It used to be that a high-tech engineer would be fired for being redundant, or if they failed. However, now days engineering groups that are perfectly successful are getting laid off the day they finish products. Getting fired for success is pretty new, since most companies viewed the engineers that understood how their products worked to be assets. At the very least, depriving one’s competitors of talent was worth doing everything possible to keep engineering staff around. That thinking appears to be old fashioned.

Companies are experimenting with all kinds of approaches to staffing. Some fire 5% of their staff yearly. Others have launched on diversity programs. It seems to be fashionable to call these social engineering exercises of the workforce stupid, moral failings of management, or conspiracies. Some simply cite globalization, or executive incentives tied to fabulous piles of stock options.  Folks like Jack Ganssle go on and on, as journalists love to do. Fear mongering sells.

I wonder about this. As a human being, I often make mistakes, blunders, and mis-predictions. In fact, I really only seem to learn the hard way, by making mistakes. The only way I seem to be able to avoid making mistakes to to avoid action. I think most people are fairly familiar with the reality of this human condition. But for some reason, when evaluating these new trends in labor policy, many of us fail to realize the humanity of those making the decisions. Things change, and folks are trying to adapt in the only possible way, acting, failing, trying again.

I do not mean to say that there are not executives with self-serving motives and low character. In fact I have seen some fairly astounding lack of character in managers throughout my career. What I am saying is that to ascribe such faults to the natural course of change in an industry is not rational, it’s emotional. Therefore, the failing is in us engineers, it’s not our employers. Rut-roh…

Why would I say such a thing? Well, the truth is that companies are experimenting with staffing because competition demands it, and they have the power to do so. While we engineers are not as powerful as the executives that decide the fate of many, we are far from powerless. The first thing to do is recognize that the employment game’s rules have changed. The next thing to do is play to the new rules. Eventually we will learn to play the game well. Now that the market for engineering talent is heating up again, here are some ideas that have been working for me:

- Consider yourself a free agent. Serve your employer and give them excellent value. However, the argument that bending over backwards will make the company more loyal to you is silly. Appealing to our sense of corporate loyalty need no longer restrain you; there is no loyalty. Reject all such coercions from managers trying to get even more from you. If someone says you’re less likely to be fired if you work weekends, you’re going to be fired eventually, maybe soon. Best to spend your weekends looking for new work.

- Join local trade and networking groups. By going to the excellent Kickstand networking group here in Boise, I have learned of  new local companies developing LED street lighting, blood tests on silicon chips, wireless power metering, Internet appliances, and media/advertising software. And this is Boise! Get out there and find out what’s going on. Meet the people who might need you, now or in the future.

- Go to demos and specialized group meetings. When I lived in Silicon Valley I saw a demo from Steve Wozniac at Xerox PARC. I grew as an engineer from that demo. I also learned a ton about Internet publishing through my local Drupal group (which just happens to have some real Drupal powerhouses that attend). There are lots of doors that lead to new ideas, products, tools and (dare I say it) adventures. Make sure you’re taking in new stuff all the time, finding new interests and pursuing them.

- Learn from all the people around you. Especially focus on people who do things differently. It is tempting to hang around with those that agree with us. However, the real magic in learning happens when we confront the unfamiliar and threatening new ideas we will not hear about unless we ask. Connect with people and ideas you wouldn’t normally entertain. It just might lead you to the place you’d rather be.

- Take friends in other industries and vocations out to coffee. Ask them what they like and don’t like about what they do. Consider what it is about what they do that you might like. Remember don’t make hunting for work ideas into a status thing. It doesn’t matter if a friend is a CEO or an hourly worker. Don’t always look up the food chain. Meet with folks independent of status or position and consider everything they say. You might just decide you’re more senior than you’d like, as opposed to a frustrated superstar.

These are just a few ideas that have been working for me. There are many more angles on the new economy for us nerds. It could be as simple as writing an app for the iPhone, or as complicated as changing careers to the fine wood boatbuilding you’ve always admired. Anything is possible when you never know what the next day holds. Believe me, falling down and getting back up again is normal and necessary. Only the emotionally stupid fall down and end it there.

- Free Agent Nation, a book about freelancing

- A Whole New Mind, a book about developing ourselves

- Falling Down, a film about an engineer gone wrong

- Happiness book reference