After Bubble Busts: The Generalist-Specialist Tradeoff in IT Career Mobility Post Dotcom

Angela Lu; Yichao Xu; Chunmian Ge; Yulin Fang

After Bubble Busts: The Generalist-Specialist Tradeoff in IT Career Mobility Post Dotcom

Angela Lu
, Yichao Xu
, Chunmian Ge^*
, Yulin Fang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Information Systems

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

The advancement of information technology (IT) has profoundly changed the labor market in the last few decades. The IT labor market features rapid turnover, rendering IT career mobility a persistent challenge to organizations and a grand concern for IT workers. Past organizational research emphasizes the generalist-specialist tradeoff in career mobility. We examine the generalist-specialist tradeoff with 5 million IT-related job records from an online professional networking site. Using the 2000 dotcom crash as a natural experiment, we construct a matched sample for IT workers in internet and non-internet companies. We find that while individuals in internet companies are at higher risks of unemployment following the bubble bust, generalist employees are more likely hired by non-internet companies for IT and managerial positions. Generalist experience thus buffers market uncertainty and is more resilient than specialization, providing better job security and career prospect after the tech bubble bust.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ICIS 2020 Proceedings
Publisher	Association for Information Systems
ISBN (Print)	978-1-7336325-5-3
Publication status	Published - Dec 2020
Event	41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2020): Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global - Virtual, Hyderabad, India Duration: 13 Dec 2020 → 16 Dec 2020 Conference number: 41 https://archives.aisconferences.org/icis2020/ https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/

Publication series

Name	International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global

Conference

Conference	41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2020)
Place	India
City	Hyderabad
Period	13/12/20 → 16/12/20
Internet address	https://archives.aisconferences.org/icis2020/ https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/

Bibliographical note

Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Research Keywords

Dotcom bubble
Generalist-specialist tradeoff
IT career mobility
Market uncertainty

Access Output

https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/general_topics/general_topics/10/

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

Lu, A., Xu, Y., Ge, C., & Fang, Y. (2020). After Bubble Busts: The Generalist-Specialist Tradeoff in IT Career Mobility Post Dotcom. In ICIS 2020 Proceedings Article 2205 (International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global). Association for Information Systems. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/general_topics/general_topics/10/

@inproceedings{033c20ba86ec4af3826f3e10c3341005,

title = "After Bubble Busts: The Generalist-Specialist Tradeoff in IT Career Mobility Post Dotcom",

abstract = "The advancement of information technology (IT) has profoundly changed the labor market in the last few decades. The IT labor market features rapid turnover, rendering IT career mobility a persistent challenge to organizations and a grand concern for IT workers. Past organizational research emphasizes the generalist-specialist tradeoff in career mobility. We examine the generalist-specialist tradeoff with 5 million IT-related job records from an online professional networking site. Using the 2000 dotcom crash as a natural experiment, we construct a matched sample for IT workers in internet and non-internet companies. We find that while individuals in internet companies are at higher risks of unemployment following the bubble bust, generalist employees are more likely hired by non-internet companies for IT and managerial positions. Generalist experience thus buffers market uncertainty and is more resilient than specialization, providing better job security and career prospect after the tech bubble bust.",

keywords = "Dotcom bubble, Generalist-specialist tradeoff, IT career mobility, Market uncertainty",

author = "Angela Lu and Yichao Xu and Chunmian Ge and Yulin Fang",

note = "Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.; 41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2020) : Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global ; Conference date: 13-12-2020 Through 16-12-2020",

year = "2020",

month = dec,

language = "English",

isbn = "978-1-7336325-5-3",

series = "International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global",

publisher = "Association for Information Systems",

booktitle = "ICIS 2020 Proceedings",

address = "United States",

url = "https://archives.aisconferences.org/icis2020/, https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/",

}

Lu, A, Xu, Y, Ge, C & Fang, Y 2020, After Bubble Busts: The Generalist-Specialist Tradeoff in IT Career Mobility Post Dotcom. in ICIS 2020 Proceedings., 2205, International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global, Association for Information Systems, 41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2020), Hyderabad, India, 13/12/20. <https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/general_topics/general_topics/10/>

After Bubble Busts: The Generalist-Specialist Tradeoff in IT Career Mobility Post Dotcom. / Lu, Angela; Xu, Yichao; Ge, Chunmian et al.
ICIS 2020 Proceedings. Association for Information Systems, 2020. 2205 (International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - After Bubble Busts

T2 - 41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2020)

AU - Lu, Angela

AU - Xu, Yichao

AU - Ge, Chunmian

AU - Fang, Yulin

N1 - Conference code: 41

PY - 2020/12

Y1 - 2020/12

N2 - The advancement of information technology (IT) has profoundly changed the labor market in the last few decades. The IT labor market features rapid turnover, rendering IT career mobility a persistent challenge to organizations and a grand concern for IT workers. Past organizational research emphasizes the generalist-specialist tradeoff in career mobility. We examine the generalist-specialist tradeoff with 5 million IT-related job records from an online professional networking site. Using the 2000 dotcom crash as a natural experiment, we construct a matched sample for IT workers in internet and non-internet companies. We find that while individuals in internet companies are at higher risks of unemployment following the bubble bust, generalist employees are more likely hired by non-internet companies for IT and managerial positions. Generalist experience thus buffers market uncertainty and is more resilient than specialization, providing better job security and career prospect after the tech bubble bust.

AB - The advancement of information technology (IT) has profoundly changed the labor market in the last few decades. The IT labor market features rapid turnover, rendering IT career mobility a persistent challenge to organizations and a grand concern for IT workers. Past organizational research emphasizes the generalist-specialist tradeoff in career mobility. We examine the generalist-specialist tradeoff with 5 million IT-related job records from an online professional networking site. Using the 2000 dotcom crash as a natural experiment, we construct a matched sample for IT workers in internet and non-internet companies. We find that while individuals in internet companies are at higher risks of unemployment following the bubble bust, generalist employees are more likely hired by non-internet companies for IT and managerial positions. Generalist experience thus buffers market uncertainty and is more resilient than specialization, providing better job security and career prospect after the tech bubble bust.

KW - Dotcom bubble

KW - Generalist-specialist tradeoff

KW - IT career mobility

KW - Market uncertainty

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85103438528

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85103438528&origin=recordpage

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

SN - 978-1-7336325-5-3

T3 - International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global

BT - ICIS 2020 Proceedings

PB - Association for Information Systems

Y2 - 13 December 2020 through 16 December 2020

ER -

After Bubble Busts: The Generalist-Specialist Tradeoff in IT Career Mobility Post Dotcom

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Cite this