"It's very difficult to find people who have deep skills in security on mobile devices, infrastructure, network security, advanced persistent threats or mainframe skills," he says. "People who have those skills are becoming a smaller percentage of the overall population."

Hahah, that's rich. I've got 30+ years of mainframe skills under my belt and it's increasingly difficult to find a job. I've got pretty much the whole suite of skills. COBOL, Assembler, DB2, IMS, IDMS, MQ, CICS, EDI and much, much more. I've supported sales, manufacturing, banking, healthcare, retail, and state government (Tax & Finance and DMV).

I've done it all. Coding, analysis (technical, data & business), requirements gathering, testing from unit through acceptance, created functional and technical specs, have been a lead designer & dev lead. I've worked with all sorts of methodologies including ISO, CMM and Frameworks. I've done data and process modeling, data flow diagrams, CRUD matrices, etc...

If people with my skills are so scarce, why is it harder and harder for me to find work and why is my income steadily declining in my peak earning years?

As long as businesses can offshore work and at the same time our congress allows importation of indentured servants under H1-B visas, it's irrelevant how deep my skills are, how professional I am and how many glowing references I have.

It's a travesty and a crime.

So true. My background is mainframe and i got out ten years ago after my job was sent overseas. I never tried to find another job in IT because I could see the writing on the wall: I was 43 and not getting any younger and technology was sending our jobs out of the country. I watched as countless people were fired and replaced with H1-B visa people. I felt like I was working in a foreign country. So sad.

I decided to become a nurse after losing my job. This didn't work out so I went into sales, where grey hair is appreciated and it cannot be sent overseas. Still, it's a struggle keeping my job, so now I'm looking to early retirement.

Great reading your post and seeing all the familiar terms.

I also understand. I have several years and was unable to get work. I now sub teach and have enrolled in school again in a different field. I wish someone could answer what the real problem is. All I have heard for the past 3yrs is you are over qualified.

Thank you

They won't hire the over qualified 'cause they know too much. They won't hire the entry level 'cause they don't know enough. You ask me it's all about making excuses to hire someone overseas who is cheaper.

Hi,

I would like to thank you for sharing the article. It was really enlightening. I have been searching for a new job for 6 months now and only lately having better responses after I rewrote my CV to note every bit of experience I have (literally like all over the field of software development: C, C++, C#, Java, PHP, SQL, etc.)

I am not seeking jobs in the US, only in the EU but this feels like the same. Now at least I know how I can stay on top of my career. Luckily I have the time as I am only 24 (with 4 years of commercial exp).

Cheers,
Totu

You're welcome, Totu.