Keep your IT job safe in a recession

With the economy on a roller coaster and every company looking to cut costs, it is probably the time to take a few steps to protect your IT job, according to experts. "Right now, in this day and age, if anyone is working in IT, the closer you work on relationships with customers, the better the opportunities you're going to have," said Jim Lanzalatto, vice president of strategy and marketing at staffing agency Yoh LLC in Philadelphia. If you are a project manager for a bank or a financial services company, you are in a precarious place right now because those industries are having a tough time. But if you are working in consumer products, it is much more stable, he said.

In the tech, engineering and scientific communities, there's pent-up demand from customers. There are projects in the pipeline and budgets have already been set, so those are big pluses in the marketplace "because that work is already under way," Lanzalatto said. "The current demand is still strong, and that's where the optimism comes in." Remember, companies will always be looking for ways to streamline an operation, so make sure you are an essential part of their team.

For more on protecting our IT job:
- See this ComputerWorld article