Reinventing Silicon Alley

Computerworld - When Jesse Martinez moved to New York from New Orleans in March to pursue a Silicon Alley career, finding a job was no problem. Within two weeks, Martinez, who wanted to work in the entertainment sector of the new-media industry, had lined up a contract gig. A week later, she had garnered several full-time offers.
Martinez selected a position as a project manager and site producer at an interactive broadband services company designing Web sites for clients in the entertainment industry. The job leveraged her background in film studies, her Web production experience acquired at a small company in New Orleans and her information technology skills.
It was a position, Martinez thought, that would put her on track toward her long-range goal of moving into information architecture.
She joined the company in early April, just as the dot-com market correction hit. But Martinez wasn't worried; the company was still hiring and bringing in high-profile clients.
Six months later, Martinez was ready to ask for a raise. But as she started checking salary surveys to assess what would be a fair increase, she discovered that her company had quietly laid off a number of people in its content division.
Higher-ups were suddenly cagey about where the company's venture capital was coming from. And Silicon Alley's famed new-media companies were dropping like flies. Most notably, broadband programmer Pseudo Programs Inc., one of the city's new-media pioneers, closed its doors in September after five years.
Instead of asking for a raise, Martinez started updating her resume.
"I backed off asking for a raise because there were some layoffs, and we have a lull in production now," Martinez says. "I feel a little bad asking for a raise when I have nothing to do. I'm trying to evaluate: Is this a bad sign, or just a transition?"
Amid an atmosphere of dot-com closures and layoffs, delayed or canceled initial public offerings (IPO) and a tech stock roller-coaster ride, Silicon Alley's high-flying new-media professionals are suddenly finding themselves crashing. But IT professionals are landing on their feet.
"Experienced IT professionals typically get placed first," says Allison Hemming, who has a bird's-eye view of the Silicon Alley job market as the hostess of New York's latest cool confab, the Pink Slip Party. On the last Wednesday of every month, New York's jobless dot-commers and hungry dot-com recruiters gather at Manhattan's Rebar restaurant to share war stories and pick up job leads. Launched by Hemming's consulting firm, The Hired Guns, in June, the first Pink Slip Party