Tech Workers in Higher Demand 325
mjdroner writes "CNN has a story on an employment consulting firm report showing job cuts in the tech sector are down 40 percent." From the article: "Despite the inevitable job-cutting that typically follows mergers, the job market picture for the nation's tech workers is definitely improving. Many job seekers in high-demand fields such as storage systems administration and information security are probably finding themselves in the driver's seat when it comes to negotiating employment terms"
Wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
Improved human rights - executions down 40%. (Score:4, Insightful)
Seeing a reduction in the number of people fired in no way translates to "tech workers" being in "hot demand".
Re:Improved human rights - executions down 40%. (Score:5, Insightful)
And even in the worst markets, some company somewhere is hiring.
Basically, this means that the hole in the bottom of the bucket is smaller. And, if you follow other news, you will realize that hiring has picked up.
So, yes, a decrease in job cuts is good news. Your market may vary.
Re:Improved human rights - executions down 40%. (Score:3, Informative)
Just less lay offs
Under those conditions and terms a natonwide job freese could be
in effect at most places, and still some lay offs occuring
What the trend is typically is to hire more L1, H1-B's
and offshore or near shore
Some countries have setup cruise ships off the coast
and this is called near shoring
Bizarre indeed
http://www.adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=10959&page= [adtmag.com]
Wages Are Still Down, We Need MORE H1-Bs!!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Exactly. Last year companies like IBM and HP were laying off tens of thousands of employees at a time.
Last Friday, the big news was that college graduates were getting offered more money, except CS grads who were offered 0.8% less than last year's CS grads. If wages are going down, then the demand for labor is going down. For all of you without business degrees, that means there are MORE CS grads than there are jobs.
All
Re:Wages Are Still Down, We Need MORE H1-Bs!!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
According to other studies, CS major enrollments are WAY down...so, not that many new tech people coming into the market...the big, easy $$'s of yesteryear aren't there anymore. And, a lot of the people that flocked to IT that weren't really good, got caught in the bubble crash..and are gone.
So, that leaves a lot of good, older IT people out there...with less competition from new grads...so, with the pool drying up a bit, it looks like IT may ha
Re:Wages Are Still Down, We Need MORE H1-Bs!!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Riiiight.... that's why all the H1-B visas for the year are gone within hours of release. That's why all the corporations are screaming to Congress to increase the number of H1-B visas. That's why Bill Gates recently said Microsoft's number one goal is to increase the number of H1-B visas.
Can you detect my sarcasm from there?
Re:Wait... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wait... (Score:2, Insightful)
Better than bad does not equal good.
Trend analysis can be beneficial, but I don't think it would impact someone looking for a job (or even just hoping for better negotiating position).
obSimpsons:
"but it comes with a free frogurt"
"that's good!"
"but the frogurt is also cursed"
"that's bad!"
Duh (Score:2)
After the rain comes sunshine. News at 11...
No, its just raining softer (Score:4, Insightful)
Job cuts are down by 40% but that still means jobs were cut which still means that there is less employment.
Our fantastic contributors are not the only people that are this stupid. The same trick is used to manipulate national debt news. There is a diffierence between debt and deficit. When the deficit decreases then the government crows about having control of debt. Not so. Deficit is the amount that the debt grows by. Therefore even if the deficit reduces, the debt is still increasing.
Re:No, its just raining softer (Score:2)
A budget increase in a government program can be considered a cut if the program's need increases at a greater rate than the budget increase.
Real world example, I invite a couple of friends to my place for a BBQ. I buy a couple si
Re:No, its just raining softer (Score:2)
Yes, but only in government programs. And only when republicans are in control.
job cuts are down! (Score:5, Insightful)
This sort of statistic sound like it might be due to the increase in growth not slowing down as fast...
In other words; hard, useless, figures.
Re:job cuts are down! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:job cuts are down! (Score:2)
Of course it's meaningless without the information on how many new tech sector jobs were created. Wihtout that, as everyone has pointed out, this article is just plain stupid.
different technique (Score:3, Interesting)
There's the inverse fast foot indicator:
if I get really sucky service at a restaurant, the job market is good. When restaurant service is great, the job market sucks.
Then there's the pimp index:
Number and frequency of calls from recruiters
And finally, the swag factor:
When my employer feels the need to increase swag, I know the job market is getting better.
YMMV
I suppose... (Score:5, Funny)
"Ahh.. but he's only stabbing me in *ONE* eye with an icepick now!"
