|
Dot-com to Dot-org
Listen
to this Commentary!
Megan Williams
The U.S. Peace Corps has taken aim at a potential new source of recruits - out
of work dot-com worker. A new ad by its San Francisco recruitment office reads:
"Dot-com dot-gone, now it's time to network in the real world." Since
the campaign began several months ago, interest in signing-up has doubled. Other
volunteer organization also are benefiting from the technology slowdown. Megan
Williams of Youth Radio has this report.
Six months ago, Jessica Hsu
was leading the stereotypical dot-com life - working 14-hour days for an on-line
advertising firm called I-Traffic. It was her first job out of college. She had
stock options and an office with a wading pool out back.
JESSICA HSU (w/ keyboard under): ...WHEN I WAS AT I-TRAFFIC, I WAS CONSTANTLY IN
FRONT OF EMAIL...
These days, Jessica has lots of free time, and checks her email from her San
Francisco apartment, in her pajamas. In January, she left the dot-com life and
applied to the Peace Corps. She's poised for a two-year stint working with
farmers in Haiti.
JESSICA HSU: WHAT I'M REALLY LOOKING FOR IS MORE HUMAN INTERACTION, BEING ABLE
TO SEE THE FRUITS OF MY LABOR. TO DO SOMETHING THAT IS REALLY REWARDING AND THAT
OTHER PEOPLE CAN BENEFIT FROM, RATHER THAN SELLING SOMETHING.
Hsu joins a growing number of dot comers who are moving from "dot-com to
dot-org." With the Internet bubble burst, non-profit administrators are
seeing an influx of resumes once destined for corporate recruiters. The Industry
Standard, a magazine that tracks the on-line world, has counted more than a
hundred thousand lay-offs in the last year and a half.
Some of these new job seekers willingly are taking their marketing and technical
savvy to lower-paying non-profits, while others say they have little choice.
Still more are leaving their dot-com skills behind - for a "meaningful
job."
The Peace Corps says their applications generally increase in tough economic
times. But John Clausen, a Peace Corps regional recruiter for Northern
California believes his organization is a particularly good fit for I-T
workers.
JOHN CLAUSEN: THERE'S NOT A LOT OF STRUCTURE IN THE PEACE CORPS. THAT'S ONE NICE
THING ABOUT THE DOT-COM PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY'RE WORKING IN A NON-STRUCTURED
ENVIRONMENT WHICH LENDS ITSELF TO FITTING INTO THE PEACE CORPS BETTER.
But not every non-profit is eager to embrace laid-off dot comers. Kim Busselle
is in charge of hiring for Kidsnet, a non-profit group that analyzes media
geared toward children. Five-to-ten percent of her applications for a recent job
posting came from dot-commers - a record, she says. But Busselle isn't making
high-tech experience the top priority in filling positions.
KIM BUSSELLE: I THINK WE'LL STILL BE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WITH NON-PROFIT
EXPERIENCE, PEOPLE WITH A PROVEN INTEREST IN THE ISSUES WE DEAL WITH IS REALLY
MORE IMPORTANT THAN OTHER REQUIREMENTS WE MIGHT LOOK FOR.
When Busselle screened her applicants for salary requirements, all of the
dot-comers wanted more money than she could pay.
Jessica Hsu is over the big money. She explains that her dot-com salary made up
for workdays of long hours in front of the computer, for a while.
JESSICA HSU: SO LOTS OF LUXURIES, MASSAGES, SPAS, SPENT IT SNOWBOARDING, SEASON
PASSES UP ON TAHOE, EATING OUT A LOT, WHICH I'VE CUT DOWN ON SIGNIFICANTLY SINCE
I LEFT THE DOT-COM WORLD.
Hsu's dot-com job paid about 40-thousand-dollars a year. In the Peace Corps,
she'll be earning 6 dollars a day or 12-thousand dollars a year. Hsu and her
colleagues were never among the overnight millionaires profiled in Fortune
Magazine. Instead, she says, they were more like the proletariat of the internet
revolution, working long hours for midlevel salaries.
JESSICA HSU: A LOT OF THE YOUNGER PEOPLE WHO'VE COME OUT OF THE DOT-COM WORLD
FEEL LIKE THEY'VE BEEN EXPLOITED. IF I WANT A JOB WHERE I'M SPENDING 12-14 HOUR
DAYS, I WANT IT TO BE SOMETHING THAT I'M PASSIONATE ABOUT.
But for many dot-commers, the tech market crash makes leaving the field less of
a choice than a necessity. Rick Fasani started working for the database firm
Microstrategy three years ago. The company recently laid off two-thirds of its
on-line division and Fasani recently resigned.
So far, two other dot-coms have turned down his application and he's now widened
his search to look at non-profits as well. On his lunch break at a mall near his
soon-to-be former office in Falls Church, Virginia, he seems
disappointed:
RICK FASANI: WHEN I GRADUATED, THE JOB MARKET WAS SO GOOD, AND THE OPPORTUNITIES
FOR WEALTH AND RETIRING EARLY WERE SO GOOD... YOU ALMOST FELT STUPID FOR NOT
DOING IT...IF THE JOB MARKET WAS WHAT IT ONCE WAS... I PROBABLY WOULDN'T BE
LOOKING. I PROBABLY WOULD ALREADY HAVE ANOTHER JOB AT THIS POINT AND BE JUMPING
FROM ONE COMPANY TO ANOTHER.
For people like Rick Fasani and Jessica Hsu, the dot-com world is turning out to
be more of a detour than a destination. Fortunately for many talent-hungry,
non-profit groups, many of these young people are back to contemplating one of
the more prosaic concerns of post-college life: how to save the world and pay
the rent.
This is Megan Williams for NPR News.
Host Back Announce: That report was produced by Youth Radio.
|
|
