionals? Anonymous: I might be willing to recommend selling to others who have the right aptitude, but you have to realize that the employers are clearly taking significant advantage of the stressed environment. They are not stupid, and they took the roaring 90s personally. Its now retribution time. The result: If you sell, you will earn a pittance for a base, be very highly leveraged on commission, and there will be little--if any--training. Most, even people like me who were involved in customer-facing jobs, dont really understand how to close. Oh, and even if you do, the business-to-business market is bad. Not just slow--terrible. The only reason for any economic recovery right now is the business-to-consumer [market]. So I wonder how long that will last. EWEEK.com: Youre clearly miserable. Whats your exit plan? Anonymous: Personally, I am looking for literally anything that will get me out of the sales position. ... But part of the problem is the poor marketplace. If I had a choice (read that investment-grade money), I would enter into a solutions oriented personal business. I have two very nice SMB-targeted solutions that I could easily deliver, and there is a need, but the venture people are reluctant to fund small startups. Ive tried. That notwithstanding, I would look towards Pre-sales or Technology Management again. My priorities would be to maximize my personal life again, manage a more stable money situation, and to have fun at work again. EWEEK.com: Is the job scene improving at all? Anonymous: People are not getting called back yet. There are still a gazillion resumes for every job. Interviews would be good, but full-time employment plus 3 hours per day commute time doesnt give me time to cold-call or knock on doors. About the only thing I can do is submit resumes half the night and hope for karma to call (and an interested company). EWEEK.com: What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Anonymous: If I had the layoff thing to do all over again, I would not sign the do-not-sue-us paperwork quite as willingly and try to negotiate a better severance. After that, I would immediately start certifying my skills and perhaps enter an MBA Certification Program at one of the big-time universities here in the Dallas area. I would not let [a resume marketing firm] take advantage of me and take my money for some truly worthless "resume marketing." I would walk door-to-door shoving my resume into the hands of every person that would take one. Finally, I would really customize every resume/cover letter that went out the door (I had five or six, based on the job position, but did not customize further other than inputting the targets name). Obviously, getting out of IT wasnt a surefire path to happiness for some of our readers. If youve managed to find job happiness and job security in this still-shaky economy, whether its inside or outside of IT, let me know how you did it at lisa_vaas@comcast.net, and also, contribute to the conversation by clicking on the eWEEK forum link below. Database Center Editor Lisa Vaas has written about enterprise applications and IT careers since 1997. Go to the eWEEK forum to read more post-layoff survival tales and/or tell your own.