You've worked hard to get to the your current position in IT. But times are tough, and you are losing your job. So are you willing to step back, take a pay cut and accept a job that you have done in the past?

Computerworld magazine asked Joseph L. DeVenuto, the CIO at Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Ky., to answer a question from an IT employee about the best way to navigate this economic downturn.

In most cases, an overqualified person is turned down for a lower-level job, not because he or she is overqualified, but because the salary requirements may be too high, DeVenuto said. But times have changed and DeVenuto says organizations are willing to look in unexpected places to add skills and talent that were unavailable months ago. Facing a larger candidate pool, the IT employee may have to move laterally or backward to get a job in this economic climate.

So taking a pay cut may be your only option. It may also be your best option. Experts are predicting the recession will end later this year, but in the meantime, there's plenty of reallocation underway. If you are offered a job with a smaller salary and less responsibility, you should take it.

For more on today's job climate:
- check out this Computerworld.com article

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