Re: The programmer job hunt woes!

From: Barry Margolin (barmar_at_alum.mit.edu)
Date: 03/29/04 

Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 11:33:44 -0500

In article <m3ad2089kx.fsf@salmon.parasoft.com>,
 Paul Pluzhnikov <ppluzhnikov-nsp@charter.net> wrote:

> > So far, I haven't written, "You know, your
> > tech department must be pretty damned stupid if they think they need
> > someone with 3+ years experience in XML." But it's quite tempting.
>
> Why waste your time and theirs?
> The end result will be the same: trash can.

I can understand his reaction to a requirement like that. XML didn't
really hit the mainstream until a couple of years ago, so it seems a bit
unrealistic to expect applicants to have 3+ years of experience!

I can also sympathize with the OP. I've been doing the same job
(networking technical support, Unix scripting) for 9 years, and haven't
really had to deal with much of the new programming technology that has
been coming down the pike during that time. I've been out of work for 4
months, and it's dismaying how many job openings require expertise in
Java, J2EE, .NET, etc.

I've learned practically all I know by doing; I can jump into an
environment and quickly become adept at whatever it takes. When the WWW
first showed up in the early 90's, I picked up HTML in a few days (this
was before the advent of word processors that produce HTML
automatically); it took me a few weeks to produce an intranet web site
for the company I was working for at the time by turning many of our
internal tools into CGI scripts.

I'm sure that if someone were to hire me, I could fill whatever niche
they need -- I'm a "jack of all trades". But I doubt I could ever get
my resume past the buzzword filters of most HR departments. 

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***