The thing is, the bust froze everything for 1 or 2 years, which sucked for regular IT folks plus this time there also a huge oversupply of IT graduates. I wouldn't be surprised if there are 10x more people working in IT then back then.

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alephnerd 6 days ago | parent [-]

Mind you, I was just a kid when it happened so I'm basing it off of 2nd hand stories, but my understanding was anyone with a pulse (ie. A hs grad or a college dropout) could get hired into the industry at the time (eg. The KOTH joke that if Peggy was laid off from being a substitute teacher she'd learn to design software).

At least ime in the 2010s and 2020s, while you had some aspect of that with bootcamp grads, it wasn't to the same degree. Or was it? Like I said, I was a kid when the busts happened so I have no frame of reference.

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shermantanktop 6 days ago | parent [-]

I had a pulse and got into this industry in the 90s through the back door.

It’s been a long run and I’ve seen busts come and go. It’s worked out really well for me, even while I’ve watched a surprising number of highly-credentialed new hires flop out over the years. I continue to appreciate people with oddball resumes.

	▲	tracker1 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		Similar here, no formal higher education starting in the early-mid 90's, just a lot of reading/learning and experimenting along the way... Even while working, I've spent 15-20 hours a week most of my career on learning activities. Somewhat hardware oriented and worked a few tech support/helpdesk and internal IT jobs in the early-mid 90's when I got more into programming as a side-step from design/art.