Re: Midrange Jobs National Discussion -- MIDRANGE-JOBS

Scott -

My theory is that you can classify midrange programmers into four basiccategories...

(By programmer, I mean analyst/programmer, programmer/analyst, or whateveryou want to call them)


1) Super programmers
   (the cream of the crop)

2) Good programmers
    (above average)

3) Complacent, somewhat competent, Just-Do-What-It-Takes-To-Get-Byprogrammers(people who are happy to stay in the same job forever, they usuallycatch on to a new concept after you show them two or three times)


4) Idiots

(i.e., the person with 20 years of experience, but really has 1 year ofexperience 20 times)

Percentage-wise, I'd say that around 10% of the programmer population fallsinto category 1, 20% are in category 2, 40% are in category 3, and 30% arein category 4.

Some of those in the 4th category usually end up in IT management, sincethey are also very good at manipulating others into doing their work forthem. The ones that didn't brown-nose their way into IT management havefallen out of the market during the downturn of the last 7 or 8 years, andhave either retired or gone on to other careers.

Many of those in the 3rd category are middle-aged and have retired or areabout to retire from programming, and their companies will probably notreplace them since they'll soon be moving to another platform or, in thecase of large companies, are outsourcing the work to another company.

What that leaves in the current job market are those programmers that fit inthe first two categories.

The category 1 programmers are either owners of software companies orhighly-paid consultants with a backlog of clients.

Some of the category 2 programmer are working as consultants, but themajority of people in this category are employed in a full-time job andeither happy with their current employment or scared sh*tless about changingjobs.


As usual, JMHO...

- sjl

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To: <midrange-jobs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: Midrange Jobs National Discussion

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(This is Scott Klement, if you don't recognize the E-mail address.)

I've been reading this discussion, and I just wanted to give my thoughts
on what I've observed:

a) I recently had to hire an RPG programmer.  It was very, very difficult
   to find someone.  I was not looking for familiarity with specific
   software applications, just experience with ILE RPG, and would be
   happy to train.

   I only had a handful of applicants.  I think I received a total of
   16 resumes.  Some of those were people who clearly didn't understand
   what I was asking for.  Perhaps half of the resumes were from people
   who had never programmed in RPG, but had worked in other languages
   (Java, .NET, Visual Basic, ASP).  There was one resume from someone
   who thought the position was for a truck driver!

   Of the ones who actually had RPG experience, most did not have
   ILE experience.  Those that did wanted to be paid very high salaries
   (Double what I make, and I'm already one of the highest paid people
   in our entire company.)

b) I frequently get e-mails from managers and meet them at conferences,
   and see messages in forums and lists (like this one) that say that
   there's a shortage of RPG talent, and that it's not good for a company
   to continue to bank on it.  In order to survive, they feel they have
   to go to another language, such as Java, where there are so many
   more programmers available.

c) On the other hand, I've been watching the job openings.  I'm
   semi-interested in finding a different job in my area, but there has
   been virtually nothing available.   If there's such a shortage of
   programmers, then why aren't there any openings?!

   Even if I wanted to move out of the area (and I don't, I have a family
   here) there appears to be next-to-nothing that I'm qualified for.

   Many people consider me to be an expert in the field of RPG
   programming.  I receive, and help, people all over the world with
   programming questions.  I write articles all the time on the subject.
   But I'm not qualified for any of the positions?

   The positions all require specific software.  You must be familiar with
   JDE or BPCS.  Usually (on top of that) they want some sort of higher
   degree on the subject.  So, despite being someone that thousands of
   RPG programmers look to for answers, I'm not qualified for very many
   of the (very few) openings out there.

d) I keep seeing people whining about how there's no colleges teaching
   RPG or iSeries.   Since there's no jobs available, why would colleges
   teach it?  But then, why is there a shortage?

Seems to be some very big contractions in the industry.  I just don't
understand how their can possibly be a shortage of programmers when there
are so many people looking for jobs.  Isn't that a contradiction?

And I've experienced both sides of the coin myself.    I just don't
understand why.

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