Job Posting

We're having corporate layoffs here, so there's about 50 of us scrambling to
find work.
I just came across a post on dice.com where the company says that they have
50 years of leading edge experience in the IT Industry ( wha?)
Then there was the guy that asked me how much production work I've done on
VB.NET in UNIX (WTF?)
It gets even better: "We're looking for dynamic SQL programmers with a
proven history of Active Directory, DNS, WINS and DHCP. PSP a plus"
Do these hiring managers even know who they are hiring and for what? WHAT
is the matter with these people?!?
Peace & happy computing,
Mike Labosh, MCSD
"Death greets me warm; now I will just say goodbye"
-- James Hetfield"Mike Labosh" <mlabosh@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23l8PcM6EGHA.3100@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> We're having corporate layoffs here, so there's about 50 of us scrambling
> to find work.
> I just came across a post on dice.com where the company says that they
> have 50 years of leading edge experience in the IT Industry ( wha?)
>
Well, the first programmable computer was invented in 1936, and the
Phoenicians developed the first alphabet in 3500 BC. That leaves room for a
lot of other players.
http://inventors.about.com/library/...mmunication.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.htm

> Then there was the guy that asked me how much production work I've done on
> VB.NET in UNIX (WTF?)
>
http://www.mono-project.com/VisualBasic.NET_support

> It gets even better: "We're looking for dynamic SQL programmers with a
> proven history of Active Directory, DNS, WINS and DHCP. PSP a plus"
>
When they use the term "dynamic" in this context, they are probably
referring to the programmer and not the SQL.

> Do these hiring managers even know who they are hiring and for what? WHAT
> is the matter with these people?!?
>
I wouldn't take it for granted; consider how you got in the situation you
you currently in.

> --
> Peace & happy computing,
> Mike Labosh, MCSD
> "Death greets me warm; now I will just say goodbye"
> -- James Hetfield
>|||Hi Mike,
I've dealt with headhunters via DICE many times over the years and I have a
relative who worked for a headhunting agency for about 3 ws; until he
left because he couldn't stand the institutionalized lying and deceipt that
goes on routinely in that industry and was basically required of him.
Basically the headhunting agencies are technically illiterate... thus the
WTF skill sets (I could easily add to your list but I'll stay on topic for
now). Oh, and many clients themselves are technically illiterate -- so some
of the WTF skill sets originate there (and the illiterate headhunters are
incapable of questioning the client's WTF required skill sets). Anyway what
the lying part is all about is this: The head hunters goal in life is to be
able to fill new work orders ASAP. Client calls up and needs a VB/SQL
developer ASAP. The headhunter must fill that position before their
competition does. So rather than waiting for new positions to come in before
they start advertising, they ROUTINELY advertise totally non existant
positions AS IF they were immediately available. This keeps the resumes
flowing in so that when a real job does appear they are in a position to
grab a few relatively current resumes to send to the client. The headhunters
get bored and need to keep up the illusion of real jobs being available, so
when things get slow, they'll contact a few recent applicants and have them
come in for an interview (again for a non existant job). The poor sap leaves
thinking that there might be a job. So, with this purpose in mind (keep the
resumes coming in), they create vague job descriptions that include every
TLA they have ever heard of - and often include totally obsurd combinations.
And they'll sprinkle in phrases like, "must have" and "minimum of 3 years"
and my alltime favorite totally FU&#!%G
irrellevant-to-anything-in-the-real-world requirement... a bachelors or
masters in computer science.
A word to the wise (from my prior experience): If you must go through those
head hunters, DO NOT EVER assume that your skillset must match that of the
job description. Your priority is to evaluate the scenario yourself.
Remember that the head hunter AND the client (potential employer) are BOTH
LIKELY to be totally and utterly technically illiterate. So if you can find
a posting for a real job that seems like it might be even remotely related
to your experience, skillset, and interests, then do whatever you can within
your ethical senses to get an interview with the real client (which you have
somehow determined actually exists AND has a current opening). I got a
big-time multi-year and well over $6-figure per year contract via DICE back
in the late '90s from a job listing that *absolutely required* TSO skills.
To this day I have no idea what TSO really is or was for that client... and
neither did the manager with the client who put that *absolute requirement*
into the required skills list. During my initial interview (first out of 4
separate interviews I went through before I got the contract) she told me
that she thought it was a terminal emulator for a mainframe that she thought
some of her developers periodically used; and told me that she thought it
was really UNimportant that I had no TSO experience (a complete
contradiction to the DICE listing) The position turned out to really be an
MS Access 2.0 programming position. Over the ensuing years we migrated it to
Access97 then to a VB/SQL Server combination. It's a good thing I didn't pay
much attention to the DICE description.
-HTH
-Jeff
"Mike Labosh" <mlabosh@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23l8PcM6EGHA.3100@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> We're having corporate layoffs here, so there's about 50 of us scrambling
> to find work.
> I just came across a post on dice.com where the company says that they
> have 50 years of leading edge experience in the IT Industry ( wha?)
> Then there was the guy that asked me how much production work I've done on
> VB.NET in UNIX (WTF?)
> It gets even better: "We're looking for dynamic SQL programmers with a
> proven history of Active Directory, DNS, WINS and DHCP. PSP a plus"
> Do these hiring managers even know who they are hiring and for what? WHAT
> is the matter with these people?!?
> --
> Peace & happy computing,
> Mike Labosh, MCSD
> "Death greets me warm; now I will just say goodbye"
> -- James Hetfield
>|||RE:
<< the company says that they have 50 years of leading edge experience in
the IT Industry ( wha?) >>
Come on Mike - it's obviously *cumulative across* all of their 50 IIT
graduates (class of 2005).
: )
"Mike Labosh" <mlabosh@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23l8PcM6EGHA.3100@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> We're having corporate layoffs here, so there's about 50 of us scrambling
> to find work.
> I just came across a post on dice.com where the company says that they
> have 50 years of leading edge experience in the IT Industry ( wha?)
> Then there was the guy that asked me how much production work I've done on
> VB.NET in UNIX (WTF?)
> It gets even better: "We're looking for dynamic SQL programmers with a
> proven history of Active Directory, DNS, WINS and DHCP. PSP a plus"
> Do these hiring managers even know who they are hiring and for what? WHAT
> is the matter with these people?!?
> --
> Peace & happy computing,
> Mike Labosh, MCSD
> "Death greets me warm; now I will just say goodbye"
> -- James Hetfield
>|||ABSOLUTE DITTO TO ALL OF THE ABOVE !
"Jeff" wrote:

> RE:
> << the company says that they have 50 years of leading edge experience in
> the IT Industry ( wha?) >>
> Come on Mike - it's obviously *cumulative across* all of their 50 IIT
> graduates (class of 2005).
> : )
>
>
> "Mike Labosh" <mlabosh@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:%23l8PcM6EGHA.3100@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
>|||See, this is why my OP was a rant and marked as [OT].
They are uneducated illiterate fools that don't know the difference between
a stored procedure and a trigger.
Drexel university wants to hire me to do VB/SQL / C# / .NET / COM+, ASP, etc
etc.
for 60K.
WRONG ANSWER.
I will now crawl back under my rock.
Peace & stuff.
SELECT 'Mike Labosh, MCSD MCT'
"mattb" <mattb@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2873DA6F-7457-4799-9C37-8E5F3AF7FACD@.microsoft.com...
> ABSOLUTE DITTO TO ALL OF THE ABOVE !
> "Jeff" wrote:
>