OCTOBER 19, 2000
EMPLOYMENT TRENDS
That Dot-Com Job May Not Be So Sexy Now | While many in the industry express optimism, a new reality is settling over the Internet job market
| Small wonder the mood among the dot-com crowd is so subdued these days. Working from your boss's living room doesn't have the same edgy appeal when the company's initial public offering is being put off for another year. And a pay package loaded with worthless stock options isn't as likely to inspire enthusiasm as, say, a round of high-fives among friends.
So far, Internet companies have eliminated more than 17,000 jobs so far this year, according to outsourcing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and that doesn't measure the homegrown outfits that fold without notice. It's enough to make people don a tie and crawl back to the carpeted halls of Corporate America.
But industry insiders insist the glory days are far from over. If anything, they maintain that dot-com employees will continue to wield as much or more power the next several years as broadband connections accelerate the Internet's potential -- just as the Baby Boom generation begins to retire. That was the message from Netrepreneurs at a Silicon Alley Breakfast Club panel in Manhattan on Oct. 18. Richard Johnson, president and CEO of HotJobs.com (
HOTJ
), and Vault.com co-founder Hussam Hamadeh were filled with optimism about the job market for Web heads.
CASH, NOT STOCK. Hamadeh boasted that he himself was "a serial entrepreneur," a label favored by priceline.com (
PCLN
) founder Jay Walker, who, ironically, laid off more than 300 people when he folded his WebHouse Club operation Oct. 5. The third panelist, Jean-Louis Alpeyrie of executive-search firm Heidrick & Struggles (
HSII
), was a tad less enthusiastic, noting an increased interest in traditional jobs and cash salaries rather than compensation in stock options.
The topic -- "Blue Chips or Pink Slips" -- hardly inspired much fretting among the more than 200 attendees. Most came not to complain but to network. "I'm looking for a path to capital," said Jay Goldberg, chief information officer of BigPlate Inc., a marketing information site for the food industry. The money hasn't materialized yet, but payroll doesn't seem to be a problem. Five of BigPlate's 10 employees don't take home any salary at all. The prefer to gamble on a big payday when seed capital comes through.
Jason Fein of Alliant Technologies said he was looking to recruit, and fellow networker Jackie Glick had only recently joined a site called Quixi. The few worriers in the crowd were reluctant to give their names for fear of looking like downbeats to potential employers. But they were willing to voice their anxious frustration anonymously. "My days of working like a slave for options are over," said one woman. "If you're not excited about everything to do with the Net, they don't want to look at you."
IS IT A SURE THING? And despite the optimism, some somber words were offered to Web hopefuls. Johnson, who counts more than 7,000 companies now recruiting through HotJobs.com, notes that the "irrational exuberance" of 1999's job market is dead. On the one hand, employees in traditional companies tell him "I'm not going to risk my stable career for a dot-com unless it's a sure thing." On the other, employers are looking for people who actually demonstrate some loyalty and care about the work rather than the potential to get rich quickly.
How does Hamadeh see it? He counsels job candidates to act like venture capitalists when considering potential employers. As he puts it: "Do you like the revenue model? Would you invest your money here?" If not, don't waste valuable time working there.
The market downturn has underscored one ugly feature of the dot-com boom: workers' sense of entitlement. Johnson recalls one young woman at his company who quit and then asked, "What do I get?" because she felt she had added so much value during her nine-month stint. He gave her nothing but a wave out the door.
HANG AROUND. Recruiting veteran Alpeyrie sums up the ethos as "I want to become rich, retire at 32, and spend the rest of my life surfing." That outlook has gone the way of the Internet stock bubble. Companies are becoming more interested in what candidates have actually done and what skills they bring to the table. Failing at five startups and saying you hope to succeed at the sixth isn't likely to win you any points for bravado.
In fact, job-hoppers may soon find that their job-hopping doesn't look so great on a resumé any more. As Hamadeh argues, employers now realize that losing someone senior can cost more than having never hired them at all. Having four jobs in four years may suggest flakiness as much as desirability. Alpeyrie insists that job-hopping is always negative over the long term because employers want to know they can cultivate talent without worrying that someone will walk at the first mention of a better offer.
The opportunities to pick and choose are becoming scarcer, in any case. John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, notes the pace of job attrition in the dot-com sector is accelerating. The heaviest-hit areas are in the business-to-consumer sector, with Net services, retailing, and portals leading the list. "You shouldn't be looking at dot-coms if you're risk-averse or hoping to hit the lottery in terms of options," says Challenger. "It's just not that easy."
NO PARROTS. Just ask HotJobs.com's Johnson, who makes no secret of the fact that his company pays at or sometimes below-market wages for its employees. What's more, he says, "we don't have masseuses come in at 4 o'clock, and we don't let parrots in the workplace." So what keeps his people attached to HotJobs.com? In his view, it's having a sense of mission and belief that the company is doing something truly different.
Maybe it's also because a lot fewer alternatives are around now than a few months ago. As schizophrenic markets tarnish the luster of stock options and startups, job-hunters are now looking harder at a company's culture, benefits, and long-term prospects when weighing where to go next. But hardcore types, like the BigPlate gang, continue to sweat it out in the hopes that they're on to the next Big Thing.
By Diane Brady in New York
Edited by Beth Belton
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Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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