Guest Post: Web Analytics in a Recession?
This is a guest post from Corry Prohens of IQ Workforce. Corry is a sponsor of the Analytics Demystified Job Board and one of the most plugged-in folks I know in our industry. He’s helped some great companies find talent, and some amazing talent find great companies which is, as we all know, one of the hardest things of all about web analytics. Thanks to Corry and IQ Workforce for sponsorsing the job board and I hope all of you have either a safe and relaxing 4th of July or a nice respite from U.S.-based email, depending on where you live in the world!
Without further comment, Corry Prohens:
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This past spring I was growing concerned with the condition of the economy. Skyrocketing oil and food prices, plummeting real estate values, an unprecedented credit crunch, investment banks folding and teetering…
The lead question for business publications and programs shifted from “Will there be a recession” to “How long and how awful will the recession be?”
In a previous life I lived through the dot com surge and bust as a technology recruiter. I did NOT want to go there again. The last few years have been very kind to our community / career landscape and my paranoia was growing that the good times were going to end.
As a coping device and because I assumed that my colleagues shared my interest/concern, I decided to poll the community on the issue in our Summer 2008 industry survey.
It turns out that while most economists say that the United States is either experiencing or entering a recession, web analytics practitioners in the US are overwhelmingly optimistic about their career prospects in the short and intermediate-term future.
A sneak preview into the survey results shows that individuals and departments around the country are downright bullish:
- 74% of practitioners expect that spending on web analytics will increase at their company during the recession (40% said it would increase a bit / 34% said it would increase significantly)
- 60% of practitioners said that the recession would either increase the likelihood of hiring additional web analytics resources or have no impact
- 17% said that their company was either somewhat or very likely to reduce web analytics headcount during the recession
- 2% thought that the recession would have a major negative impact on their career
Thank goodness! And just to prove that these folks are answering with their heads and not their hearts, my team is literally busier right now than we have ever been. Entering the short July 4th holiday week, we have been absolutely inundated with new requests from clients for permanent and contract web analytics resources.
As a longtime LinkedIn fan, I decided to throw the question up there last week to see what kind of response I would get. Eight people – all web analytics practitioners – answered in a single voice: “What recession?”
The only concrete difference / pattern that we have seen in our business over the past several months has been the exploding demand for web analytics contractors. A year ago we were working on one contract position for every eight permanent positions. Now contractor requests make up over a third of all new requests for resources. I am not sure if I am ready to draw a direct correlation between the economy and the rising demand for contractors since there are several other viable explanations.
Here is the link to participate in the current survey (or to view results of previous surveys):
http://www.iqworkforce.com/survey.asp
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Thanks again to Corry for his support of Analytics Demystified!
