Re: Midrange Jobs National Discussion

I'm seeing the situation from a different angle. A customer of mine is in
need of a strong RPG programmer with solid Gentran experience here in
Chicago for perm employment and can't find anyone. I know EDI people don't
grow on trees but, come on.
Advertising on the major boards bring a wealth of underqualified applicants
who are aiming high and lots of calls from recruiters who pretend to have
viable applicants just to get the listing.
I have also seen a lot of very talented contractors run for the cover of
permanent jobs to escape the ups and downs of the iSeries market.
If anyone is interested in the Gentran position in suburban Chicago, feel
free to contact me. Go Bears!

Bill Lorimer
630 546-1473
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Timothy A. Grove" <tagrove@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <midrange-jobs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 2:12 PM
Subject: RE: Midrange Jobs National Discussion


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This is one very true statement:

You don't mention that you are looking for "cheap" staff - which is
often one of the problems - so why are all the qualified people not rushing
after your vacancies?


When out of work I was "Overqualified" for some
positions that I looked at.  Translation: You
have worked too many years to want to put up with
the pitiful salary that we are offering for this job/contract.

Overseas outsourcing for an extremely low wage
here (but comparatively extravagant wage for
India, for example) is making the realities this:

Company says:  I advertised, but there were no
American workers that I could hire, so I get to outsource it to India.

Reality of situation: Programmer will not take
$20/hour to work when they are contract employee
and have to furnish their own travel and
insurance.  Or, company offers the position to
those with "2-5 years experience for permanent
placement", knowinf full well that there ARE no
AS400 people wil that range of skills.

I'm trying to get a data backup business going,
so that I'm not tied to programming fully.  AND
I'm trying to learn .NET, so that I can get full
or part-time work doing that when the bottom falls out from under the AS400.

At 02:43 PM 1/30/2007, you wrote:

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list.

" Our experience within the last few years is that it is hard to find
seasoned ISeries people who can handle large systems and large scale
projects.  When we go looking, the prospects are slim."

This to me is one of the great mysteries.  As has been apparent in these
threads, there are many System i folks out there who seem to be looking for
work.  At the same time I constantly hear from customers that one of the
reasons they are considering moving off the box is a lack of qualified
staff.  You don't mention that you are looking for "cheap" staff - which is
often one of the problems - so why are all the qualified people not rushing
after your vacancies?

Have you considered training folks with experience in other languages?  Or
perhaps even training people with aptitude and experience in your industry
to program?

As I noted in an earlier post - the staff shortage is one that System i is
simply seeing before other platforms because as a community we are small
compared with Java etc. But I am convinced that outsourcing will be a
necessity before long because there simply aren't new kids entering the
field.  Comp-sci is passé - the kids aren't interested.

Jon Paris
Partner400

www.Partner400.com



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Timothy A. Grove
Home:   574-233-2893
Cell:   574-286-5929
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