As I work on this article I sit on the mall in front of the Washington Monument awaiting the fireworks festival on July 4^th.  The last time I was in Washington DC was in 1976 and as I watch the other 500,000 patriots who have joined me to celebrate the 224^th anniversary of our declaration of independence from the mother country the thought occurs to me that a lot has changed in the last twenty four years.  It also occurs to me that I am well on my way to becoming one of those old kooks who is always reminiscing about the ‘good old days’, but I digress.  The thing that occurred to me is that the lifestyle of my peers and I is significantly different that that of my father or grandfather.  In ’76 my grandfather, who coincidently was the one who took me to visit our nations capital back then thus the cause of this particular recollection, was just a few years away from retiring from a long career with the Federal Aviation Administration.  This is what I realized was so appreciably different about his life then mine.

It used to be that a career was much like Christianity.  You worked diligently your whole life, remaining loyal to the same company, anticipating that at the end of your journey you would attain your just reward in the form of a nice retirement package.

My generation, especially those who have careers in the information industry are quite different.  For us the metaphor for our vocations is more like Hinduism.  We regularly change jobs in that the hopes that with each change we will be ‘reincarnated’ into a higher position.  It is not uncommon for information people to change jobs every couple of years or so.  My own resume would be several pages deep if I were to list all of the companies I worked for during my adult life.  It used to be that changing jobs so frequently was looked down upon, now it is expected.

This significant change in our lifestyles and attitudes has brought about a number of side effects in our lives. The way we have to plan for our retirements is significantly different.  No longer is it possible to depend on earning a pension because we persisted with the same company for twenty or thirty years.  Since we so frequently change the companies we work for we must look to alternative methods for securing a comfortable future in our post-employment years.  Thus, once again as a generation we are starting to save more but the new trend that has really started to return to favor is the concept of stock ownership.  More of us are starting to place a great degree of our dependence in the stock market.  We are starting to request stock options as part of our employment agreements and another new craze called day trading has been popular for a while now.  Most of my good friends have a large amount of their personal worth invested in the stock market in the hopes that this investment will secure them a safe retirement. No longer do we depend on programs that are secured by a backer such as a corporate pension or savings plan, but we place all of our financial future in the volatile and most times risky stock market.  For a generation like my grandfather who lived through that little financial bump this country went through in the 1920’s they would call this putting all our eggs in one basket.  We have gotten what I call dot com mania and we are optimistically planning that we will be able to get rich on the growth of the technology industry if only we had the chance to own a piece of it.  It makes sense right?  If it worked for someone like Marc Andreeson who is only 28 and a multi-millionaire or Bill Gates who has so much money that he could pay off the student loans of everyone in college right now, then we should be able to do it too…….right?

Now let me for a moment take these two events, the fact that we no longer have job loyalty and that we put so much of our assets into the stock market and tie them together into a potentially frightening scenario.

Currently most companies are suffering from a huge shortage of experienced information personnel.  Because of this, they are offering huge incentive packages to potential candidates if they would only be willing to leave their current positions.  Not a week goes by that most of us are not contacted by a recruiter offering us a new position with more money, a signing bonus, and oh yes, some more of those stock options.  This is causing many companies to bleed talent at a frightening rate.  I was speaking with a senior manager of one Technology Company on the west coast a few months ago and he told me that of the 2500 or so positions that existed at his company more than 1000 were currently vacant.  He was concerned that due to increased competition for experienced workers this company might not be able to keep their doors open.  In part because of the loss of key talent in their organization this companies stock isn’t doing too well right now either.  Since part of their compensation plan includes stock options even more of their staff are looking elsewhere as the value of the company and with it their retirement drops, which causes more people to leave, etc.  Thus we have a perpetual motion mechanism for the failure of a company. 

I believe there exists the frightening possibility for this to expand beyond the scope of just one company.  As masses of workers who are already in short supply move from company to company and those companies one by one suffer financially because of this we could end up with yet another economic crash similar to the one our grandparents experienced not so many years ago.

I am not trying to be the purveyor of doom and gloom; on the contrary I just want to point out that there is no such thing as a free ride.  Everyone must pay the piper eventually.  What I am recommending is not to get too caught up in the hype.  Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side, sometimes it’s not, but most of the time it really isn’t all that different.  Also, diversity in all things especially investing is a good thing.  Don’t put all your egg in one basket.

It’s a great time to be alive if you are a technology person.  Everyone seems to want you and the opportunities are endless.  Just remember to keep your head and don’t get absorbed into the hype.  Oh, and by the way if you are looking for a job, my company is hiring.