This entry is an addition to Michael Washington's list of 5 tools for survival in the tough times ahead

Some of us can work and study with no problems. So, if you have a part time job or if you land one project every now and then GO FOR IT, tool #0.

tool #0 (back to basics): complement your career. Luckily, I started Law school about 5 years ago, I am a Lawyer now. I had been developing softwares for lawyers for the last 10 years. So, now even though I can develop better software for lawyers I can also provide law services. IT jobs have been stumbling since I do not know when (around 2000-2001 in my experience, my personal best year was '99 when I did a lot of Y2K stuff). Looking at IT jobs being hit over and over have been kind of common for me now, where one variable become the source of a new problem ocurring every year or every other year (IT industry IPO bubble, outsource, offshore, open source, stupid-investor-becoming-manager).

My advice is to Boost your career. If not with a new one, try a Master or a Doctorate degree. College is fun and rather cheap if you can get a good scholarship loan. Aim for a scholarship, for married people if you are married, perhaps in another country. Some scholarships cover tuition, food and housing.

BTW, I am 42 now. It is never too late.

This entry is intended for those that HAVE TIME, willing to take a LOW RISK, ADVANCE CAREER, and most of all Cost of Opportunity is addecuate. I mean by cost of opportunity that if you are fully employed, nicely payed and enjoying it, then it is not a good time to blow it. However, provided a scenario where someone is unemployed, bored, low income, unstable job, foreseeable not so pleasant future, then perhaps getting a high education will be the best investment.

Even someone with a BS in Science, Software or the like can benefit from a Masters in Science, Software, AI, or whatever. The point is continued education, in times of trouble, can get you places, and if you get a scholarship you may even end up working as a researcher in some nice company. I have met a couple of folks working with MS Research in Cambridge while being students. One of them has already published a book on F# (my current programming language passion).

 Being in the business of outsourced IT, environments like the one we are currently in can afford many new business opportunities.  This is another place where DNN excells.  It is very easy for a developer to inexpensively build the website or application, as well as manage it, allowing the business to either cut staff or not hire more staff to manage the application and hosting. Anyway, I'll just ride out the rest of the slowdown with the cash under my matress, and not with the likes of WaMU, Wakovia, or JP Morgan Chase.