[NTLUG:Discuss] Job Searching

[Fred James]

The following should not be taken as a statement of position on the 
subject in any way, but rather just a few statements of fact.

Contrary to the common misconceptions of the war/jobs relationship, war 
is historically not a generator of "wealth", but rather a drain on 
resources (i.e., it cost to run a war and that debt will be paid).  It 
is however true that some will gather great wealth from the exercise of 
war, and some will have employment as well - just as true as some will 
die, and many will suffer great personal loss.

Microsoft seems to be counting on the turtle pace of the courts to allow 
it to continue business as usual for some years to come.  If there is 
any logic in the heads of our corporate decision makers, one would think 
that Microsoft's latest stab at proprietoriness (is that a word?) would 
lose them some of their following.  But what Danish king was it that 
told his son that he would be surprised at what fools the world is 
governed by? - I am not dead yet, and that was within my lifetime.

My personal decision was not so much to move away from Microsoft, but 
rather to move toward Linux.  The primary reason is the while Microsoft 
is not very interesting, Linux is.  There isn't any promise of 
employment for me implied in that.

Did I just write all of that?  My apologies, it must be past my bed time.


Daniel Hauck wrote:

> Those figures are easily misleading if there is any truth to it at all.
> 
> 2:1 jobs?  I don't think so.  And we all know that the general
> classification of "techie" only makes sense to non-techie people.  What kind
> of "techie" am I?  What kind are you?  Are you a programmer techie?  An
> administrative techie?  A support techie?  Clearly, all fields have dropped
> in demand, but some are lower than others.  I am hopeful, however, due to
> several world events that may shift things within the next six months:
> 
> 1. The Microsoft thing is nearing a close and public opinion of Microsoft is
> dropping rapidly with Nimda, Code Red and a ton of scripting viruses all
> hitting the news plus a few that haven't yet.  Microsoft is predicted to go
> the way of IBM in favor of more 'generic providers.'
> 2. War on 'terrorism' may soon become war on Afghanistan and possibly even
> Pakistan if a predicted coup takes place there will lead to more jobs for
> me... younger "techies" will be pulled into battle leaving jobs vacant and
> in need of some of these "older" [read: outdated] techies.
> 
> <OT_Rant> Does "War on Terrorism" sound too similar to "War on Drugs" to
> you?  They're chasing an uncatchable ghost.  Even if Bin Laden were captured
> and/or martyrized (is that a word? no, I don't intend any connection with
> dry cleaning either) there's still a thousand other terrorists out there.
> Hell, Linux users could be called terrorists if SSSCA goes through...
> </OT_Rant>
> 
> Maybe it's "off-color" to make positive economical statements in connection
> with military escalation... I dunno, but it's a reality that can't be
> ignored.
> 
> Oh yeah, I need a job too... anyone wanna add my resume to a bank of other
> resumes out there?
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tom Zabel" <tzabel at cowtown.net>
> To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 8:30 PM
> Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Job Searching
> 
> 
> 
>>2 jobs for each techie looking?  Where?
>>
>>I'm an embedded real time software engineer with UNIX and some Linux
>>experience.  I was laid off from a small telecom equipment company in
>>August.  So far, no interviews ANYWHERE.  What little interest has been
>>shown in my background has been from outside the DFW area.
>>
>>So, while things were clearly much better 18 months ago, I didn't
>>believe then (and don't now) that there were 10 jobs for any of us
>>looking then.  Now it's more likely that there are more techies looking
>>than there are jobs - though that condition probably won't last more
>>than another few months.
>>
>>Tom Zabel
>>Dallas, TX
>>
>>
>>Greg Edwards wrote:
>>
>>>ndr wrote:
>>>
>>>>I was wondering if someone could let me know what the current
>>>>
> environment
> 
>>>>for tech jobs in the Dallas and surrounding area is like. I am
>>>>
> currently
> 
>>>>living in Kansas City and will be laid off in about a month. My
>>>>
> girlfriend
> 
>>>>lives in Dallas and I wanted to find a job in the area. The 7 hour
>>>>
> drive
> 
>>>>from KC gets a little tedious at times :)
>>>>
>>>>I have 4-5 years of diverse and solid Unix Sys Admin experience. I can
>>>>provide a copy of my resume if anyone is interested :)
>>>>
>>>>Thanks.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>I can't say what's available today but while things definitely have
>>>slowed down the market is still active.  Many areas of the job market
>>>are really hurting in the DFW area but the high tech industry seems to
>>>still be holding its own.  Where 18 months ago there were 10 jobs for
>>>every techie looking I say that today there are at least 2 jobs for
>>>every techie looking.  But then again Alcatel just rolled out a big
>>>layoff this week.
>>>
>>>Good luck.
>>>
>>>--
>>>Greg Edwards
>>>New Age Software, Inc.
>>>http://www.nas-inet.com
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>
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> 
> 


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