Misleading headline (Score:5, Funny)
Consulting (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Consulting (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Consulting (Score:4, Funny)
do 5 minutes of research... (Score:2)
Too many tech workers have been saying "poor me" since the dot-com bubble burst. Too many tech workers aren't willing to move away from their town of 20k in search of a better life. I know kids fresh out of college pulling down close to 60k working IT and related fields. They were willing to do a little research and they got one hell of a
When will facts match reality... (Score:4, Insightful)
So I just don't believe this news and I think there is some kind of agenda behind it. Perhaps the big IT companies want to head things off because they finally see a big crunch is coming and they are going to need skilled IT people again.
I would love to see things turn good again in this field but I'm not seeing it at the ground level yet (10+ years experience-- in the South).
Re:When will facts match reality... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:When will facts match reality... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:When will facts match reality... (Score:2)
Some of us had to pick up dead useless jobs in IT. I'd like to get into DBA, but all, ALL of the job posts I've seen are for senior DBAs.
Except for the ones who want a senior DBA and then call it an entry level position.
Re:When will facts match reality... (Score:4, Insightful)
I can point to three people that I work closely with. Each has "10 years of experience in IT". One has been doing desktop support exclusively on the Windows environment, one is a UNIX systems administrator, and one is a Windows systems administrator. Each is very good at what they do. As the months pass, one or another of them is offered a new position with a different company, doing interesting work within their area of expertise. This has been consistent for the past three years.
I can point to 11 others who do similar jobs, but haven't received a reasonable job offer in three years. The differences don't appear to be what they do, or even how well they do their jobs, as much as how flexible they have proven themselves to be.
As expected, those "IT Professionals" with the widest skill sets seem to be the ones that are most in demand. Failing that, those that have experience in multiple industries appear to be the next most desirable.
Be proactive in defining your career direction, and flexible in the industries that you practice in. You will find that you are more likely to be considered for those available "IT positions". If your work history proves that you are flexible and adaptable, a prospective employer may be interested in training you in new technologies that interest you.
This rant is a bit off-topic, but "years of experience" is a pet peeve of mine. It is not meant as a slant on the parent of this post. Although, I'd be interested to know what "big IT companies" would benefit from suggesting that IT jobs are more in demand now than before. It seems to me that it would cause a rate jump during a market shortage, rather than continuing with the age old fear mongering techniques of suggesting that you can be replaced before you make it to the curb.
Re:When will facts match reality... (Score:2)
As/400, Java, Websphere, C, C++, Unix, RPG, Cobol, Lisp, Pascal, Assembly...
Project Lead, Developer, Microsoft Project. I am proactive but all the proactive in the world doesn't help me when 50% of our IT people are now indian (with 30% onshore and 70% offshore) and I know it is a race between their inflation and ours whether I remain employed or not. It doesn't matter how skilled I am if management can find an equally skilled person who is willing to work for $30k per year.
People
Re:"proactive" and "flexible" sound nice, but . . (Score:3, Interesting)
Maintaining a defeatist attitude is the single biggest deterrent to career advancement.
In order for anyone to find happiness in the workplace, you need to do some soul searching, as well as discovering some things about the real world:
- What type of work makes you happy?
- What type of industry needs someone that can do that type of work?
- What do I do now that I can apply to that industry / job?
- Are there any intermediary steps that I need to take before I can get there
Re:outsourcing (Score:5, Insightful)
You have bought the capitalist line hard.
What you are ignoring is that:
1) The people you are competing against are willing to use slave labor.
2) The people you are competing against are willing to use
3) The people you are competing against are still where we were 50 years ago and are more than eager to completely destroy their lower classes with pollutionl, toxins, and mutagens.
In other words- WE ARE NOT COMPETING ON A EVEN PLAY FIELD.
i leave it to your boundless imagination as to how and why racing to the bottom against slave labor, rampant pollution, child labor, and sub-poverty wages is not a good idea.
---
Seriously man- WAKE UP.
India is an example of how this can go -reasonably- well. They have democracy- they have a middle class. Here we have hard competitors- but their wages are going up because they are valuable. As a reasonable libertarian capitalist type, I'm not particularly against Indian competition (except that they engage in blatant age discrimanation and some other things we would consider illegal but it's minor compared to other countries).
