Hi:

Given the current economic situation in Northern America, i have been
thinking about the fallout of the layoffs (also potential layoffs) in IT
companies.

Consider this, there is a recession from 2008 - 2010 and 35% of the IT
company layoff workers to maintain their profitability, viability etc.

Most of the IT workers would like that in 2010 when the economy has an
uptick and needs more professionals they are ready with skills and
contribution to show on their resume.

However, if you don't get to work with a company for 2 years, you have a
"gap" on your resume, which certainly doesn't look good.

So a better strategy, would be to locate some Open Source project
matching the professionals skills and interests and make contribution to
the project, which can be show cased later in the resume, not to speak
of the Speaker, Consulting and book writing opportunities.

My premise is that, the more IT workers get laid off, the more they may
want to (ala - The Wisdom of the crowds) work on the Open Source projects
to keep them fit and thus drive innovation and Open Source software.

Does it work this way or am i missing something ?

What does everybody think ?


thanks
Saifi.