You are right - there are enough skilled local RPG programmers available.
Fewer jobs for them unfortunately. Iseries workers could find it necessary
to become 'road warriors' to find work in the dwindling demand. The supply
and demand principle is 'alive'. The demand for Iseries developers is
dwinding (and has been for years). Technology is moving on to other
platforms/languages. It IS completely relevent though sorry if some are
offended by that. Iseries jobs are simply not as prevalent as they once
were (replaced with newer technologies). I have found myself pretty much
'worked out of a job' when the local jobs were not around (yes there are
still occassionally jobs available - but they are way fewer and farther
between than they were) and was forced to move on to other areas of the
country to find work first and then finally on to another career. Was it
the fault of H1's that I was having trouble finding work and working for
less money when I could find it, or was it a simple case of the demand for
the skills was waning? Harsh reality. That said, it is clear we should
not be importing Iseries programmers under the false premise there is a
shortage. This DOES cost Americans jobs. Too bad the immigration
department does not have the skills to differentiate between an RPG
programmer and Java programmer (they are just 'programmers' to them).
What is completely relevent is what to do if you are an Iseries developer
without a job. One is to be ready to go where the few jobs are - ie.
conduct an active nationwide search and be prepared to move (yep - not an
easy thing to do). The second is to unfortunately be ready to accept less
money. The next job after that one may be for lesser still. Not good. The
third is be flexible on contract vs. perm. May have to accept the fact that
you will have to work at whatever is available. "Perm" jobs may offer the
benefit of being able to train in a newer technology and won't have to be
looking again in 6 months, etc. All harsh realities but true nonetheless.
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:52 AM
To: 'bestjobs'; midrange-jobs@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [MIDRANGE-JOBS] MIDRANGE-JOBS Digest, Vol 5, Issue 180
From: bestjobs
I can speak from experience - it IS very hard to find IT workers,
local or not, that have the specific skills employers want - which
right now is java or c#. I'm sorry, but it is not about trying to
find a foreign worker at a depressed wage - it is about trying to find
someone with the skills.
Employers want to bring someone in who already possesses the skills
they need as it is expensive and time consuming to train people that
don't.
Some
day java programmers will have a hard time finding a job because there
will
be a new 'whizbang' language that has replaced it. It is difficult in IT
to keep up one's skills but marketability absolutely depends on it.
We are in a global economy - like it or not. If someone in India,
Pakistan, China, etc has the skills a company needs then they are
going to find an easier time finding a job than a local person who
does not have the specific skills required for the job. I hate it but
it is true.
I don't want to spend a lot of time in this discussion. Those of you who
know me know I'm probably just to the conservative side of Lou Dobbs when it
comes to visa issues.
But can we please try to keep the subject on point here? This list is about
midrange jobs, and we're not talking about Java or C# jobs. We're talking
about RPG jobs being taken by visa programmers.
I defy you to tell me there aren't skilled RPG programmers available in the
US. And yet companies like TCS make tons of money providing consultants for
RPG jobs. So please take the Java and C# discussion elsewhere. We're
talking specifically about people being brought into this country to
undercut the market for skilled RPG programmers.
And I won't even get pulled into the global economy nonsense. It's
impossible for countries such as America to compete when they have to
subsidize things like health care and OSHA and all the other things that
make life liveable. If you think it's a global economy and everybody's on a
level playing field, feel free to move to one of these "emerging economies"
and tell us how nice it is to live there.
Joe
midrange.com
