Let me go on record with a definitive, unequivocal, no-doubt-about-it opinion: They're both right. The 13,000 layoffs really did occur -- real people lost real jobs. But the training company's claims are also true; there is a shortage of IT professionals. OK, let me be a bit more specific: There is a shortage of qualified IT professionals willing to work for realistic compensation.

The last dotcom I was at is a perfect example. I had guys working for me who knew precious little about networking, yet they expected $70K and $80K salaries for their roles as so-called network admins. Across the hall in the engineering group there were guys with two years experience as ASP developers bellyaching because they were only making $75K.

These IT "professionals" knew nothing about following a project scope, were only vaguely familiar with standard IT best practices, and clueless when it came to customer service. The scary thing is they truly thought that they brought significant value to the organization.

Contrast these guys with the folks I used to work with years ago. As an independent computer consultant I often hired other consultants to help me out on larger projects. I was confident in sending them out to my clients -- not because they possessed a great technical acumen (which many did), but because they were true professionals. They understood the business issues driving the IT solutions we were supporting. And they knew how to deal with customers.

So, what's my advice to today's crop of displaced IT professionals? I have three basic suggestions, outlined below, using the dotcom I used to work for as an example of what NOT to do.

Find Out What the Customer Actually Wants
Our clients were bugging the sales reps for a better way to upload their media campaign assets (graphics files, Flash movies, audio streams, etc.) to our streaming media servers.

Not one developer had even a five minute phone call with any of the customers that were asking for this asset upload functionality. They just assumed that they knew what the problem was, indifferent as to why these clients were even asking for this feature. No wonder so many clients complained that the program didn't meet their needs.

What would have helped tremendously is if the developers knew why these customers were asking for this in the first place. They should have asked questions like how the assets were currently being uploaded, what was wrong with that process, and what they were hoping to accomplish with the new process.

Rather than use any one of the umpteen Web-based file upload objects out there, our developers insisted on developing a proprietary program. The result: A product that barely worked, requiring two extra dedicated severs, and a client-side application that needed to be installed and maintained. Even if the program had worked flawlessly, it was still much more than what our customers wanted.

After discussing this with the developers, I realized that they took this approach because a couple of the guys were self-proclaimed experts in Internet file transfer protocols, and they thought this would be a good project for them to strut their stuff on.

Admit It When You (or the Technology Itself) Miss the Mark
There comes a point when you have to be willing to acknowledge that you are wrong (to this day, those developers insist that they provided a good solution). But there's an even bigger issue here: We IT practitioners tend to get caught up in the technology, often at the expense of what the customer needs or wants. A technology solution isn't great just because it's a technology solution.

Those developers refuse to believe that their asset uploading program is less than perfect. They point to the cutting edge encryption algorithms and compression routines they implemented in the program, and claim how technically superior their product is to those web based objects that are already available.

Yet customers are still sending in their assets on CDs and JAZ cartridges -- unwilling or unable to use the supposedly superior product.

Don't Expect the Moon
Just like the stock prices of dotcoms that haven't failed, IT compensation has come down to reality. So should anyone looking for an IT position. Do you really think that someone with only a couple of years of IT experience and no real business acumen is worth $80K or more? No -- nor or do any of the hiring mangers out there.

Words of Wisdom?
Want to remain (or become) gainfully employed as an IT professional? I wish I could give you the magic formula. Unfortunately, there isn't one, but some of the clichés are apropos in this situation: Know what you can and can't do, bring more than just technical acumen to the table and be willing to work for a reasonable salary. Oh, and leave the attitude at home.