The new year is traditionally a time for all of us to reassess our progress as employees, with many using the Christmas break to decide to turn it in and move on, in the hope of moving up.

That temptation might be particularly great in 2007, with financial markets at their highest for several years and venture-capital companies awash with funds. Technology firms are arguably in their strongest positions since the dot-com zenith and there has been a trickle of lucrative earn-outs in the past year as the big seek to get bigger and the small seek to get out.

Who could look without a hint of envy at one-and-half-year-old YouTube’s 67 employees and its $1.65bn sale to Google? Nice work if you can get it, and ­ it might seem to onlookers ­ you can get it if you try.

YouTube’s exit, laughing all the way to the bank, was indicative of one major difference between today’s boom and the dot-com bubble at the turn of the century. Where once hot new firms would have sought to float on the public markets, the preferred route is now to sell out. Traditionally a hotbed for modern IPOs, the technology sector last year saw fewer debuts than the healthcare sector in the US, according to data from Dow Jones VentureOne.

Even a powerful company like anti-spam giant IronPort prefers a sale to Cisco rather than run the risk of a disappointing market appearance such as that experienced last year by Vonage. The romantic notion of David taking on Goliath is outdated and, today, a preferable strategy would be to set aside slingshots, shake hands with the big fellow and do a deal.

Where does all this leave IT buyers? If they stay put, then it means facing a revolving door of suppliers who come in with one name and leave by another, along with associated turnover of reps and other contacts.

But another, more enticing prospect is to join them. As IT becomes an increasingly precarious profession characterised by outsourcing and downsizing, the beacon of opportunity to join IT firms themselves or start new ones will burn brightly in 2007.