Where the Jobs Are (Linux Journal)

Posted Sep 17, 2002 17:21 UTC (Tue) by waltechmail (guest, #1824) [Link]

This article makes many valid points, and is more realistic than
most of the other IT blurbs, and had the proper emphasis on the
Linux market: many authors simply repeat the industry
hype from Corps. and associations promoting methods to reduce
wage structures. I was forced to respond directly to another author
recently.

However, the LJ article is also regional in it's orientation.
Here, in the anal-retentive mid-atlantic area, job descriptions
are so specific as to apply only to the person who was just fired,
or from a direct competitor or an H1-B. The expectations are
unrealistic, and the writing quality and number of spelling errors
in the job ad's reveal the level of HR quality (and the companies I
don't apply to). The LJ "ten years of Java wanted" for a 24 year old
is applicable here in many forms. IT folk in NC or Seattle should
review hotjobs descriptions for MD and VA for examples.

Many parts of the country are more H1-B bent than
may be obvious. The economic downturn has also resulted in
additional major traditional bias against those over a certain age (50).

The H1-B problem is massive, and many have their heads in the sand
when it comes to this problem. (remember when IEEE and other
psychics predicted massive shortfalls of tech labor, that turned out
to be wrong in the mid 80's?) The Internet boom was an unexpected
happening and resulted in tens of thousands of new 90 day wonders
as well as opportunities for immigrants, rather than a real necessity
for qualified college graduates. In the mid-late 80's, the legislated
numbers were 35-60,000. The numbers for H1-B last year were
approximately 250,000, up from 220,000 the year before. Thats a LOT
of people. Whats worse, ABC news ran a short on the evening news,
and added a link on their website - registration required to get to that
particular story - saying Bush wants to cut federal funding of retraining
programs for those laid off in the hi-tech arena. They reported Bush
wanted to use the money to speed up processing of the H1-B prospects.
Liberal POV? Not from past experience.

With regard to Linux, several recruiters never heard of it a couple of years
ago in MD/VA. Many around here have now seen the buzzword, but
don't know what it is. It was/is on my resume, as I was essentially doing
a market test. I may as well have had the words "experienced in whatzit".

Marketwise, it seems Linux in the MD/VA area has perceptively turned
the corner towards acceptance in other than "hacker" use in Jan 2002.
This region has a wealth of unix guys who could easily transition.

best regards,

Walt..........