Scary Scenario

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Dot-com refugees must have frequent bouts of anxiety when they think about all the mistakes they've made. The most gullible fell for all the classic employer lines. The most outrageous were "We take care of our own" and "You've got a future with us."

Don't be upset if you believed them, too. You had plenty of company. Now that things are looking a lot better than they did five years ago, I fear that many people holding good jobs are about to throw caution to the wind again and fall into the same trap the dot-commers did. Feeling safe and secure, many will mistakenly think that they no longer have to be in a perpetual state of panic about losing their jobs. They'll convince themselves that job nirvana is finally here. Right! And I'm going to visit the Wizard later on.

Instead of following the job market every day, scanning recruitment ads and checking tech sites, bulletin boards and technical blogs, they'll ease up on the reins and begin to lose touch. They'll convince themselves that "Everything is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds," as the mindless optimist Dr. Pangloss said in Voltaire's satirical 18^th century tale Candide.

They'll become lax about building a network of contacts, and they'll lose touch with the analysts who evaluate industry trends.

Stay with me. The scenario that I'm describing is all …

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