I am against businesses using this cheap labor and then keeping the prices high (often by having laws passed to prohibit reimportation of products that are identical yet 50 to 80% cheaper- re - 2.45 dvd movies in china, $4 medicine in india that we pay $80 for, etc)
In many other countries, this is not the case. In many other countries including china as a large example, we are competing with -slave labor-. Where we are not competing with slave labor, we are competing with heavily exploited people surrounded by armed guards where those who cause problems mysteriously disappear at night.
Again- china is artificially holding its currency low (estimates in the WSJ are that it would double if allowed to float freely) - how fair is that?
---
Are you in favor of a race to the bottom where we have a world with 'nobles' and 'serfs' again? Is that what you want? Because that is where we are headed. In the US it takes the form of offshoring jobs- and a select class making multi-million dollar salary's while claiming hardship and foisting thousands of people off on the rest of us to support. Corporations are built to move their costs to us and to maximize their profits.
Have you so completely bought their propaganda that you can't see how you are paying high taxes so large corporations can use cheap labor and avoid paying benefits to them? How does it feel to cover Walmart's health care bill while a few top executives get to keep the profits?
i don't dispute anything you say (Score:3, Interesting)
why?
because there's simply nothing better
in other words, people rail against nike sweatshops in indonesia. ok, fine. so what's your superior solution?
the problem is that getting rid of the nike sweatshop does not mean the slave labor workers are suddenly released from their shackles into a beautiful egalitarian world of middle class bohemian western lifestyle
no, rather they go and starve on the streets. so if the choice is between slave labor and starving, they, you
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
This was an actual increase in demand... (Score:2)
If after demand dropped 50%, it later increased back to 60% of the original value (so indeed, demand did increase) there is still a surplus, and jobs would continue to be cut, but at a reduced rate. Jobs will not stop being cut until either
1) actual employement falls
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
This is sort of like... (Score:4, Interesting)
The fact that they're being laid off at simply a slower rate doesn't make me feel like they're in higher demand. It could just as easily mean that they've run out of people to lay off.
Re:This is sort of like... (Score:2)
If you leave the budget the same, that is less money per person to buy more expensive care. In other words, doubly less health care per person.
From an employer (Score:4, Interesting)
We can't find good workers. I've interviewed repeatedly and found the new talent is terrible -- it seems that has technology becomes more "known," the amount of GOOD talent is dropping. I've interviewed some people from top colleges that just don't know their way around a business at all, and I have no desire to train them in exchange for a high 5 figure salary.
The only way I seem to find valuable employees is by picking up the real outcasts from the larger consulting firm -- outcasts that have great insight and work ethic but are too far outside the box to fit in any MBA-run company. Every time a consulting group goes under, the same morons get new jobs with the next company that won't exist in 10 years.
For those in the same position, what are you doing for hiring? I don't see talent coming out of college and moving to the Midwest (a very profitable IT sector), most are instead moving to the west coast, taking a big salaried job, and finding themselves stuck in a very expensive area where the high salary doesn't seem to overcome the overhead of living there (stress, costs, traffic). I'd love to find a resource for good employees, but I guess the answer is right there: good employees don't get fired. The balance between efficiency and knowledge and salary is not something I worry about -- if my customers realize a gain on the money they spend on us, I have no problem paying the person right. For those who know, most of my employees work at minimum wage with a large project bonus (up to 80%), and I have enough people looking to work for us that it isn't the pay structure that isn't helping me find good help.
Also, it seems that many people going to college for computer science/engineering aren't even learning the basics -- what colleges have you recent graduates gone to that have taught you real consulting skills, business sense and responsibility?
Friends (Score:2)
So I guess the answer is where it started. Network, network, network. I don't do enough of that really, myself.
Re:From an employer (Score:5, Interesting)
The big problem is getting people to move. Regions change and shift and grow, and one of the terrible problems is that to get talent, you may have to get it from somewhere else. I worked with one company who, essentially, raided a neighboring state for talent. Even if the job count stays the same, the type changes.
And it'll all shift again. Five years ago, pre-9/11 my home state was hopping. Post-9/11 it never fully recovered, several changes affected the job markets, and people began leaving - me with them. Now, having moved, ironicaly, I'm gettng leads. Maybe it'll change in a few years, or maybe I'll end up having my company move.
Another friend who's a storage expert in my old home can't find anywhere to go with his career, and has no choice to go to the coasts with his level of expertise. But again - what happens in five years? In ten.
