As an older guy who has been through a number of these economic cycles, my feeling is that this will be a mild recession.  Nothing like 2000 or 2008.  (I&#x27;m not always right about the economy but I did correctly take my money out of the stock market on Thanksgiving weekend 2007.)  Joining a THRIVING large company right now is a good idea.  Google, Apple, Dell.  Not HP or Yahoo.  Some of the large consulting companies are also in good shape although from my experience they don&#x27;t know what to do with good software engineers.  Also good would be auto high-tech, like BMW or Mercedes Research.  That field is in a growth curve that will do just fine during the recession.