Re: List activity...

I can speak for South Florida, and the lack of contract work. In one week
(late January) we lost 8 long term (multiyear) contract positions. In 2
months we lost 12 in 6 corporations. Two were due to a corp merger, but all
the rest were restructuring of  IS projects. We had a tremendous flood of
Y2k coders in S.Fla that stayed. One large shop, dumped over 100 contractors
in late December, with some going in-house to survive.
The available work (which we are not trained for) we see now is in
Net.Commerce or Lansa or various "big" packages (JDE, Lawson, etc). If you
can demonstrate web skills, you can get work.
I've kept 3/4 busy re-working "old" apps, trying to retrain myself in e-biz.
Due to the enormous cost of re-training, I got the etNetworks/IBM Sattelite
Learning. For approx $1,800 per year, they install a satellite (at my house
or biz) and broadcast 10 channels, 24 hrs a day of the same courses taught
at Rochester, etc. Not all courses, but definitely well worth it. see
www.etnetworks.com for the schedule & info.
The other retraining, in RPG CGI programming, for native web access to a
400, I'm working on the FREE code available on the IBM (Italia) site
www.easy400.ibm.it . There is complete, free working code (not just
snippets), a course in HTML, everything you need to build e-commerce on the
400.
My problem is having the time to retrain while billing time. I would love to
here how others are getting through this, especially any partner
arrangements w/IBM or others for small (1-person) consulting shops (the
above group in South Fla folded after loosing so much work). I've got 20
years in midrange and 20 years till retirement.
Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Kestenbaum" <pike4@ix.netcom.com>
To: <CONSULT400@midrange.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2000 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: List activity...


> I was actually thinking this morning, what are the hot areas for an AS/400
> consultant to focus on, with RPG work for a consultant completely dried
up,
> at least in the New York area.
> What can the consultant learn, on their own, or on a job, that will keep
> him/her gainfully occupied for the next few years?
> Phil Kestenbaum, disgruntled former consultant
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Don <dr2@cssas400.com>
> To: <consult400@midrange.com>
> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2000 9:37 AM
> Subject: List activity...
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Greetings all...
> >
> > Somehow I'm reminding of the days when I used to watch "Mr Ed"...the
> > talking horse that wouldn't talk unless he had something to say.....
> >
> > I keep getting emails from people wondering if they're actually
> > subscribed....! :)
> >
> > Well, in most cases (99.99999999999999999% - Had to use PL/I for the
extra
> > precision...:)  the answer is 'HECK YEAH'....
> >
> > The thing that has me curious as heck is, there was demand for this list
> > and obviousely folks have signed up for it, so you folks are
> > either sitting fat and happy with no problems or concerns and all the
wine
> > and bimbo's(not gender specific) you can handle and have want of nothing
> > or else you're very bashful...
> >
> > In either case, rest assured that the list is alive and well and when
you
> > have something to say, it's here..
> >
> > Until then, bring on the wine and bimbo's....:)
> >
> > Don Rima
> > co-Consult400 list mgr...
> >
> >
>