As my current boss put it, "Not everyone is brave enough to move" for a job. It's a helluva risk. And I think the changing demographics of need, combined with the fact some people don't want to move, create areas with talent gaps.
This is all on top of the fact that a lot of IT people are damn bitter, and understandably so.
Re:From an employer (Score:3, Interesting)
Moving can be economically risky. If you own a home in your present location, say you've been there for ten years, and now relocate to a new state and a new home, you're likely back at the beginni
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
A house rarely is a good investment (even in this housing bubble we're in). I believe many people will lose 5-10 years of their retirement because of living in homes they can't afford. I truly believe that a home depreciates in value (even if it goes up in dollars the dollars are worth less), leaving you with a net loss investment upon retirement. M
Re:From an employer (Score:4, Insightful)
For me no kids, no home, my wife in a job she'd outgrown, in a city with a meandring economy in the midwest. After I got laid off we basically decided to leave, and specifically targeted areas, companies, and industries appropriate to my skills and our needs. I had more interviews out of the state than in - and in my state I could at least interview for contracts. The employer I went with was one I hadn't even expected to be interested, and proved to be great.
So for us, it came down to staying was a bigger risk than leaving. Staying probably meant career setbacks or stagnation, and eventually being unable to leave if we wanted to, being locked into a limiting geography and set of opportunities. We also had the ability to be mobile.
But not everyone is us, and that's one thing that I find a bit chilling - I'm seeing a Mobility Gap affecting people's economic status. Both of our jobs can be done mobily, as telecommuting, etc. Both of us can move if needed, travel if needed. Not everyone else can.
Among our friends, we see similar signs - some are staying in one area bound by a home, kids, economics, or both. Others are taking their careers mobile, looking at other states and countries.
Re:From an employer (Score:3, Interesting)
In relation to IT and moving- and really moving in general- I have heard too many stories about moving for a job and then getting laid off 3 to 6 months later. Suddenly in a new city with no
Re:From a recent college student (Score:5, Insightful)
"fast, good, cheap: pick 2".
if you want employees that are "good" and "cheap" from a technical perspective, you're going to have to train them on soft skills, which doesn't happen overnight. sorry. logic's a bitch...
Re:From an employer (Score:4, Interesting)
So
Get the attention of the person in question
Make sure that your hiring story is really going to be solid with respect to what the midwest has to offer. Make sure you can tell a candidate about all the great activities locally that compete with what the west coast has to offer. I'd have pictures on hand from a recent open house showing what a fantastic house they could own in your area, for what price, and how long it would take them to earn that with your job (also documenting things like what a good neighborhood it was in, with such great schools, no commute, etc.) I'd particularly make sure your story on how your company is never going away is strong
Other than that I haven't much in the way of ideas for you. I would expect it to continue to be challenging to find good IT people in the midwest.
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
For me, I like to grow slowly. We turn down many contracts because we can tell the company isn't right for us -- we focus on mutual profits in both directions. If they're looking for cheap or fast, we don't focus on them.
The v
Re:From an employer (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm 28 years old and in college right now. (I dropped out during the
I can honestly tell you that I built some of the best training, skills, & experience fro
Re:From an employer (Score:3, Interesting)
Yep. I've been interviewing people for a Unix systems administrator position for our group where I work, and I can tell you that while the vast maj
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
While that's fairly bad, particularly from the point of view of debugging problems, it occurs that I've never really dealt with modules on server systems, only on desktop. On the servers, it's handled by the Linux distro, and we then don't touch anything, whereas on my own desktop installing new hardware with freaky module requirements isn't at all odd.
> Most
I have no problem finding good talent (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm an oldschool technie who realized he'd better figure out this business stuff, fast. We do custom embedded linux work, board-level up, MCUs, etc etc. We're booked. Solid. Yet I get stuff done with low overhead.
What did I do?
I walk the walk. I know good people are easily 100x more productive than average. I know some good people from all my days in the trenches (hi guys). When I want things done, I package it up, and send it off with a big cheque. I don't care where, when, or how.. we work online. I live in the middle of nowhere, handy an airport. That's all that's required to do business.
If one of the guys I work with is doing 10x the work - I'll actually give him 10x the pay!
It doesn't work for all business, but it is working, and I am growing clients and profit.
Something to think about if you "can't get people to relocate" - my advice - make teleconf and virtual offices work for you. Hire the best people available no matter where they are. Reap the rewards.
