IT Software Vendor, CA, to Cut 1,000 Jobs

Guess so much for those job postings that sky rocketed the stock market.. Oh wait the stock market only seems to jump at good news and avoids bad..

I'd imagine the first to go are call center grunts; guys who can barely manage to hold a phone and read directions off a computer screen at the same time. So I doubt it'll do much damage to the already failing IT job market.

If they are spending $43 million on severance packages for 1,000 people that averages to $43,000 per person. I highly doubt that is for "call center grunts". It sounds closer to senior engineers.

Or rather 5-10 Sr. board members/engineers who have offered to go under the ax for 2-3 million. And then another 990 call center dudes who will be lucky to get a CA coffee mug and a keychain out of the deal.

We actually have a demo for one of their products coming up. I don't see us going with it in light of this. Sorry, but if you can't run your company without firing almost 10% of the workforce, then I don't want your product in mine.

This shows poor planning and decision making skills and will most likely lead to piss poor product advancements and support. Yeah, let me just set my company up for that little bit of hell.

No thanks.

My dad used to run CA's anti-virus on all our machines.

I hope those 1000 jobs include ALL of the people responsible for making the etrust itm software. I don't know how such a big company can consequently manage to avoid making its software work. So glad our contract with em expired last year.

It isn't antivirus, if it doesn't stop virusses. Etrust doesn't stop anything - merely informs you that it failed to do so if it sees fit to inform about anything at all.

You are not looking at this the right way. A company that streamlines its operations in order to remain solvent is a company that you do want to do business with. They will still around in 5 or 10 years. Companies that try everything they can to not lay people off, and who basically forget that they are in business to make money, are the ones that do not survive in times like these. And when that happens, EVERYONE loses their job, not just a select 8%.

I see your point, just not too sure about that. We had another one of our vendors purchased by another company recently as part of a restructure type thing and since that occurred we have had nothing like the service we had before. Some of the top notch support we had was replaced with...well...I'm not sure, but its not near the top. Defects and change requests for the software seem to be ignored or failing to the wayside, the release schedule seems to be fluctuating and the last three patches actually broke more stuff than it addressed.

I understand the need to run an efficient company, but I have seen too often when a company trims too far and hits the bone, the end user gets the shaft.

New jobs my hairy rear, there isn't nothing out there! This is what pisses me off they screw every one but management while giving them selves ever greater bonuses and perks.


Mob rule and heads on sticks looks to be more like the future than any thing else.

Agreed. Etrust is just plain god awful. I've seen computers infect with all sorts of things and Etrust didn't detect or prevent anything. Amazing part is that the program somehow managed to use 100% of the processor on late Intel Pentium 4 and early dual core models.

Let me say this... you are not looking this at the right way. If the leadership is there then they shouldn't be laying off people (or very very few). It is the poor decisions that the top makes that makes layoffs happen. It is common practice now a days. In my opinion, there are very few true leader in the corp. world. I have very little faith in them. They also keep you in the dark until that day... "Hey by the way, pack your bags". I have seen many times, myself included and also people who had extensive knowledge in the products as well. I can almost bet that everyone can say they know of somebody that has been laid off. Can you tell I don't like Corp. American, lol. Not the company itself but the people!!

Hmm, if anything it seems to me like the IT industry is picking up now that the recession is mostly over. I was able to find a new job a couple of months ago, within 1 week of starting to apply. And then after I got that job I got 4 or 5 callbacks from other companies I had applied to.

With the right qulifications, there are a decent amount of IT jobs out there.

If by the right qualifications you mean 15-20 years of experience, with every cert known to mankind, and a masters in electrical engineering to boot... sure.

*shrug* Maybe it's just my area. Getting an IT job here is definitely a battle.

I only have 7 years in the field and (equivalent to) a bachelor's in comp-sci, though the IT sector in my city is quite large.

The last three IT companies I have worked for have all dumped CA products completely. Over priced products with poor support, add the engineer who put in code in thier update to shut down everyones mainframes a few years back which affected companies in something like 30 countries.

