Does Open Source Experience Help in Today’s Job Market?
I’m old enough to remember a couple of recessions. I can recall when my dad was laid off in 1982 and struggled to find work as a welder for nearly a year. I largely missed the recession of the early 90s since I was in college but was smack dab in the middle of the 2000-2001 Internet bubble. Still, none of these seem to compare to what we’re seeing now: More than 6 million US workers are drawing unemployment benefits, 600,000 laid off last month alone. Tech wasn’t necessarily at the heart of this crisis but it’s feeling it’s share of the pain with layoffs at Novell, Sun, IBM, Microsoft and a slew of others. It goes without saying that being laid off is a horrible experience. But if you’re new to really bad job markets or are just now trying to enter the work force it’s doubly shocking. Probably the best thing that you can know is that you’re not alone. Quite a few people have gone through or are going through a similar situation and it’s good to know that even though it’s dark — and pos