Re:I have no problem finding good talent (Score:3, Informative)
That being said, most geeks don't want to take a risk that they might only make US$12k per year (none of my guys do) in exchange for buying their efficiency and responsibility.
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
Have you considered that maybe you should have lower-salaried entry positions, then, and promote as they pick up the missing skills? Speaking here as someone whose salary has doubled in the 5 years since they left university...
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
Also, it seems that many people going to college for computer science/engineering aren't even learning the basics -- what colleges have you recent graduates gone to that have taught you real consulting skills, business sense and responsibility?
UAH [uah.edu] did a pretty good job. Last two semesters are spent on a large scale engineering projects. The first semester is
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
I can somewhat agree with your problems here. I went to Ohio State Univeristy and later Illinios State University. Originally, I was majoring in computer science, but soon I changed my major to philosophy. I feel as though my experience in a variety of programs give me some insight to the higher education's perspective on the subject. Universities don't care to teach you anything about Windows or Linux or OS X. They want you to know what an operating system is and what it does in the most generic terms
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
I am simply not interested in working for bonuses. But minumum wage as the base? Hell it's no surprise you get applicants as you describe. I imagine that somewhere during an interview with you I'd be thinking "take your job and shove it"
I've done my time working on death march projects wi
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
Of course you have lots of people applying. The potential to earn 80% than you can at Wal-Mart will attracts lots of applicants. Be realistic in the level of qualifications you expect for that kind of money.
>I'd love to find a resource for good employees
You can get the combination of
Re:From an employer (Score:2)
You can surely find talent on slashdot? I am going to graduate with a degree in MIS in about a year and I am from INdiana even though I live in Florida currently.
Re:From an employer (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't see this as part of your problem? News Flash, every company wants the perfect employee to drop out of the sky into their laps and not have to spend a penny on training. So, your choices are:
1. Compete with every company in existence for these type of people.
2. Sit back and complain.
3. Adapt, gain the ability to find diamonds in the rough, prosper.
You are using the most advanced communication tool in the history of mankind. On a forum dedicated to computer geeks. Posting about how hard it is to find workers. With just a few keystrokes you should have qualified workers raining down on you. Do you mention what IT skills you need? Do you say what state you're located? At this point, you seem to be the choke point in the system.
I'm not seeing how you can claim you're paying your people well. You pay minimum wage, plus a bonus of up to 80%. That's 9.25 an hour? They must work some serious overtime to get that high 5 figures.
What colleges teach real consulting skills, business sense and responsibility? There aren't any. That's the stuff you learn when out in the business world. College is the degree that gives proof that you can be taught. After that, the businesses have to go through the applicants, hire the one with the qualities it wants, and then teach them the business.
Is that such a horrible thing? Why do you refuse to teach people how to work in your company? Do you even have a mere internship program? If people don't know certain basic concepts, do you tell them to learn them and then come back, or do you have them blacklisted forever?
Re:From an employer (Score:3, Interesting)
So you're interviewing fresh grads and not finding them to be experienced, right?
And you want to pay them peanuts and not invest in them at all, right?
Wow, why would they ever do that?!?!
Re:From an employer (Score:3, Insightful)
I find this surprising given your comments. Sarcasm aside, let me critique your post as an independent consulting professional.
the amount of GOOD talent is dropping
I think you forgot something at the end of this sentence. What you left off was "at the price I'm willing to pay". This is the nonsense that is fueling the outsourcing hype. The talent is out there, just not working for minimum wage.
and I have no desire to train them in exchange for a high
Re:How about posting a job ad here for us... (Score:2)
It gave me the late-night infomercial get-rich-quick creeps. Unless you have a very well-established friendship with these people, you're going to scare a lot of people away.
I would never work for more than a few weeks without guaranteed payoff unless I owned the company. Or knew the deal for a few years and didn't see anybody get screwed by it.
Re:How about posting a job ad here for us... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:From an employer (Score:3, Insightful)
Granted, I don't stand out in any of those manners *that* much (I'm Taoist but that doesn't really stand out. The facts that I am not a small guy and the long, neatly kept hair are a little hard to hide and my eyes make me look part Asian - I'm 1/4 Native American), but even I run into that mental
Serves you right. (Score:5, Funny)
So can I be expecting a late night, drunken I'm-so-sorry-I-broke-up-with-you-will-you-please-
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
Re:Serves you right. (Score:3, Funny)
Quite possibly. I suggest the traditional response is the best approach to this situation: Pertend to take him back, and then sleep with his best friend as revenge.
