Re: Midrange Jobs National Discussion

[Alan- <steelville@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

           >>> Bill Lorimer: 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.

           >>>info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:Here's what I don't 
understand. A company that will offshore outsource half way around the 
world, but refuses to use telecommuting professionals.  ....I know that 
there are several EDI professionals in this forum who could solve your 
problem particularly if telecommuting was an option! And considering the 
low to moderate cost of living where some of them reside, in comparison 
to the cost of living in Chicago, you'd get a great resource at a great 
rate!

           >>>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?

**__The decisions of his clients are not Bill's fault. But I think some 
of the most outstanding results can be had by companies that realize the 
benefit of someone who can assimilate new skills or knowledge rapidly. I 
got contracted once to a fill-in position where they got tired of trying 
to hire strong JDE so they got strong RPG (me) with some JDE work.

Now in a few JADE shops I've been in (before and after that) I know for 
rock-solid fact that my production was way out ahead of some of the 
previous examples I'd seen. (No brag, just fact) :)

Another company transferred employees that knew the product into 
programming if they could just pass a programming aptitude test. At 
least one of them output high productivity, well worth their investment.

GOOD IDEA FOR EMPLOYERS:

Here's a clue for employers and recruiters. I taught AS/400 programming 
classes for several years for the local community college, mostly 
post-grads and currently working coders that were in other platforms. An 
instructor who teaches those classes, IMO, can finger the best among 
them. No doubt the same idea applies to those who teach the regular 
programming classes.

A BETTER IDEA:

If there are good technical people, coders, analysts, designers, 
installers, whatnot, with a bunch of years of experience in business 
environments in their history, and a good strong desire to learn new 
technology, then employers are generally making a mistake by going 
cheaper for the college grad, or cheaper for the overseas guy.

A CAUTION ON OUTSOURCING:

My last place was at the client site as an employee of a BIG outsource, 
with two other guys who had been "outsourced in place".  An accountant 
for the client company told one of them that they were now spending two 
and a half times as much after outsourcing on the same workers. As rates 
go (for overseas remote work), nobody can save money with three 
programmers who have years working for the company who know the 
business, can make suggestions for changes to requests based on that 
knowledge, and who know all the field and file and system names and 
where the PG is buried...

But they signed for five years, and had already "outsourced" all the 
systems. Oops. And they were in the process of converting to Oracle. 
(Two years into it, probably ten more to go here).

A CAUTION ON HIGH-POWERED SOFTWARE PACKAGES

The skill set you'll have to hire to just maintain it properly is just 
as high-powered, in terms of your receivables. I'm thinking of studying 
a few skills that are kind of anathema to somebody who prefers "the 
System i philosophy of computing", simply because they pay so good and 
there is an ethical fiduciary obligation to my family (and others) to 
maximize earnings.

+++++++++++

DISCLAIMERS:  :)

Note however, that there are some skill sets and software packages that 
I do regard as literally multiplying productivity, and in the case of 
end-user applications make a good bottom line for the business.

And the other points noted do NOT apply universally in all cases of course..

Just my 2 cents...

---Alan