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The dot com crash was epic. Keep in mind it was also aligned with post Y2K. The growth in the late 90's was extreme. Both in new tech (Web, Java) and legacy systems (Y2K).

Almost all companies cut IT spending to the bone for about 24 months. The rebound in hiring was pretty quick, but wages where suppressed until the later 2000s.

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Cut to the bone varied from industry to industry: there was definitely some bargain hunting from e.g. brick and mortar stores buying erstwhile competitors at a fire sale and I knew some places like academia were able to hire staff because they were no longer massively under-paying.

This does make me wonder if we’ll see some quiet reform in large companies as they hire people who have worked at major tech companies and can better make the case for areas to modernize.

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