Complete utter incompetence!

Check out dice.com. There are lots of different IT job openings.

You're forgetting unemployment benefits for the 990. That may leave only $20 million for the execs (excluding stock option grants of course)

I found Craigslist to be the best resource.

Symantec and Avira are the best antivirus out right now. Sure I'll get -20 for mentioning Symantec but try it out and you will see what I mean. CA might have a product that works but I haven't heard anyone mention their products in a number of years now. I still have a CA pen and a CA mousepad somewhere I think.

Companies do their best to budget for the next fiscal year. Often times, they are a bit too optimistic. Rarely are they too conservative in their budgets. If they make their mark, then all is good. When they don't, which happens more often than not... especially these days, then it is decision time. Most medium to large companies have quite a bit of fat (people on the payroll that really don't do much, or what they do is not vital to the continuing operation of the business) that can be trimmed. Better leadership isn't going to change the reality of that situation.

Finally, I would like to point something out that may be obvious to some, but which far too many people just don't seem to understand:
Companies do NOT exist to provide you with a job, and healthcare and whatever other benefits you feel you are entitled to; companies exist to make money for their owners... period, end-of-sentence, thank-you, goodbye.

Yes it is understandable for them to want to earn money however a lot of companies these days don't look very far in the future. Stock dips, "oh lets lay off half the support dept", which leads to poor customer service and support. With little or no job security, why should employees care about the growth of the company or the level of service? If the companies don't give a sh#t, why should employees?

I wouldn't care if California fell off into the ocean. The libtards have turned it into the one of the worse places to business. Over regulation, taxes and all the other crap liberals/socialists love to do to stifle business. Spend everyone elses money on their pet social programs. That's great until you run out of other peoples money. Now we have libtards doing it to the whole country, God help us.

Lol symantec best av i own my own computer store, i have been a tech over 25 years if symantec is so good why do i spend all my time removing viruses on machines, worms and trojans and fake av's that have Norton 2010 products.

Comodo internet security free blows away anything including what symantec has how many machines have i cleaned with comodo internet security zero why because it has both signature based and behavioral based and sandboxes unsecured applications .

99% of the time a trojan or rootkit disables norton's antivirus products while it has a smaller memory footprint it is a major target for virus and malware writers comodo has hips (defense+) which is a must for protecting yourself from malware.

Holy! You've been in the industry 25 years, and you're still trudging along in little better than a help desk position? Time to find a new career. *eye roll* Norton products aren't that good, but you should try Symantec Endpoint products. And if you own your own PC store, I know for a fact that you don't install Comodo on your customers machines. MSRP of $40 for a $15 AV license is too much to pass up for anyone who has to stay in buisness. That is... If you do actually own a store of your own.


Ha, coincidentally, I checked that site. 3 jobs in a 40 mile radius. 2 weren't even IT jobs, but graphic design jobs. The other wanted an MSEE degree and 10 years experience. Hell, monster.com does a better job than that.

True, hadn't thought of that.

When you're on Dice, make sure you modify the search filters. There's only a few larger cities within 40 miles of where I live, and it has 135 job results, listed in the last 30 days.

The problem with Monster, is it's full of repeat, garbage/scam listings. Our bank recently hired a new network engineer. It was listed on Dice, but never monster, yahoo jobs, career builder, or any of the other job sites.

During "boom" it's quite easy for companies to hire and keep more people that they really need. In "bust" they get rid of the most useless trash. It's beneficial for the company and they have a good excuse to do so, there's nothing bad about it.

And to the guy complaining about lack of jobs 40 miles around whatever... ever heard of moving?

I just got a job as a Network Administrator/IT Support. I seriously lucked out. After a year of not able to find work and doing a lot of grueling grunt work. I finally managed to find a job that pays decent. I don't make as much as these guys by about 15k, but it's better than not having a job. Word for the wise, start your own IT business or software developing because it is the only way we can keep our jobs from going over seas.