Re: Death of the AS/400 (was Death of the RPG Programmer, List Activity)

>  From:    Krys_Theodore@WHJI.COM
>  
>  My 2 cents.  I have been looking for PAs and SAs for months.  We are
>  offering a good wage.  About the only people who are crossing my desk were
>  newbies who got into consulting firms because they needed bodies for Y2K
>  projects.  They were let go 'when the jobs dried up' and are now looking
>  for something else.  Those with experience and/or strong natural abilities
>  are staying where they are.
>  
>  Looking for staff in all the wrong places?
>  
>  Krys

When I go to IBM school, there is some talk between fellow students on 
related issues.  It is apparent that some geographic areas had gluts of 
talent while others hurting so bad they using internet to bring in 
programmers from other countries ... from all over the world.  While IBM 
would have to balance responsibilities carefully, I think there is room in 
their education centers to have some kind of publication hand-out that 
connects students there with job markets for those skills, perhaps 
indirectly, using a special edition from one of the trade publications aimed 
at such students.

I am at IBM school paid for by employer & happy with my current job.   But 
there are other students there who paying their own way & in extremely 
hazardous job security scenarios who may well be some of the PAs that would 
fit the needs of posters on this list.

Conferences like COMMON might be another place to distribute some publication 
that contains advertisements from people looking for jobs & from companies 
looking for people with the relevant talents ... I know this skirts close to 
violating the codes of  ethics but there has got to be some way to help bring 
together the people who are over qualified & under employed with the 
companies that are hurting for locating talented staff.

I know several individuals who are not programmers but are excellent business 
analysts when it comes to our ERP ... I told them that there is a big demand 
for people who understand the inner workings of the ERP, if those individuals 
also have appropriate skills to fit into some more traditional aspect of the 
business world, such as management or computer staff, but good communications 
skills trumps everything.  Some of these individuals are no longer working at 
Central & are not happy in their new positions, and have tried & failed to 
get back into Central.  They are my friends - I want to help them without 
compromising my position.

In my view, ERPs have gotten so complex that end users need a type of help 
that traditional computer people are ill-equipped to provide, be it 
continuing education, or whatever, that is like an SA but does not 
neccessarily require any programming know how.  I imagine that other 
computing environments than ERPs have similar needs.  If you can craft your 
advertising & business structure so as to be looking for SAs so as to get at 
folks that I consider to be future potential BAs, I am suggesting that is 
well worth considering, since these people continue to languish in companies 
that are seriously in pain for a good BA but top management is oblivious to 
this.

We recently hired several BAs at Central.  We located them by going after 
industries that are in decline in North America, or which have suffered 
recent declines, in which the internal manufacturing logic is similar to our 
industry.  Many more BAs applied for the positions than were needed, and 
management was hard pressed to pick the best.  There are industries in 
decline with a glut of talent, while there are industries in growth hurting 
for talent.  I would think that head hunting companies should have a BA on 
staff that understands this kind of nuance.

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor
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