Re:Serves you right. (Score:2)
It's true! (Score:4, Funny)
awesome! (Score:2)
Make you smile... (Score:5, Informative)
I was laid off in the fall of 2004 because it was determined that the company could outsource our System Admins and Database Admins to a domestic contractor and co-locate to save a couple bucks in the long run. (You can convince any executive to do anything, BTW, if you have a good PowerPoint ROI chart, laser pointer, and $800 suit).
Long story short, the fine print in the contract stated that only 2 major systems would be outsourced (which amounted to about 40% of the total workload), and after everyone was laid off, the contractor says, "Now... You know that we're not going to handle email, NAS, web services, and other misc systems, correct?"
Needless to say, they're now locked into a 5 year multi-million dollar contract, AND have hired back new system admins to replace the layoffs. I'm not bitter... But it still makes me smile anyway... =)
Re:Make you smile... (Score:2)
I knew the moral of the story after reading the line I was laid off in the fall of 2004 because it was determined that the company could outsource our System Admins and Database Admins to a domestic contractor and co-locate to save a couple bucks in the long run.
I've heard this story over and over again, and I
Re:Make you MAD (Score:2)
What about the hiring rate? (Score:4, Insightful)
What's the current trend in hiring?
That's great if cuts have slowed, but I'd like to know if that means the net number of jobs is increasing
Looking for VB.Net developers! (Score:2)
Outsourcing FUD be damned, we have the positions and I could really use some help here!
-Rick
Re:Looking for VB.Net developers! (Score:2, Interesting)
Kris
Re:Looking for VB.Net developers! (Score:2)
-Rick
Re:Looking for VB.Net developers! (Score:2)
-Rick
Re:Looking for VB.Net developers! (Score:2)
The entry-level position the project coordinator is looking for a college grad with OO experience, preferably in
...but for less money (Score:2, Interesting)
I wish... (Score:2)
Outsourcing smaller tech depts to consultants and firms set up to do just that is all the rage, which just cripples the market even more. I know this isn't the hub of technology, but when you graduate #2 from Penn State with a 4.0, have 8 years of experience, glowing references, and still h
Re:I wish... (Score:2)
If you were an ice fisherman would you live in Arizona or Alaska? If you were an oil field worker would you live in Texas or New York City?
Re:I wish... (Score:2)
Pittsburgh sucks (Was:I wish...) (Score:2)
I know this isn't the hub of technology, but when you [have a lot going for you], and still have an impossible time finding employment something is wrong.
ARRRGH! Would you move already?!
I used to live near the Burgh, and while the city has a lot to recommend, a robust job market (of any kind) is not one of them. And it hasn't been that way for over twenty years!
Sure, the cost of living is dirt cheap, but the jobs just aren't happening. The place is rapidly turning into Alabama North. (Especially outsi
Re:Pittsburgh sucks (Was:I wish...) (Score:2)
Re:I wish... (Score:2)
That isn't at all to say there aren't some great high-tech companies out here, as there are a few. They're just not hiring. There's a list of almost all of the Pittsburgh recruiting agencies on (shameless plug) recruiter-rater [zhrodague.net].
natural selection (Score:2)
Wouldn't this start to happen as the number of available jobs to cut decreases because of all the cutting?
The gravy train ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I got advance notice in late January that I would be laid off 3/31. Went into panic mode, started looking and all I could find was
For every call I got about php I got 20 for asp.net. I even learned that one of the biggest recruiting companies in the Washington DC Metro now recruits for
After two months, my number came up and I got laid off effectively 3/31. I got two offers on 3/31, one to work like an animal in a php/Oracle shop for a huge company, one to work like an animal in a tiny shop that only does
Apart from the near saturation of
Another problem I saw with the very limited supply of php jobs is that the people that are hiring are absolutely disconnected from the salary curves for this market. They want you to have 10 years of experience in C, C++, PHP, Ansi SQL, JSP, HTML, CSS, XML, etc. then they want to hire you for $50K or less. And they get offended when you laugh in their faces. I noticed this is only a problem with the open source type jobs, the
Rate your recruiter! (Score:2)
Re:Rate your recruiter! (Score:2)
My biggest gripe is... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Does your skill set include J2EE? No, just Java?"
