Yes, this was definitely my experience in the 2000-2003 timeframe, but the catch was you had to have deep experience to sell yourself as a consultant (thus new

Yes, this was definitely my experience in the 2000-2003 timeframe, but the catch was you had to have deep experience to sell yourself as a consultant (thus new grads got purged instead). But yes, many with enough experience to go the consultant route who knew how to sell themselves did well when the rest of the economy was in the gutter for the reasons you explain above.