Guess What GBS (Gary Sword) does for a living?

I don't think that's true. Most realtors will even drop their commision to make a sale if it will bring the buyer and seller together and make the deal happen. Like MickyC said there a few bad people in any profession that make the other slook bad. The only exception to this is lawyers and politicians. In the latter to profections there are only a few good ones.

 

agentf1, I do a lot of .net programming using SQL Server for my DB. I guess Vipers and programming go together.

 

I own an IT recruiting business in NYC.

Gary, SQL and .net gets you a Lambo and a Viper?
You must be a contractor. I was for 6 years, it gave me the bank roll to start my business. I actually still sell myself out daily to some clients as a Program Manager.

 

JSATEK =

Justin - me
Sammy - my dog, I only had one at the time.
Andrea - my wife
TEK - technology.

 

A few years ago IT was paying very well, especially contract work. I was a PeopleSoft Developer before I got into .net stuff and the contractors were making 150 and hour. I am kicking myself now for not taking advantage of it when I could. Now, I am hearing numbers like 50 to 75 an hour if you are luck for the PS development. IT is really down mostly due to outsourcing which is exactly what happened to me a little over a year ago. I ended up having to take a 25% cut in pay to get back to work. I am hoping it picks back up again. They are saying it should by the year 2010. I guess time will tell. It really is a shame but we are ruining this country with al of the outsourcing. I would hate to be a kid just starting out today with the house prices and job market the way it is.

 

I do good writing software and I enjoy doing it. I only have a few select clients I do work for now. I have also made a lot of money buying and selling real estate. Mostly waterfront property. It allowed me to pay cash for the Lambo as well as a lot of other things. I have just gottin back into my real estate buying mode. There are a lot of great deals out there. It will probably be 2-4 years before I sell off the property I'm buying up now.

 

A lot of the good jobs have been outsourced to places like India. People over there work for almost nothing. It's a shame that a lot of good jobs in this country are going else where. I have my own company with established clients that love my software and the service I provide. The outsourcing has not affected me.

 

Trust me. Unless you want to get into a CIO role, or have the idea to develop some stunning software, get out of IT as your main source of income!!

I only work for banks. Non-financial cant pay what talented IT people need. In NYC, a .net / SQL developer can get $750-850. per day in a bank for a short term contract (6 months). Compare that to 2001 when they were getting $1500-1800 per day.

 

You can definitely make more money in NYC then you can down in SW Florida. The only problem with that is you have to live in NY or NJ to do it. For me enjoying my life comes 1st and making more money comes 2nd.

 

I work for a bank but I am an employee so needless to say I am not making that much money.

You do not think IT will pick back up in a few years like they are predicting?

I don't blame you. It has always been a dream to live in South Florida. I know exactly how you made your money. I looked at a condo in Hawks Cay in the Keys and it was 169 pre construction. We passed on it but looked at it again a few years later. We even went as far as getting approved for the mortgage but backed out. It was selling for 369 at this time. I checked it the following year and it was 769. Needless to say I was sick but not as sick as the following year when it was 1.4. Basically I could have carried this place for 2 years and sold it for a million dollar profit. If only my balls were a little bigger. It was showing a negative income and we weren't sure the prices would keep going the way they did. Who would have thought. I thought for sure the 369 was the top of the market. Little did I know. I would love to see what they are going for now, I am sure they didn't drop that much but am guessing they are probably much harder to sell at 7 figures in this economy. Ol' well, live and learn. No sense crying over spilled milk. Had we lived down there we would definitely have jumped on it since we would have been able to get more use out of it and believe me, we would definitely have sold when it hit 1.4 million. Well, that my story of the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.

 

Personally, I believe that anyone is capable of programming. The problem is that most people are not willing to change the way that they think in order to do it well. That includes 90+% of the people that write code for a living.

 

Pay is regional. I used to place for JPMorgan in Houston and Ohio also. The pay is dramatically different, but so is the work ethic and the expectations of the office.

Thats funny! We are exact polar opposites. Money first, life second. The more money I have, the better my life gets...I'm a sick guy with an apartment on the upper east side in NYC and a house in southern Westchester. It kind of runs on the expensive side here.

 

Dont get me wrong. I want to be Gary Sword. a Lambo and a Viper in a nice clean garage..unless you are 60, I'm jealous....haha

 

I'm not 60 and I have 2 houses on the water with Ocean Access, Lamborghini, Viper, Mercedes, c6 Z06 Vette, C4 Vette and a couple of other cars, boat, jet skis and more stuff then I care to think about. None of it means all that much especially when I compare it to my Family. It's all just stuff. Most of the really rich people I know are also the most unhappiess. To each his own.