Click. Phone goes dead, you never hear from that recruiter again.
"Does your skill set include XYZ?"
I'm so sick of this nonsense. The problem, as I see it, is several-fold:
- Recruiters who want the immediate "sell" to get their finder's fee: they only want that person with experience in the exact buzzword they see in front of them
- Employers who don't want to give an intelligent, experienced, agile person the couple of months to learn the new technology flavor-of-the-month
- Employers who think coders are people who simply bang on the keyboard and, if they could train a cat to do the same, they would do so. They don't understand that it takes either education or experience (and likely both) to create code that is efficient, thread-safe, maintainable, etc. Cats can't do this--intelligent, experienced, educated software developers can.
- Employers who have an immediate crisis (hmm...how did they let that happen to begin with?) and want someone they can immediately drop into the meat grinder. When you hear "off to a running start" from one of these, beware.
- Recruiters and employers who don't understant that computer science concepts span languages and technologies and that someone who has grasped them in one implementation of computer science (read: technology) can apply them in another if only given a chance to learn the details (language, API, etc.)
Non-developers are too focused on buzzwords and not on software. What makes software good software goes way beyond particular languages or API's. There are far more workers who can satisfy employers' needs; for some reason they simply won't use them.
Simple Math (Score:3, Funny)
Re:slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Oh... you mean slashdot isn't my job?
::looks around::
So just what am I supposed to do in front of this computer all day then?
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
Re:It is our responsibility.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Wait till the new guest worker program goes in to effect. Yeah, you probably thought it was all about Mexicans picking potatoes out in some farm out west, right? Wrongo. With the new guest worker program, H1B visas are no longer required. Employers can just ship in boatloads of Indians and Chinese to do your job for about 1/4 of the cost. I don't care how skilled you think you are, theres someone who will jump off that boat and say they can do the same job for much less.
President Bush will try to make you think this is all about people working jobs that Americans won't do. He's right. We, as natural born Americans, find it hard to work at wages way below the poverty line.
What can you do to stop this? Write to your two senators and tell them to put a halt to the "guest worker" program. Sure, we have jobs to do and can't go marching around the streets today like the immigrants, but we need to find the time to stop this before it gets out of hand.
Re:Customers care about results... (Score:5, Interesting)
Really? Why don't come and peddle that crap to my current employer? They obviously didn't hear about your theory before embarking on their current slapdash offshoring initiative.
We are talking here about sending our entire IT dept to a company which doesn't even have PC's for their employees. My numbskull employer agreed to buy them all laptops (at approx 1.7 times average market price).
Currently we are doing knowledge transfer via conference calls. The lines and the accents are so difficult for both sides to understand that we may as well be talking in different languages for the amount of knowledge that is being transferred.
Each time I mention the problems that are going to come our way as a result of this ridiculous approach I am told that I cannot see the "big picture" from my lowly "techie perspective" and these guys are really cheap. I wonder why.
Re:It is our responsibility.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Ignorance must be bliss. You ever hear of a company called Tata? It's probably the largest Indian outsourcing firm. Seen them contracting at a medical company once. They brought in 20 guys on H1Bs. Guys. Not women or families. Their wives and children stay in India. Anyways, they bunked up at six people per apartment. They were paid $500 a month each.
Okay, I have a wife and two kids. Say I offer to do the same job these guys
Re:sweet (Score:2)
Three things come to mind about your comment (but aren't directed right at you):
Straight to grad school? Maybe not (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're only going as far as a Master's, consider working and having your employer pay for grad school. It's not easy, and it will take longer to finish your degree. But the real-life work experience will give you a new perspective towards your studies that full-time students will miss out on.
Don't procrastinate
Re:Numbers Show Demand Is Dropping, not Rising! (Score:2)
If demand drops 50% (which is about what the tech bubble burst probably meant), there is a lag to when actual employement reflects the new demand. This is based on contracts, and just overhead of letting people quit, vs laying them off. During this entire time, there is a surplus of employement, and there will be layoffs. During
Re:I won't be happy... (Score:2)
Hay, use my me as your referal for adsense [google.com].
Re:Ask Slashdot - (Score:3, Interesting)
I would leverage your CS skills with a non-CS degree. That way, you've got a biology degree and you rock with computers. That way, you've your computer history, and you're available for any jobs that require a biology degree, and you have a college degree.
By doing pure CS you're limiting your prospects.